Anyone got a Peleton Bike?

[mattster]

I'm with the proper bike/turbo trainer gang, and let's face it you can get quite a decent road bike/trainer combination for the price of a peloton, which also gives you much more flexibility in terms of what services you subscribe for. If it has to be spinning with a group, then I'm not sure there are Peloton alternatives (there must be though, surely??), but there's lots of other stuff apart from Zwift, including video renders of famous (and not so famous) rides, with speed/gradient adjusted automatically etc. I'm a bit too anti-social for Zwift, although I tried it for a couple of months - I just got annoyed with all the high fives and beeping. I use TrainerRoad, which seems to have very decent training plans with good progression. I just watch boxsets now whilst I work out, which I have managed to do about 3 times a week for the 18 months I've had the setup. Agree on direct drive, I think, although I still have a wheel-on trainer (Tacx Vortex) because I wasn't sure I would take to it. It's been fine (and only costs a couple of hundred), but I think I will upgrade to one of the cheaper direct drive models next winter (maybe £700 worth).

[d000hg]

Compared to a peleton everything looks affordable, but a decent turbo seems to cost as much as a decent static bike from a quick recce?

[mattster]

Compared to a peleton everything looks affordable, but a decent turbo seems to cost as much as a decent static bike from a quick recce?

I don't know what a decent static bike goes for, but the better "wheel on" trainers can be had for about £200-300 and they are really not that bad - I am still using one. They're not as good as the direct drive models (e.g. mine can slip a bit when suddenly ramping up the power), which start at around £700. Most people already have a bike they can use, the bonus being that if you use a decent bike then you probably have pedals, shoes etc so you don't need to duplicate that cost. Storage wise, most trainers pack away fairly small, which just leaves you with a bike. The static bikes are a pain in that regard, unless you really have plenty of space.

[d000hg]

I don't know what a decent static bike goes for, but the better "wheel on" trainers can be had for about £200-300 and they are really not that bad - I am still using one. They're not as good as the direct drive models (e.g. mine can slip a bit when suddenly ramping up the power), which start at around £700. Most people already have a bike they can use, the bonus being that if you use a decent bike then you probably have pedals, shoes etc so you don't need to duplicate that cost. Storage wise, most trainers pack away fairly small, which just leaves you with a bike. The static bikes are a pain in that regard, unless you really have plenty of space.

I think I'd say £400 and up gets something decent from my research a year or so back. Storage is a no-no, it needs somewhere to live but I've turned a spare bedroom into a dedicated gym.

I'm guessing if you aren't that bothered about accurate Watts calibration and so on, you can use pretty much any bike - your old mountain bike, or whatever? I'd have been tempted to buy a turbo if I'd thought about it at the time, though one nice thing about my static bike is that it's virtually silent and it sounds(!) that this isn't the case for rolling/wheel-on turbo units? I imagine lots of people wouldn't care so much but I hate noise.

[mattster]

I'm guessing if you aren't that bothered about accurate Watts calibration and so on, you can use pretty much any bike - your old mountain bike, or whatever?

The power measurement/calculations are all done by the trainer, so in theory it doesn't matter what bike you use. Direct drive trainers tend to be more accurate than wheel-on when measuring power, but the better wheel-on trainers aren't too bad (+- a few percent) if you believe the reviews (dcrainmaker is the goto site for these). You can get more accurate power meters that you install on your actual bike (crank or pedals), but these are still rather expensive. You are right about the noise. I do it in an outside garage with a big set of cans on, so it doesn't bother me but it would certainly bother other people in the same house.

[Whorty]

I think I'd say £400 and up gets something decent from my research a year or so back. Storage is a no-no, it needs somewhere to live but I've turned a spare bedroom into a dedicated gym.

I'm guessing if you aren't that bothered about accurate Watts calibration and so on, you can use pretty much any bike - your old mountain bike, or whatever? I'd have been tempted to buy a turbo if I'd thought about it at the time, though one nice thing about my static bike is that it's virtually silent and it sounds(!) that this isn't the case for rolling/wheel-on turbo units? I imagine lots of people wouldn't care so much but I hate noise.

What you get with the smart trainers, and to some like me it's a major positive, but this may not be what you're looking for, but it's the ability to simulate real rides. By that I mean there are apps that simulate Alpe D'heuz, Zoncalon, Mont Ventoux etc, so you can get a feel for what it's like to ride these monster, iconic climbs (and you can get off whenever you want and not have to ride lal the way home again )

The likes of Zwift is not for everyone, but I like the social side of it. With a group of other MAMILs we have formed out own virtual cycling club and race together online weekly. We also meet up in the real world (well, we did before the pandemic) which is nice.

As always though, it's whatever works for you. At the end of the day, so long as you exercise and get the blood pumping then that's good. Find the tool that you enjoy and motivates you to get on the bike/treadmill/rower whatever

As a slight aside - I have a Team Time Trial (TTT) tonight on Zwift. Team of 6 of us racing other teams around a London course. We use Discord to talk to each other whilst riding to keep the team together, see who's struggling, who wants to take a turn on the front etc. Really good fun.

[Great Britten]

I got one of these in a clearance from a local gym that had closed down during the lockdown. £400 - bargain!

[d000hg]

What you get with the smart trainers, and to some like me it's a major positive, but this may not be what you're looking for, but it's the ability to simulate real rides. By that I mean there are apps that simulate Alpe D'heuz, Zoncalon, Mont Ventoux etc, so you can get a feel for what it's like to ride these monster, iconic climbs (and you can get off whenever you want and not have to ride lal the way home again )

The likes of Zwift is not for everyone, but I like the social side of it. With a group of other MAMILs we have formed out own virtual cycling club and race together online weekly. We also meet up in the real world (well, we did before the pandemic) which is nice.

As always though, it's whatever works for you. At the end of the day, so long as you exercise and get the blood pumping then that's good. Find the tool that you enjoy and motivates you to get on the bike/treadmill/rower whatever

As a slight aside - I have a Team Time Trial (TTT) tonight on Zwift. Team of 6 of us racing other teams around a London course. We use Discord to talk to each other whilst riding to keep the team together, see who's struggling, who wants to take a turn on the front etc. Really good fun.

I thought I would like the ability to do different programs but I tend to just set it on a decent resistance and go for however long my TV show episode is. Being able to log my rides and link with MyFitness or whatever was more useful but has partially been borked by software/app updates

[Whorty]

I thought I would like the ability to do different programs but I tend to just set it on a decent resistance and go for however long my TV show episode is. Being able to log my rides and link with MyFitness or whatever was more useful but has partially been borked by software/app updates

If you can get the FIT or GPX file after your workout then you could manually upload to Strava (you can use the Strava free account). This is what I use to log all my indoor and outdoor rides.

[Mordac]

I have a schwinn spin bike which is almost as expensive, it does not have the screen thing.

The peloton is steel so I'm going to guess it will rust. Spin bikes always do and I wouldn't pay good money for a steel one that will eventually look crap. The schwinn is aluminium. The watts score on these things is not that accurate, maybe 10% away.

You can get garmin peddles that give you accurate scores and I would get them if I was really into spinning, which I'm not.

If your roof doesn't leak it should be fine.