Reply to: Anyone got a Peleton Bike?

[ladymuck]

Oopsie

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021...e-information/

Peloton is having a rough day. First, the company recalled two treadmill models following the death of a 6-year-old child who was pulled under one of the devices. Now comes word Peloton exposed sensitive user data, even after the company knew about the leak. No wonder the company’s stock price closed down 15 percent on Wednesday.

...

Researchers at security consultancy Pen Test Partners on Wednesday reported that a flaw in Peloton’s online service was making data for all of its users available to anyone anywhere in the world, even when a profile was set to private. All that was required was a little knowledge of the faulty programming interfaces that Peloton uses to transmit data between devices and the company’s servers.

Data exposed included:

• User IDs
• Instructor IDs
• Group Membership
• Workout stats
• Gender and age
• Weight
• If they are in the studio or not

Ars agreed to withhold another piece of personal data exposed because Peloton is still working to secure it.

[d000hg]

You can pick up a smart roll on trainer for £200 and a second hand road bike for about £400 with training tyre (slightly harder/quieter than a standard tyre). + a zwift subscription of about a tenner a month. Perfectly adequate.

The Wahoo Element Bolt (Smart GPS map thing) can also switch to indoor mode and lets you simulate real world rides.

£400 for a second hand bike?! You can get a new one for about £150 (and a training tyre for £30). You can often get a 2nd-hand bike for free or pennies if it needs work, if it's for a turbo you presumably don't care too much about things like brakes you just need a drivetrain.

First thing I'd do is replace the saddle for a big comfy one though.

[BlueSharp]

You can pick up a smart roll on trainer for £200 and a second hand road bike for about £400 with training tyre (slightly harder/quieter than a standard tyre). + a zwift subscription of about a tenner a month. Perfectly adequate.

The Wahoo Element Bolt (Smart GPS map thing) can also switch to indoor mode and lets you simulate real world rides.

[d000hg]

I have a floor fan for this reason. Though my bike has plastic outer.

[ladymuck]

If you think about it, when you're outside cycling the air wicks away the sweat and may even cool you down so you sweat less. Indoors though there is no air movement (even having multiple fans doesn't help that much) so not only do you sweat more, but that sweat drips onto your bike and floor (so put a waterproof mat under the bike).

Us Zwifters sweat a lot

I didn't want to think about it, thanks, but now I have

[Whorty]

Ugh. That's grim.

If you think about it, when you're outside cycling the air wicks away the sweat and may even cool you down so you sweat less. Indoors though there is no air movement (even having multiple fans doesn't help that much) so not only do you sweat more, but that sweat drips onto your bike and floor (so put a waterproof mat under the bike).

Us Zwifters sweat a lot

[ladymuck]

Sweat .... although aluminium is a big risk (contrary to what 'strone says). This is why most Zwifters drape towels over their handlebars. Indoor cycling creates a lot of sweat (I can lose over a kg after a very hard session!)

http://www.bikeroar.com/tips/why-does-your-bike-stink

Ugh. That's grim.

[minestrone]

[Whorty]

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

Sweat .... although aluminium is a big risk (contrary to what 'strone says). This is why most Zwifters drape towels over their handlebars. Indoor cycling creates a lot of sweat (I can lose over a kg after a very hard session!)

http://www.bikeroar.com/tips/why-does-your-bike-stink

[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.

[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.

[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

[Great Britten]

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

[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.

[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.