I was recently thinking what it would take to do an open source, reasonable priced version of https://www.tonal.com/
Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
51–60 of 94 posts
Re: Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
#52A huge problem with spending $400 is the build quality of the bike. I went down this exact same route last December. I bought the same Sunny bike in the link, an Apple Watch, a Wahoo cadence sensor, and an entry-level iPad. The Sunny bike broke after 3.5 months of regular usage, right at the start of Covid quarantine. I ended up replacing it with a high quality ~$2k Keiser M3i. The Keiser has been great the last 7 months.
Re: Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Do you think that working out entirely alone vs. with a trainer is the same thing? Do you think there are some people that would derive a differential benefit by going with one vs. the other? Honestly no. It’s just a symptom of being a weak minded person who can’t commit to self improvement. > Do you think that working out entirely alone vs. with a group is the same thing? Do you think there are some people that wo…
> Honestly no. It’s just a symptom of being a weak minded person who can’t commit to self improvement Are you saying these “weak minded” people don’t deserve to be fit, or what?
Not at all. I’m saying that they’re being preyed upon by an industry that’s taking advantage of their weak wills.
Teaching them to focus their will power would pay off much more than a “class” where there’s no actual lesson. To be clear, I’m not taking about actual instruction like a sport like tennis or a lifting program, I’m specifically referring to group cardio programs that are nothing more than loud music and an instructor feeding the participants a series of “Simon says” instructions.
Re: Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s what I don’t get about this whole peloton thing. Why aren’t people just getting bikes and then putting them on trainers? You can get the whole trainer workouts and still have a bike that you can ride outside.
I don't know about what the Peloton experience is like, but: My bike is on a trainer, and I see the following down-sides: a) My bike on a trainer is really loud. Can't do it early; can't do it when the baby is sleeping, etc. b) It's a moderate pain in the ass to hook and unhook. Not a huge pain in the ass, but I certainly didn't do it any time of the year it was feasible for me to bike to work. c) It's dirty. I mean,…
The tacx flux and wahoo kickr are the quietest trainers available and are incredibly quiet, especially when placed on the shock absorbing pads wahoo sells. These direct drive trainers are easy to take your bike on and off too. IMO the pad takes care of the dirt factor too. Still dangerous for your toddler tho.
These days you can buy $200 hd tvs and a mini desktop to run zwift, which is much nicer than using on a mobile device.
Re: Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
#55Peloton has 0% financing and now you can own the old version of the bike (which is more than adequate) for only $49 a month, which is similar to the price of a decent gym. Most software devs make more than that per hour. There’s really no reason to be this cheap if you want to invest in your health.
Well sure there is. Theres like 1500 reasons up front and 30 reasons per month after that.
I went the DIY route for my wife (though used a slightly nicer sunny bike - the B1805) and its a great setup (or at least she says so). The only thing you miss out on is leaderboards and 1-to-1 resistance settings.
Re: Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
#56It's interesting how exercise machines are starting to become game input devices and online class portals. Peloton obviously deserves a lot of credit for popularizing the idea, but the hardware required to do similar things outdates Peloton. e.g. Pretty much any Concept2 rower you see in a gym or home that has been made in the last couple decades has a monitor that can provide realtime data to a computer via USB. I h…
How do you like the Concept2 and rowing machines in general? I would prefer a treadmill but I don't have a good space for one. Do you get a decent cardio workout with it?
Re: Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
#57It's interesting how exercise machines are starting to become game input devices and online class portals. Peloton obviously deserves a lot of credit for popularizing the idea, but the hardware required to do similar things outdates Peloton. e.g. Pretty much any Concept2 rower you see in a gym or home that has been made in the last couple decades has a monitor that can provide realtime data to a computer via USB. I h…
How do you like the Concept2 and rowing machines in general? I would prefer a treadmill but I don't have a good space for one. Do you get a decent cardio workout with it?
You can certainly get a good workout on a rowing machine. Most of the cheaper brands aren't very durable but Concept2 is solid.
If space is an issue, there are treadmills with decks that fold up.
Re: Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
#58It's tough to know if your aerobic training program is working without being able to track average watts keeping heart rate consistent, or vice versa. Tracking average cadence can work, but resistance needs to be chosen carefully and held constant
Re: Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
#59Peloton has 0% financing and now you can own the old version of the bike (which is more than adequate) for only $49 a month, which is similar to the price of a decent gym. Most software devs make more than that per hour. There’s really no reason to be this cheap if you want to invest in your health.
>Most software devs make more than that per hour.
if your definition of software dev ends at the borders of California, then yes. Otherwise, not so much.
And even then, although I could afford it I'm not paying 50 bucks per month for a bike for the same reason I don't buy 7 bucks bottled water, because I don't want to flush my money down the drain
Re: Building a $400 at-home DIY spin bike for Peloton and Apple Fitness+
#60You could get a really nice new actual road bike for $400
You really can't. If you want a new drop bar road bike the cheapest models start at $500. And they aren't very nice to ride; the group sets in that price range are kind of crap.