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Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

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Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#151
post #79

Peloton is just bringing all the things people both love and hate about going to the gym to your home. This is just a copy of the gym's initiation fee. Next up: fixed-term contracts, impossible-to-cancel membership fees, and variable pricing via salesmen.

I'm holding out for rubbing shoulders with the really fit people who silently remind me that their body is a temple and mine is a dumpster.

Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#152

Peloton's interesting -- for the audience they target they have a pretty good product (if you're setting up your road bike on your stationary trainer and signing into Zwift, you're not their audience), they have a committed and paying user base, and their instructors turned into legit celebrities. But the market decided they were going to be the next Apple, and they had a CEO stoking those flames (and killing a few k…

They could still become the next Apple, but they have to enter a period where everyone just assumes they'll go bankrupt (because they are teetering on that edge), then hire back an old CEO who nurtures some good ideas (and does a better job of minimizing the faults and selling the strengths than Melon Husk) and magically turns them into a company whose profits are measured alongside major economies.

Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> YMMV I thought they were stationary.

While stationary, it still measures the distance. (Yeah, I get the joke)

Your username really missed the mark on this one :p

Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a $1400 bike with a $40 monthly subscription My gym costs $60 a month and gives me access to classes and other equipment. At the cost of a Peloton, a Peloton bike by itself would not pay for itself comparatively for 24 months. That doesn't take into consideration tax on the bike purchase or the monthly subscription. Folks really willing to pay that much money just to not leave their house?

If it's freezing-ass cold or boiling-ass hot, sure. If it's a moderate-ass temperature, it doesn't make sense, sure, but not everyone lives where that happens and for some, even that's a bit of a problem.

If you have clinical-ass depression or executive-ass dysfunction, lowering the barrier to exercise can be really important. Sure, $1400 with a $40 subscription is way too expensive, but there's definitely a case to be made for the exercise bike in front of the TV for a lot of people.

Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#155
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the idea of paying for a subscription to ride a stationary bike You're not. Like was said above, you can ride it as a stationary bike for free. You're paying for the video content put out by Peloton which is added to daily, like a tv station. I can't help sounding like a sales person at this point but I'd also point out you get access to all their old content plus the fact that all this content is tied directly to y…

This is such a weird thing, paying to see scenery when riding your stationary bike and then post on the social network, when you can just go out with friends and bike for real in the nature.

In Northern Europe and the US, riding your bike outside is not a pleasant or optimal experience for about half of the year. It’s also just a lot easier to wake up, make a cup of coffee, and hop on the stationary bike than to drag my bike outside.

Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#156
post #93
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem odd for Peloton to put any friction up to a new subscriber, given that's where they really make their money. There are plenty of other setups with various levels of connectedness. Cyclists I know love Zwift, though they also sell a bike type thing and their kickers are not exactly cheap. I'd argue that Peloton is likely still the best at home spin studio replacement if that's what people are looking for.…

Zwift is maybe more popular with road cyclist because they want to ride actual road bike. Another possibility is marketing. Zwift is promoted at events like Tour de France and is main sponsor of woman's TDF. Now when I thinking about it, it would be odd if Peloton was promoted in bike races. Because the name is so generic in that context.

Peloton is actually quite hated in cycling circles because of their name clash, and how they're lodging trademark complaints about clubs or events with Peloton in their name...

Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#157
post #97

If I did a push-up for every product that has “revolutionized” the fitness world in the last several decades, you would see my body and probably assume that I had used those products. If you have a floor, a wall, and autonomy over what enters into your mouth, then you already have everything you need to gain muscle and lose fat. Nobody needs a $1400 bike with a $40 monthly subscription to maintain a calorie deficit.…

Yep, it's basically a distributed gym membership without the gym except for a single expiring, proprietary widget that lives on your property.

It's largely ineffective to lose weight by exercising, and so much easier to reduce caloric intake. https://youtu.be/mTABw0EyIWY

Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#158
post #97

If I did a push-up for every product that has “revolutionized” the fitness world in the last several decades, you would see my body and probably assume that I had used those products. If you have a floor, a wall, and autonomy over what enters into your mouth, then you already have everything you need to gain muscle and lose fat. Nobody needs a $1400 bike with a $40 monthly subscription to maintain a calorie deficit.…

> autonomy over what enters into your mouth This is incredibly underrated. Basically I lost weigth by focusing on this first. then exercising became easier. YMMV, but one thing that helped me control food intake was meditation, for a lot of us, over-eating is a response to anxiety.

I've lost 60 lbs. so far using GLP-1 agonists. It's quite a bit easier to get around, so I'm easing into cardio and weight lifting once again.

> over-eating is a response to anxiety

It's more complicated than one cause. Overweight people have an absurd appetite and/or lack of satiation either by being overweight (self-reinforcing) / metabolic dysfunctions, from genetics, and/or from side-effects of medications.

Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#159
1. Part of the $44/mo Peloton subscription is subsidized by the $2500 bikes. Given that they fucked up by scaling production to a vastly overestimated demand forecast AND that increasing the subscription price for all members will lead to future problems also, it makes total sense for Peloton to reclaim some of the value this way.

2. As others noted here, Peloton bikes sell for well under MSRP in the secondary market. A $1000 used Bike+ (or Bike with the swivel attachment) and a $95 one time activation fee is much cheaper than spending $2500 new before taxes and delivery fees.

3. I did road cycling for a long time. I still do, but much less frequently than I did in the past. Raced for a little. (I was terrible, but also not very committed.)

Peloton is amazing.

The instructors are top-notch. Way better than your local cycle instructor, on average.

The programming is vast and really well done. There's something for everyone.

The community is quite social, if you're into that (I am not).

The bike itself is really well made as well. Nothing cheap about it. I'm especially fond of the auto-resistance feature because it gives me a good ballpark as to how hard I should be working to get the most out of whatever class I'm taking. (The resistance on the bike is extremely well calibrated and calibrates on boot, I believe. This is a huge problem at cycling studios, since you're usually using beat-up bikes that haven't been calibrated in a while.)

You can absolutely get some other spin bike, strap a tablet onto it and use Peloton that way, but I think you'd be missing out on a lot. You could also fix your road bike to a trainer and use something like Zwift, Strava or Wahoo but that's an entirely different thing.

Re: Peloton to charge $95 activation fee for used bikes

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see Envy there - simply truth. It's a lux brand at a premium price, an item many people buy to be in a social group rather than focusing as fitness tool, and there are cheaper and arguably better solutions available out there. Do you debate any of those statements?

No. So why bother complaining?

think you replied with the wrong alt account mate....
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