Is Peloton Worth It? My Honest Review After 1,100 Rides

I’ve been a Peloton user for about seven years. I used my dad’s bike for a couple of years before buying my own Bike+ in December 2020, and I’ve now logged over 1,100 rides. In that time, I’ve come to love the intense, 30-minute workouts.

Exercise used to be something I dreaded, but now it’s a highlight of my day. I credit the Peloton for helping me shift my mindset.

That said, the Peloton Bike is expensive and comes with a mandatory monthly subscription. You can get the same physical benefits from other forms of exercise for way less money. That’s why I’ve put together five reasons to buy a Peloton and five reasons why it might not be right for you.

Five Reasons to Buy

1. Something for Everyone

Peloton has something for everyone.

The instructors are world-class motivators, and they all have different personalities. Not every instructor will be a good fit for you, but after a couple of weeks, you’ll have a go-to instructor.

There are at least five new cycling classes posted per day, and there’s an on-demand archive from each live class.

Each class has a different difficulty level that’s displayed when you tap on the class. There are hills rides, beginner, advanced beginner, low impact, Tabata, and my personal favorite, the high-intensity interval training rides.

Most classes are structured around music, and there are 10 music genres to choose from.

The difficulty of the ride changes based on the speed of your legs (cadence) and how tough it is to pedal (resistance). The resistance is changed by twisting the knob left and right. The instructor tells you the cadence and resistance at each point in the ride, and there are indicators on the screen too.

These recommended cadence and resistance numbers are just a baseline and can be modified to whatever works for you.

If you want a day off from cycling, there’s yoga, strength, HIIT, pilates, core, and other exercises to do off the bike.

Once you find an instructor who you click with, you might want to follow them to one of their classes off the bike. It’s a great way to discover new exercises or programs you’ve never considered.

2. Convenience

The main reason people don’t exercise is that they claim they don’t have time. This is a lame excuse, but if you own a Peloton this excuse is eliminated.

Just turn on the screen, tap on your username, clip your shoes into the pedals, pick a class, and then pedal for 20-30 minutes.

With Peloton, you don’t need to drive to the gym, which means traffic or bad weather are no longer your concern.

You don’t have to wait at the gym for someone to get off your favorite piece of equipment. Plus, there are no awkward social interactions with people you don’t want to deal with. Everything is done at your convenience.

Here’s a real-world example. When I moved states, I left my Peloton with a family member thinking I didn’t need it. I figured I’d save $50 a month and it wasn’t worth the hassle of hauling it a thousand miles. But as soon as I got settled, I really missed it. My 45-minute power zone endurance rides had become a staple of my weekly cardio, and instead I was driving to the gym for cardio which cost me 20 minutes of total travel.

I’ll be honest, what I really missed was having cardio equipment at home, not necessarily the Peloton specifically. But the Peloton is what makes indoor cardio more enjoyable than just staring into space while walking or running on a treadmill. During the colder months especially, having a serious cardio device at home makes a huge difference.

3. Fitness Motivation

A few other reasons people don’t exercise regularly are not having motivation, getting bored easily, or not wanting to workout alone.

Peloton fixes these issues by gamifying the experience and making it more fun.

I always thought I was an independent thinker and nobody could tell me what to do. But you put a Peloton instructor in front of me and tell me to crank the resistance or take a sip of water, and I’m doing whatever they ask on command.

You can ride while the class is live, but each class is recorded and can be taken on-demand instead.

For those who are competitive, each class has a leaderboard on the right side of the screen where it shows where you stand among other riders. If you’re not in the live session, the leaderboard updates as if you were in the original session. It’s like you’re riding with them even if they completed the class days ago. For example, the leaderboard shows the real-time output for each rider at each specific point in the ride.

For an on-demand class, there may be more than 30,000 riders who have taken the class. If you want to ride with a smaller group, every five minutes “Sessions” are available. In a session, you’ll ride in a previously recorded class with a small group of people (usually around 10).

The sessions are a way to amp up the competition and make the leaderboard seem more real. I’ve had some of my best output numbers during sessions because I stare at the leaderboard to make sure none of the clowns behind me can pass.

If you’re not competitive or find the leaderboard overwhelming, all stats can be hidden from the screen. Sometimes it’s best to just compete against yourself and your previous output numbers.

Peloton logs your output and other performance stats for each ride, tracks your personal bests, and keeps track of any streaks.

You can join a pre-existing Peloton group or create a new group. Each group is represented with a hashtag, and it appears on your profile page. Groups are a cool way to compete with friends and hold each other accountable. Lots of these groups exist outside of Peloton’s network on Facebook.

Peloton’s combination of the giant community, great instructors, leaderboard, and awards are all great ways to keep you motivated and make exercise fun.

4. Build Quality

I can’t speak directly to the build quality of Peloton’s competitors, like Echelon or Nordictrack, but Peloton is a well-built machine.

There are a couple of exceptions like the cup holder and weight holder, but almost everything looks and feels well-built. The seat and screen can be adjusted easily and always feel sturdy.

How about longevity?

I’ve had my Bike+ for about five years and over 1,500 rides between my wife and me (about 1,100 of those are mine). It still works perfectly. One cosmetic note: I sweat a lot during rides, and over time the sweat got onto the plastic Peloton letters near the pedals, which developed greenish mold spots and started falling off. I just peeled them all off. It’s purely cosmetic and doesn’t affect the function at all, but it’s something to keep in mind if you're a heavy sweater.

My dad’s owned his original Peloton Bike for close to eight years now. It still powers on and functions, but the resistance calibration has gotten messed up over time. He’s tried to recalibrate it multiple times and it won’t hold. After thousands of rides, that’s not terrible, but it’s worth knowing that the hardware won’t stay perfect forever. It’s also worth noting, my bike (The Bike+), has automatic calibration, while the original is factory calibration and then needs manual intervention over time.

5. Integrations

If you have a Whoop, your heart rate can be displayed on the left side of the screen. Or the same thing can be done with your Apple Watch if you have the Bike+.

There are Apple Music and Spotify integrations too. With your music account signed in, when a song plays during your ride, just tap the heart button and the song gets added to a playlist.

Five Reasons to Not Buy

1. Expensive

If you’re buying new, the original Peloton Bike is $1,295 (or $1,145 refurbished). The Original Bike+ is available refurbished for $1,995 or as a rental for $124.99/month. The newest model, called the Bike+ with Peloton IQ, runs $2,095.

The Bike+ with Peloton IQ is basically the same as the Bike+ I’ve been using, but with a few extras: Sonos-tuned speakers, a redesigned seat, a phone tray, a fan, and a moving camera on top of the screen that tracks your movements for workouts and provides real-time form feedback and rep tracking. I haven’t tested the Bike+ with Peloton IQ myself, but the form feedback concept is interesting for off-bike workouts.

The accessories are costly as well. While you don’t have to purchase official Peloton gear, you need shoes with bike cleats. The official Peloton branded shoes are $125, while alternatives can be found for under $70. If multiple people plan on using the bike, additional pairs of shoes may be necessary too. Even the mat for the bike to sit on is $75.

2. Subscription

Peloton requires a monthly subscription for $49.99/month.

Without the subscription, the Peloton is essentially a stationary bike with a blank screen attached. The pedals will move but you won’t have access to classes and your data won’t get logged.

The good news? Everyone in your household can ride on the same plan.

$49.99/month may seem like a lot after dropping over a grand on the bike, but let’s put it into perspective.

Budget gyms like Planet Fitness are close to $10/month, but the average gym membership in the US is about $60/month. The average spin class is about $20 per session. SoulCycle is around $45 per class.

Peloton looks like a bargain compared to the alternative spin options. Unless you place a high value on the in-person aspects of working out with friends, Peloton is a better bet.

3. Delivery

When I ordered my Bike+ back in 2020, it took three months to arrive. That was a COVID-era issue and delivery times should be much shorter now.

The delivery itself wasn’t great though. The crew didn’t have any product knowledge, so they couldn’t answer questions or walk me through the setup. They rushed through it and actually left my bike without a foot, so I couldn’t use it right away. I called Peloton and after exchanging a few emails, I got a new foot within a week.

Not everyone will have a bad delivery experience, but I’d like to see Peloton have a more standardized delivery process where the delivery team has basic knowledge of the product.

4. Nice Weather

Originally, I thought that I’d be wasting money on the subscription during the summer because I’d want to run, hike, or bike outside instead.

This is partly true. My usage does drop during the warmer months. But I’ve never regretted paying the subscription during the summer, especially when I factor in my wife’s rides too.

Even when the weather’s nice, there’s something special about 30 minutes of intense cardio and competition that fixes my brain and makes me feel refreshed after. It’s nice that I can do this on command without needing a gym.

Just keep in mind, you probably won’t use it as much during the nice weather months and that’s perfectly fine.

5. Company Longevity

I go back and forth on whether this section belongs in a product review, but I think it’s important context when you’re spending thousands of dollars.

Peloton is on their fourth CEO in five years. The stock is sitting at around $4, which is 97% off its pandemic highs. I never see any media buzz or influencer attention around the Peloton anymore, which doesn’t seem great for the brand.

How is this relevant to bike owners?

As Peloton continues to struggle, they’ll likely need to make changes and could become an acquisition target from the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google, or Nike. Would the acquiring company keep Peloton’s core values intact? Will your favorite instructors stick around? I don’t know the answers to these questions.

Here’s the thing though: I’ve been worried about this for years and the product has continued to work great. The classes keep coming, the experience hasn’t really changed for existing owners, and most of the same instructors I was riding with seven years ago are still there. That’s actually impressive given the leadership chaos. It tells me that whatever is going wrong at the corporate level, the product side is still being run well.

Who Should Get One?

The original Bike costs $1,295 and the subscription is $49.99/month. That’s not cheap. But if you opt for financing, the monthly cost becomes more manageable.

Could you find more affordable ways to exercise? Definitely. But the bike makes me happy and keeps me healthy.

Let’s look at some math to rationalize the purchase.

If I ride 4 times per week during the cold months, then 1.5 times per week during the warm months, that’s close to 150 rides per year.

If I keep this pace for five years, it’s about $7 per ride using the original Bike. And if my wife rides an equal amount during those five years, it brings the cost down to about $3.50 per ride, which is tough to beat.

If you lack exercise motivation and need the full power of the Peloton community behind you, you won’t regret your purchase. You won’t find a better value for your time than 30 minutes on the bike.

Sure, the upfront cost is high, but if it helps you stay in shape and live longer, that’s a bargain. I’ve watched the bike motivate my dad to exercise regularly, and it even helped kickstart my passion for working out seven years ago.

If you exercise every day without needing motivation, Peloton probably isn’t a necessity, but it’s still a lot of fun if you can afford it. If you have any competitiveness in you, it’s a must-have.

Which Model Should You Buy?

I own the Bike+, but I’d recommend the original Bike for most people because the Bike+ isn’t worth the extra money. The Bike+ with Peloton IQ at $2,095 adds some cool features like form tracking and Sonos speakers, but those are nice-to-haves, not must-haves.

If you want to learn more about the differences between the two bikes, check out my comparison post: Peloton Bike vs. Bike+ (older post).