Comparing a Peloton to a gym is a bit of apples to oranges from a cost perspective.

A more apt comp is a Peloton compared to a Spinning Studio. Most Spinning studios (Soulcycle seems to be the most popular) charges not by membership but per class. Soulcycle is $30 per class - the biggest competitor (Cyclebar) I think gets down near to $20 per class depending on how many you buy. Compare that to Peloton's monthly fee and the fact that you can get the same workout at home and Peloton's monthly subscription is peanuts.

Some gym memberships also include spinning - Equinox is one but you get a limited line up of classes.

It is a price that would get you a basic home gym, and a gym membership. So not cheap at all. But that said it depends what you value and not needing to go to a gym if you are just cycling is valuable.

The key thing included in the Peloton price is a built in group of workout buddies and cheerleaders who keep you exercising. It's fascinating how many people don't get this - perhaps their marketing could have done a better job of communicating.

This really depends on where you live. I think its a HCOL coastal city bubble product - if you live in an area where a nice clean gym is like $300/mo, then these home workout service for $40/mo is a steal.

If you can get a good gym membership in your area for ~$50/mo then I can see how the product is not cheap at all.

$300 a month for a gym! The US is very expensive. Other expensive cities of the world have much cheaper gyms.

And here I am still paying $20.00 a month for my legacy Gold's Gym account like a sucker ;)

Many people have a home gym they don't use, in large part because it is boring. Groups and/or classes are often a good way to motivate people and the subscription provides that group. some people need to go to the gym, others find the online classes enough motivation.

You’re paying the same or more for a regular gym membership. My wife pays $200/month+ for Pilates.

Yeah most of the replies here don't know what they're talking about. A gym membership at the YMCA here is $92/month and the spin class my girlfriend takes is about in line with the pilates price. The $50/month Peloton subscription with the purchase of bike hits breakeven after about a year or so

I pay $17/mo for my local gym, they have weights, machines, and cardio equipment. I paid around $900 for my actual bike.

Exercise bikes have been overpriced for a long while, and Peloton moved that price point to the moon when they first came out. Around $2k depending on how early and what model you bought one. That's more than a riding lawn mower. You're trying to tell me that the material costs and complexity and warranty work on a Peloton costs more than a riding lawn mower? Come on.

I didn't say anything about the costs of the materials or anything like that regarding the Peloton and I surely didn't say anything about lawnmowers. $17/month is a steal but that is an outlier and likely doesn't have the same benefits to a person buying the Peloton would be looking for. Does your gym have on demand programs or live classes you can join and compete with friends and others? Probably not.

Pelotons now are about $1500 and the membership is $50 a month. After a calendar year, that's $2100 total spent. At the spin studio here (in a relatively LCOL area), the classes are $22 each with their best deal being unlimited rides at $195/month for a six month contract. Two of those contracts is $2,340 in a calendar year. After the first year, it's more cost effective to have a Peloton and the membership

Value is in the eye of the consumer for sure. It's true that all of this likely overpriced but that's the market

£23/mo. for a 24 hour gym and free spin/yoga classes here. Free weights, olympic platform, cardio machines, showers etc.

Peloton would likely be out of business by the time my gym costs would pay off the initial price but given the subscription, it never would.

That's a great deal for sure and the only value it seems the Peloton would give you would be that you're able to do it from home vs having to go to the gym. That is quite a premium to pay for that luxury

Pilates has a live teacher to correct your form. So not really the same thing.

Which requires going to a gym. Whether that's a feature or a bug depends on a lot of things.

You have an infinitely greater number of options for strength and cardio training at a gym than just a stationary bike.

The subscription is what gives a lot of people issues. The price is in line with other high-end exercise equipment (and, as you say, things like road bikes).

(I use my Concept 2 off and on. I've gotten pretty good value from it over the years but I'm not paying $49/mo for the periods when it's gathering dust.)

I have no doubt many people like their Peleton though and find the subscription a reasonable value. That said, the company was pretty much pre-ordained to crater post-pandemic relative to during unless you believe that a lot of gym going people were going to decide this gym thing is for the birds relative to my Peleton at home.

Total derail - but Peloton now has Rowing classes that you can use with your Concept 2 as well.

You get access to the entire library of content even if you just use the bike. It's not a huge value add for a people but it is something.

Yeah, someone else mentioned that. Couldn't see getting a subscription though. Apple does have rowing as part of Fitness+ but I've never tried that either.

The weird thing is that that the standalone app is only around 12$/m.

Though at that price, a number of workouts are very limited. The step up is $24 which is still cheaper but I can see the company calculating that if someone has spent $1500 for a bike they'll spring for the full on-bike subscription as opposed to sticking an iPad somewhere.

Pretty sure it's the same number of workouts, the only difference is the ability to access the workouts on the bike.

In the case of rowing workouts, you only get like 4 a month with the lower subscription; I looked it up. My old rowing machine monitor wouldn't be compatible anyway; I'd have to upgrade and not really interested.

>Would you say a similar thing about a high quality bike?

I saw an article about a $16,000 bicycle and I'm positive the only value it has is being a money-spending signal.

Peloton at least has a service around it.