So We Bought a Peleton {An Honest Review}

In my friend group, I’m the extra one who finds the most intense and/or obnoxious way to do something in any situation. I’ve recently kicked up my unbearability levels a few notches by buying a Peloton exercise bike. *Pause for applause*. The only thing I’ll do more than ride the Peloton, is talk about the Peloton. Everyone knows that the more you talk about a Peloton, the more calories you burn. So, in the name of health and weight loss, I’m going to offer my disorganized, but hopefully useful, thoughts. 

It is my understanding that –as it should be– the number one question on anyone’s mind with regard to expensive exercise equipment is: Is it worth it? 

Everyone’s “worth it” means something different, but I’ll do my best to explain why I – a full-time W2 employee, chonky mom living in the suburbs in a two income home – spent the money. 

First, I’d like to note that I was searching for a cardio machine in the first place because I am looking to get rid of my gym membership. It’s not shade on the gym, but for some reason I’ve become very germaphobic and misanthropic in the past 19 months. 

Second, I looked for exercise machines that both my husband an myself could use and because we are both old and brittle and sound like an old factory coming to life when we get up out of bed in the morning, we opted out of both the treadmill and elliptical. 

We looked at both the Peloton and Proform bikes as both offered interactive/online classes and a suite of classes and exercise programs within their built in screen and/or app. They were near enough in price that we went with the one that friends of ours have reviewed well. No one we knew had tried the Proform bike, though it too had great reviews. It came down to having someone to blame if SHTF for this absurdly expensive purchase when I have a sneaking suspicion (confirmed by my doctor) that I just need to stop eating like my seven-year-old to be healthy. 

I loved the idea of racing/riding against or/with strangers. I’m a hyper competitive trash-talking lady. I’m the bonehead that pulls up next to you at a stoplight in a 2012 highlander and raises an eyebrow to say “Let’s go!” and then peels out when the light turns green. It is unfortunate that I am this competitive, but also bad at most things. This interactive component of the Peloton will allow me to remain motivated but anonymous. Something I value highly. As I’m sure many people can empathize with, I can get self-conscious about my body. I like the privacy of working out at home where I can wear my neon green spandex and XXXL T-Shirt that says “I’m Always Tired!” on it, sweat all over the floor, and maybe shed a tear for my poor butt, which is being absolutely MURDERED by the bicycle seat.

This brings me to my next Peloton Point: You’re likely going to have to buy extra stuff to get the most use out of it and the apps included in their monthly-billed online subscription.

Out the gate, we needed to buy those shoe/pedal cages that attach to the pedals so you don’t slip off in all your fervor to beat your personal bests. Peloton has those special shoes you can buy, if you like, as well as the clips you need to wear the shoes, mats, dumbbells, water bottles etc. To buy everything they suggested would have meant adding $100s to the final total and we opted not to do that. We went on Amazon and got the cheapest version of everything we thought we’d need to use the bike and we have no regrets.

No matter how delightful and pillowy you think your butt is, I can guarantee you that you will need padded something to be able to use that bike. I have to buy pants 2 sizes higher than my waist indicates for my dump truck and I still had to sit on a folded up towel today in order to ride. My cut rate cheapy Amazon version of padded biker shorts on the way. When I’m done laughing about how I look, I can comment on this post with how they worked out for me.

Final Verdict? We’ve only had our precious Peloton for a few days and love it. We’ve both got a couple workouts in and felt like the classes were challenging enough to make us sweat. For us, it is worth it. If you’re in the market for an at-home exercise tool, want what I wanted as stated above, and have the money to spare, I’d say YOLO. Go for it. And pray your fridge or car doesn’t stop working the day after it comes.

Machine	Peleton Standing Bicycle
Price (approx)	$1,600.00; Financing Available (we did not finance so I can’t explain how it works). $39.00 / Month for the online app access
Accessories	You will need either pedal cages or those clippy bike shoes with clips for every rider in your house.  They offer mats, dumbbells, shoes, clips, water bottles, etc on their site.
Delivery Time	5 Business Days for us.
Delivery / Logistics Company	XPO from Hammond. They were GREAT. I almost wish I manufactured a product so I could work with them. When it came down to it, they did what they said they would do, when they said they would, and nothing went wrong. They followed COVID19 restrictions in our home without us having to ask. And were friendly. What more could you want?
What didn’t go into this rating?	Peloton Customer Service – We haven’t had anything go wrong yet.
Final Rating	5 out of 5? 10 Stars? Worth it.