30 Day Peloton Review

Hi Sitting Pretty Peeps,

Back with another blog post.  For those of you all that don’t know I love love love spin.  In a pre-Covid world you could find me at Soul Cycle at least 2-3 times per week.  When Covid-19 first happened, I figured that I would be back to Spin within a couple months max.  I am not sure if anyone could have predicted that we would be on lockdown for this long.

Around month 6 of quarantine a lot of things had changed for me.  I moved across country, I changed jobs, and I started to gain the quarantine 15.  Things were getting bad so in that moment I knew that I needed to start back working out.

I had been familiar with Peloton for years, but I never thought of buying a bike.  I enjoyed that social interaction from actually going to class and being in a dark room with people that had grown into my spin family. 

I know the exact moment that I decided to purchase a bike.  I had woke up and stepped on my scale one morning and I knew in that moment if I didn't do something and soon, I would continue to inch back towards the heaviest weight I had ever been just 2 years prior.  So I went into the other room grabbed my phone and purchased a Peloton.

While doing a little bit of research before my purchase I was torn between the Variis version (Soul-Cycle), and the Peloton, and I decided to go with Peloton for several reasons the top reasons being they have established themselves in the spin industry, there are certain features specific for Peloton, and the Peloton community being established and very welcoming. 

As I explored the Peloton website I saw that the original Peloton was on sale which was awesome, because I don't think these bikes typically go on sale.  However, I decided to purchase the Peloton Bike + as it was newer and there were features on this bike (swivel screen, automatic resistance knob, apple watch connectivity) that I wanted to experience.

Okay, so back to my purchase I add the bike to my cart, in addition to one pair of 3lb weights as I enjoy interval and weight training.  I was eager to start this new weight loss journey.  After completing my purchase I was prompted to pick a delivery date all of which were at least 6 weeks out.  So even though it was September, I was not set to get my bike until the second week of November. 

Now, I am reading up on Peloton reviews, and watching Peloton videos and this made me realize that the bike mat does NOT come with the bike!  I am not sure if you all knew this but I had no idea that the bike mat doesn't come with the bike so I had to adjust my order to receive a bike mat.  While, I am sure there are cheaper options I went ahead and purchased the Peloton mat and I believe this was around $54 dollars.  My mat was shipped and received several weeks before my bike arrived. 

I already owned spin shoes from soul cycle and as long as you have spin shoes that are Delta-compatible cleats they will work with your Peloton bike.  While my spin shoes came from soul cycle there are spin shoes that are sold by Peloton as well as several other brands.  You can find spin shoes at sports stores or even amazon if you don’t want to pay for actual Peloton shoes because they care on the pricier side. 

My bike was delivered on my scheduled delivery date by Peloton and since I have previously used Peloton, I already had an account so all I needed to do once my bike was set up and connected to wi-fi was log-in to my peloton account.  It was that simple took less than 60 seconds literally. The delivery team is very knowledgable when it comes to your bike so if you have any questions they are equipped to answer it for you! The one take away from getting my bike delivered was being told don’t clean your bike with anything other than a baby wipe as other cleaners will strip your bike of its natural shine, etc.  

I was so eager to jump on my bike I completed my first ride that evening after work!  Now what I can say now that I have completed several rides and played around with all of the features is, I can’t believe I didn't make this purchase sooner.  I love love love my Peloton!  I am not sure if it is the beauty of having a spin bike in the next room, or literally being able to jump on and workout whenever I feel like but this was the best decision that I made all 2020!

Peloton App: 

Now let’s get into it.  In order to utilize your bike you need to sign up for the Peloton App.  So you will need to put a card on file for this and there is a monthly fee of $39 for this.  However, with the app you have access to everything and you are even able to access Peloton app from your smartphone, tv, ipad, etc in addition to the bike.  The Peloton app offers more than just instructor lead spin classes.  Did you know that there are so many other classes that you can take from Strength, to Run, Yoga, Meditation, etc.  There is literally something for everyone.  One thing I enjoy about the app is it holds your metrics from previous classes, how many classes you have taken, when upcoming classes start, saves your bookmarked classes, etc. 

Features:

Now I never had the original peloton, so I can’t compare the original peloton bike to the new one, but I am aware of a few features that are only offered on the new bike and one being able to sync your apple watch to each class.  I am able to get fitness credit on my apple watch by wearing it during my class.  This also tracks my heart rate and this is displayed on the screen. 

 Another cool feature that the Bike + offers is the auto follow resistance knob.  This allows you to focus on riding and when the instructor yells out resistance numbers the bike automatically aligns for you.  Now I learned from playing around with my bike that you have to enable this at the beginning of each (on demand) ride as it wont do it for you but it’s really simple you just click the lock knob above resistance at the start of class and there you go.  I always turn on auto resistance with on demand rides even though the first climb I am instantly regretting it lol!

Something else that I think is a really cool updated feature is the swivel screen.  I previously told you with the Peloton app there is so much more than just spin.  I take a lot of the meditation classes.  So the cool thing that I like to do is swivel my screen and spread out my yoga mat and follow along with the instructor that way.  This is easily one of my absolute favorite features that the Bike + comes with.

Now there are a lot more features but those are the features that made up my mind to purchase the bike + instead of the OG model that was being advertised for a very competitive price when I made my purchase.   

Instructors:

The beauty of Peloton there are so many instructors, and so many classes.  I took advice for a few but being completely honest I would say you need to go through a few classes and find instructors that you like.  I have barely scratched the surface with instructors but I do have my fab 4 that I will share with you.  In no particular order these instructors are amazing and they give me the boost I need to get through my workout and my day.

1.) Alex Toussaint

2.) Ally Love

3.) Tunde Oyeneyin

4.) Cody Rigsby

Price:

I will just come out and say it.  There are cheaper options, not Peloton but there are cheaper spin bikes available way cheaper options.  But if you made it this far in my review I don't need to convince you of the benefits of Peloton as a company.  Peloton has two different versions of bikes one being the original that is going for around $1895 and the bike plus that is going for $2500.  Now you can purchase outright or there are finance options.  With 0% interest.  Monthly payments for the original bike start at around $49 per month but you can of course pay more and pay off whenever you want.  With the Bike + monthly payments start at roughly $69 and the same applies with paying this off.  You can pay off over the course of the loan term or pay off early if you see fit.  So there are several payment options available to purchasing a Peloton bike.

My very first ride on my very own Peloton Bike +!!!

Overall Review:

At this point I have had my bike for almost 3 months. For the most part I am really consistent and I ride my bike at least 3-4 times per week.  With the holidays passing and me being away from home there were some weeks where I didn't ride and some weeks where I may have only rode once or twice due to being out of town.  Nonetheless the new year is here and I have a completely new mindset and I am ready to ride my bike into the ground. 

I plan on coming back monthly with updates.  In terms of weight loss due to the holidays I haven't been consistent nor have I been tracking my weight loss.  But the new year is here I have minimal distractions so I am ready to get to it. 

My next Peloton blog post will be before Pictures all the way down to the inches and I am going to give monthly updates.  I am trying to see where I am by my birthday and then the first day of summer. 

While I haven't started tracking my weight loss yet I have noticed day one to now my stamina has increased.  I am able to keep up with the tougher resistances, and I am slowly climbing up that leaderboard.  I'm not in the front of the pack but I am also not all the way at the back of the pack either.  But whether you are in the front or back of the pack you got on that bike and you made it happen!  So shouts out to you!  Everyone has to start somewhere so shouts out to you for starting that’s the hardest part of the battle. 

If you are on the fence and thinking about ordering a Peloton do it!  I am not just saying that because I did it but do it for you, do if for your health.  You get one body in this life treat it with love and keep it healthy. 

If you have a bike let me know what you think in the comments!  Who are some of your favorite instructors or types of classes to take?

Need a discount code?

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XoXo,

Amber B.