People pay for gym memberships that they never use. They also buy home exercise equipment that collects dust for most of its life. Then you have active cyclists that will splurge $5K+ on a real bike and want a way to ride when the weather makes it troublesome. There is a market.
I built a website to serve the market that sits between and overlaps Peloton and Zwift. It's a human-curated aggregator/review site with a filter so you can quickly find content by type, duration, featured athlete, sport, recommended use. It's free and you can use your existing equipment or even a Peloton spin bike if you grow tired of paying a subscription.
The site is still at MVP stage so I welcome any feedback on viability, usability, copy, anything that can help me improve it. I want to make it easier, cheaper (free!) and more fun for people to get their workout done from pros to beginners. I also want to help promote the work of the athletes + producers and give kudos to the brands that support that content production instead of buying display ads based on behavioral tracking!
One cool feature apart from the filter is that if you sign up (free, just username/password) you can bookmark favorites onto a personal playlist page to return to later. Another attempt to reduce the friction between thinking about a workout and getting it done.
FYI there are quite a few free guided workout videos on YouTube (GCN is my favorite so far) that are great when you need to do interval training. They are super engaging and high quality. For aerobic base training (lower intensity but longer duration) I like inspiring documentaries or sports events and podcasts or audiobooks for runs outside. I'm adding more to Slipstream every day.
There is a definite market, but like gym memberships it is likely to contract during downturns. The folks I know with Pelotons are cycle infrequently and have a more general regime. As a cyclist I'd be interested to know how many get a Peloton versus sticking with traditional trainers?
Ignoring the all-weather cyclists it'd also be interesting to know how many ride into the shoulders of the season. Most of the folks I ride with have $5000 bikes and they may ride from March to November here in Philly depending on really bad conditions.
DC resident and cyclist. I ride year-round, but in winter I do scheduled indoor group sessions (currently, on Wahoo Kickrs) as the ground tends to be too squishy with the freeze/thaw for the mountain bike (which I prefer to the road bike).
I also own a Kickr at home. My spare mountain bike is mounted on it year-round. Through summer, I do the 30-minute workout program on TrainerRoad (rainy days or when I work late, but I try to do most riding outside).
My issue with Peloton isn't the money. As noted, like many cyclists, I have several expensive bikes. It's the lack of specificity for actual cycling. And the subscription is just ridiculous, when Zwift and TrainerRoad are $15/month for similar software.
There are numerous upscale gyms in my area that cost $200-400 per month. The demographic that is considering a Pelaton is probably buying in addition to a gym membership like that or comparing against it.
