Back in January we took the Peloton plunge and bought our bike. Now, granted it’s only been 10 months but I thought I’d share a few insights that may or may not help you decide if the Peloton Bike is for you.

I’ll admit, this is mostly geared towards the individuals who are leaning toward buying a bike. So, I’m going to lay out some tips to help you make the most of your Peloton experience.

I’m not affiliated with Peloton as an ambassador, I’m just a regular paying customer, so the following takeaways are my personal views. If you decide to purchase a Peloton Bike I have a code that will save you $100 off accessories, and trust me, you’ll want (some) of the accessories.

The Cost

First and foremost, the cost. I may or may not have said this before, but the real deciding factor for us to take the plunge and buy a bike was because of two major factors:

Factor 1. Our local YMCA had closed its doors due to the pandemic (among other things).

Factor 2. Peloton offers 0% financing through Affirm.

The bike is expensive, no argument there, but if you take advantage of the financing through Affirm it makes purchasing a Peloton much more obtainable. I’m not affiliated with Affirm either, I’m just saying it’s what worked best for us in the long run. The way we looked at it was our budgeted monthly $80+ gym membership was now available and the perks of having the bike right in our home and ready to go at a moments notices was a win-win.

Also, the Peloton app has much more than just cycling alone. There are strength, stretching, yoga, meditation, running, and all sorts of classes that add to the experience!

My takeaway: (if it makes sense) cancel your gym membership and take advantage of financing through Affirm.

The Accessories

The bike comes in a variety of packages, we opted for the package that included: two (2) pairs of shoes, two (2) 3 lbs. weights, two (2) heart-rate monitors, two (2) headphones, two (2) water bottles, and a bike mat.

The weights are nice to have. I don’t have much input on them as I don’t use them as often as I thought. Also, you may be able to pick up a set for cheap if you shop around. Again, nice to have, but not necessary if all you’re going to do is strictly cycle. Classes like Bike Bootcamp, strength, and select rides utilize weights, but there are plenty of workouts without the need for weights.

The heart rate monitors are finicky to say the least. When they work they’re awesome, but when they don’t work it’s super frustrating. Having your metrics come and go during a ride is extremely distracting and robs you of the experience of getting a good ride in. If you want a good HR monitor, I would look into purchasing a Bluetooth/ANT+ brand that you trust- they’re plenty out there.

The headphones have been in their packaging for the last 10 months and I don’t foresee that changing. Our bike is in its own small room which helps with preventing its use from disturbing others. If you don’t need to be quiet, ditch the headphones.

The water bottles are glass. Read that again.

Trying to use the glass Peloton water bottles while riding gave me anxiety. Plus the lids screw on and off, which makes it double difficult to use during a ride. If you want easy fluid delivery during a ride, do yourself a favor and purchase cheap squeeze bottles. I mean, that is unless you want the fancy glass Peloton bottles.

My takeaway after owning and using the bike for the last 10 months: Get the shoes and get the bike mat – I would shop around for everything else.

Things to Consider

As I mentioned before, our bike is in its own small room. As such, it gets hot and steamy during the ride, like wicked hot. One thing I’d consider purchasing is a fan you can place on the floor (or wall) to help keep you cool. I bought a small high velocity fan from Lowe’s to keep the air moving around me during my rides- hands down, smartest investment.

Along those same lines, buy plenty of towels! We keep a towel on the handlebars to help catch sweat from soaking the grips, and I keep an extra towel on the weight rack to help dry off after the ride. There are custom designer mats you can place on the handlebars, but with our whole family using the bike we’re talking sweat city that we’d need 2-3 mats in rotation. It’s more cost effective to just buy cheap towels and keep them in rotation rather than having a designer mat.

You’re going to be spending some quality saddle time for a majority of the rides, and you’ll find out quick whether or not your butt agrees with the seat. To help ease your sweet cheeks, buy a gel seat cover! There are plenty available on the market, so shop around and find one that fits your budget.

My other takeaways: get a fan, get a bunch of cheap sweat towels, get a padded seat cover.

$100 off Code

Okay, you’ve made it this far. Here is my referral code good for $100 off accessories (like shoes, etc.):

6JB47G

Have questions? Feel free to comment below!