What I Wish I Knew Before I Got My Peloton

Considering a Peloton? Weighing the Peloton bike cost against how much you might actually use it? Here is what I wish I would have known before I got my Peloton! 

For my birthday in January, I was completely shocked when Dane told me he had gotten me a Peloton. Thanks to some forward thinking on his part, he had ordered it before my birthday knowing the wait to get it in Hawaii would be a bit longer. It finally arrived the week of March 15 and I’ve used it every day since!

Now, truth be told, before I got a Peloton, I didn’t really understand the hype. Sure, it seemed like a great stationery bike and everyone I knew who had one loved it, but what was so special? Truthfully, I wanted to get it to improve my overall cardiovascular health, because running is really hard on my knees, and if they are sore at all, I was making excuses not to do it. I love running, but as soon as pain was in play, I took the easy road of just not exercising, which took a toll on both my physical and mental health.

How Much Is A Peloton Bike?

Let me first address something important – the Peloton bike is not cheap. I was really concerned I wasn’t going to get my $3300 worth (the cost of the Bike+ with shipping to Hawaii), but Dane looked at it as more of a long term investment for our health. Plus, we are both using the bike daily for multiple workouts (more on that later)!

One thing worth noting for cost is that they do offer payment plans with 0% APR financing and $0 down, if that is a concern!

Peloton Bike Cost

I will be honest and say that while I knew about cycling and the benefits of it, I wasn’t intimately familiar with all the benefits of a Peloton. After Dane gifted it to me (us, really) on my birthday, I sort of pushed it out of my mind, because we still had quite a few months to wait and I knew if I focused on it, I would stress myself out wondering about the logistics. It wound up being delivered sooner than we expected and I jumped on right away!

What I Wish I Knew Before I Got My Peloton

The past three weeks of riding has been so exciting, but there are a few things I wish I would have known before we received our Peloton bike:

1. The cleats and cleat positioning on yours shoes are very important. Before getting my own bike, I had taken spin classes at gyms (in the Before times) where we were provided shoes and/or I used my own sneakers. I wasn’t familiar with cleats, but I followed Peloton’s video on installing the cleats on the bottom of my cycling shoes when they arrived and didn’t think anything else about it. 

After my first ride (a 20-minute beginner class), my left knee was aching so badly I had tears in my eyes. After poking around some of the Peloton Facebook groups, I realized this was a common problem and that I should adjust my shoes and/or my seat. Pay attention when installing your cleats and make sure they are not only placed correctly, but not crooked!

2. Facebook groups. I have to be honest, I don’t normally go out of my way to join Facebook groups. Between community groups, military spouse groups, writing groups…it just becomes a lot to manage. In any case, everyone kept telling me “YOU HAVE TO JOIN THE PELOTON GROUPS!” So, I did. And let me tell you that not only do do I find the groups helpful for basically any question you might have (just use the search function), the local Peloton Facebook group for Hawaii offers so much motivation.

3. Room setup. Before your bike arrives, think about how you want your room to be set up. Thankfully, I am married to a complete planner, because in my mind it was just going to go in my office and we would figure it out. It’s not quite that straightforward and Dane was prepared.

For your workouts to be seamless, you need a space that not only fits your bike, but allows you to hold your arms straight out to the sides (if you plan to do non-cycling workouts) while sitting on the bike, floor space that can allow you to stretch or move around (for bootcamp/strength classes), and an electrical outlet. We also keep our extra weights, shoes, and wipes to clean the bike on a small rack behind where we ride, which takes up a bit more space. 

4. You can hide everything on the screen. When you take your first ride, the screen might be a little bit overwhelming. It will list your personal stats, a leaderboard (other people’s stats), time remaining, and time elapsed. Truth be told, sometimes I just want to ride and not think about how well I’m doing; I’m there for my mental health. Other days, I want to sweat my heart out and try to beat the other people in the class, so I want to see how much time I have left and how I’m doing. The good news is that you can customize your screen to include or eliminate any of these stats!

5. The instructors are just as amazing as everyone says. I have to be honest, sometimes when people really hype something up, I have my doubts about whether or not it’s as good as they claim. In this case, I think that not only are the claims true, the instructors are above and beyond what I imagined. I have taken cycling, strength, and stretching classes (all with different instructors) and have yet to do one I didn’t like. Two things that make a big difference for me are music and personality. Once you have the chance to take classes and get a feel for each instructor, you will probably have favorites! Mine are Kendall and Cody 🙂

6. You don’t have to share your workout on social media….but you will want to! I always used to see people sharing their Peloton stats after a workout on Intagram stories and I’d wonder if they automatically uploaded from the app. Good news – they don’t! But I have to be honest…after I have had a good workout that leaves me sweaty and inspired, I want to share it, because 1. I hope it inspires other people to move their body in any way they can, and 2. When I see classes other people share/love, I bookmark them to take myself!

Is the Peloton Worth It?

Like I said above, I’m only three weeks in to owning the bike so I’m very new to all of this, but it’s safe to say – I am fully one of those people that are obsessed with their Peloton. For us, it has been worth it. If you are considering one yourself, you can get $100 towards bike accessories using my referral code which I’m happy to email you directly if you want it. In full disclosure, when you use my code I get a gift card to buy gear and OKAY OKAY, YOU CAUGHT ME….I just really want a Pelo-tank top and Dane wants a t-shirt.

If you are part of the Peloton community, who is your favorite instructor? Have you taken a class you love?