Peloton is in something of a financial rut lately, and we all know what companies do when that happens. They take it out on consumers. To that end, the exercise machine maker just announced it will be charging a $95 “used equipment activation fee” to anyone who buys one of its machines on the secondhand market, according to a report by CNBC.
The company made this announcement in its Q4 2024 shareholder letter. The fairly exorbitant fee will apply to any machine bought directly from a previous owner, meaning anything purchased via Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or, heck, even a neighbor down the street. Without tithing $95 to the church of Peloton, the machine won’t have access to any of the classes or features the company has become known for.
The company says this activation fee is just to ensure that new members “receive the same high-quality onboarding experience Peloton is known for.” In a recent earnings call, however, a company representative was more transparent, calling the fee a “source of incremental revenue and gross profit,” according to The Verge.
The standard Bike, for instance, sells new for nearly $1,500, but you can pick up a used one online for $300 to $500. Now, that price goes up to $400 to $600. Peloton also requires a monthly membership fee to access content, which is around $44.
Not advocating for peloton, but it’s not really that much work to dial up/down a spin bike. The point of letting the rider do it “manually” is because they may not be where the rest of the class is. They very likely need to customize the resistance.
The only real benefit here is in the real time feedback on the screen (calories, distance, etc) which also adjust with resistance, and visual queues if you’re keeping or not.
I’m aware of what adjusting an exercise bike entails.
It is completely trivial to have a class that easily adapts to user difficulty while still automatically adjusting that difficulty to simulate a varied environment, which you cannot do manually and is the entire reason a smart bike makes any sense at all over just putting it in front of a TV.