For anyone else working out if it is worth it vs gym membership and bike versus bike plus-
My local gym does spin classes, at £11.00 per class or reduced to £5.00 if you also have the £50 monthly membership. Over the first year of owning my bike each class I took on my peloton cost only a couple of pounds (including cost of bike and subscription). And obviously the longer you have it, the cheaper it is per class. I'm currently on an 80 week streak (used the bike at least once a week for 80 weeks, although usually 3-5 times). On top of that, I didn't have to arrange childcare, and could fit it in when it suited me, not following someone else's class times/opening times. A lot of sneering at peloton mentions the bike that goes nowhere, but if it actually went somewhere, it wouldn't be as convenient especially for women stuck at home with kids.
The subscription is £39 per month on the bike, or app alone £12.99. The app isn't the same as the subscription through the bike, and if you are shelling out for the bike you really should get the full subscription or you are wasting you money. Just get a cheaper bike instead to use with the app -not the peloton bike. But know that non peloton bike + app isn't as connected -you won't have all the metrics (without additional gadgets) and it might be harder to do things like powerzone training (peloton's RPE bike training, a great cycling based alternative to traditional spin classes). The £39 is really like a full gym membership in your own home -there are strength programs, yoga, barre, boxing, stretching, foam rolling, walking/running, meditation, bootcamps etc etc with loads of set programs to follow if you need direction. Except you can do it all when it's convenient to you.
The standard bike is a bit cheaper now, and still a great bike. You can adapt it to make the screen pivot for off bike classes with a £47 adapter. It works really well and isn't an adaptation that permanently changes or damages the bike in any way -you could just remove it if your bike needed a repair and you wanted to avoid looking like you'd invalidated the warranty in any way. The bike+ has better sound (but if you plan to wear ear buds/headphones it won't make much difference; the bike is virtually silent, so wearing some bluetooth headphones means you can use it any time of day). It also has auto follow where the resistance adjusts automatically. Some people seem to really like this, others seem to prefer adjusting manually -seems to be quite a personal thing. So the + might not be worth the extra cost, depending on your preferences.
It seems to be pretty unusual for the peloton to turn into a clothes horse. One of the financial journals discussed the cult of peloton last year and discussed the unusual data (for the exercise industry) that showed that people work out much more, and continue for much longer with this compared to other products. The reasoning is the investment in the community. There are loads of virtual badges and challenges to keep up with, like sticker charts for adults I guess (!) and facebook groups doing all kinds of monthly programs and challenges. If you get involved it's really motivating. I do know a few people who've bought then sold their bikes -the main reason was upgrading to a bike plus. Of those who sold because they weren't using it, they were either runners spending too much time running outdoors to fit bike use in or they just didn't get into the community aspect -didn't add "friends" on their profile, get involved in any challenges or any of the social media side of it...without these things I think even the most motivated people will run out of steam.
I love the bike and the whole platform. I got it in the first lockdown and it really helped me keep moving and manage the stress that came with the pandemic. When I ran into trouble sleeping the sleep meditations kept me on track.
I'm obviously really biased -you get a little end of year video on your account each December summarising your year's use and I've been in the top 10% of users each year (that's frequency of use, not ranking fitness btw; the whole ethos is very positive and any sense of competition is more about doing/completing rather than pitting your numbers against someone else's). Trying to think of anything negative to be honest and balanced but the only thing I can think of is cost, and I suppose getting a bit obsessed and wanting to talk about it all the time...
For help with the initial cost, I'd suggest:
Calling up. It's a much better option than just buying on line. If you start to buy on line you'll get a chat pop up. Use that rather than checking out. Ask about upcoming sales and discount codes. They do honour sale prices so if you buy then the price drops within 30 days they refund you the difference (you can also send it back within 30 days for a full refund if you don't like it.
There are cash back deals with some credit cards -AmEx is the main one I think.
Bluelightcard has a discount or free accessories offer at different times.
There is a link between Vitality health ins and peloton that can save you money on your health ins, and that might be developing further soon...
You can use a referral code to save £100. Mine is MGJJ63, but it will stop working after 12 uses in the same year so if that doesn't work, google and you'll find more.
Other forms of life insurance and health insurance may come with discounts -or your minutes on the platform may give you reduced insurance costs, and different memberships and affiliations may have other discounts available. It's worth phoning to discuss and see if you can save anything.
You can also get it on klarna. It's a large monthly payment while the bike is being paid off alongside the subscription, although once subscription only it's much cheaper than any gym near me.
Hope that helps someone wondering about it. I procrastinated about it for too long. Considering how much I've got out of it, I wish I'd bought it when I first saw it...but it was hard to find any honest review then or even simple answers to questions about why the subscription is more expensive than the app etc....