Originally Posted by
Marcus_Ti
Telepathy? Of course not. it is called Ergo or ERG mode on resistance trainers with power. It allows Zwift or similar app to control your resistance unit for you. Hence how Zwift can resistance-simulate mountain climbs without any uer intervention. Thing with Peloton, and why it gets crap....It is $2,500USD for a dumb exercise bike with a 1080p LCD bolted to it. For that much money there should be a power meter with a resistance unit capable of doing ERG for you. Seriously. For $2,500 you can buy a cheap beater roadbike and a $1,000 power/ERG resistance trainer, and still have money left over. No dumb idiot red knob to turn and self-adjust wrong.
And then you need to pay Peloton $50/month for classes to use the thing. Being a closed system--you can never get 3rd party software/classes.
Zwift is an individual program vs a spin class which is a group. I guess there may be spin class bikes that all auto adjust at the same time, I havent ridden one or heard of that.
I've used 4 different spin bikes and 2 are 'smart' from a power to weight algorithm perspective, but all use different manual tension adjusters. Lever, knob, etc. It just seems like such a non-issue and I've never seen a class of bikes all linked up to auto adjust, that I didnt realize it's a thing.
I was not advocating for peloton earlier, i was simply explaining why it may be of value to some people, even if it's a waste to others.
for your example, yes it's an lcd bolted to a spin bike, but if someone doesnt want to go thru the process of finding and buying a bike that fits, then finding and buying a smart trainer, then hooking it together- then an all in one unit has value.