mstateglfr 

https://bikerumor.com/2021/01/05/shi...-online-world/

+/- 10% accuracy

spelger

sad that for as much as a peloton costs you need to manually adjust its resistance. there is a market for everything i guess.

Atlas Shrugged

A bit misleading. They show Zwift running on the Peloton display however only way to do that would be hack the panel. Plus they are not picking up power from the Peloton Bike but estimating power curve which is notoriously inaccurate.

jadocs

The only thing you are getting from that is up to 4hrs of resistance control. Power estimation will not be accurate (by default speed will not be accurate) ...and cadence will come from your own cadence sensor. Zwift will have to be run on a separate screen.

Good for people who are already invested in the peloton and are not concerned with realism...but just looking to add another option to spin class or do something different with the trainer they already own.

mstateglfr 

+/- 10% accuracy is terrible and I have no interest in this product, but I see the question asked from time to time about how to get peloton to work with zwift.

billridesbikes

My guess is that your cycling power output varies depending on the individual characteristics of the particular bike or trainer you ride anyway it's not necessarily an absolute number that transfers 1:1 between bikes.
As long as you consider it 'Peloton Power' it's probably a fine enough number to try to track and improve.

mstateglfr 

Totally agree that if its consistent, then the accuracy isnt too important.
I meant that +/- 10% accuracy for zwift is terrible since its competing with others. If you are doing actual 200w against others doing 200w, but show 180w or 220w, that is pretty significant.
Most smart trainers are 1-3%.

dmanthree

If you want to Zwift, why not just get either the Wahoo or Tacx stationary bikes?

Nothing against Peleton, but this makes no sense.

spelger

considering the hacked solution to a real problem i don't think 10% is all that bad. the peloton already has a 10% accuracy claim according to the article. its neat that someone has done this but still sad that anyone needed to.

spelger

because someone may already own one? those bikes you mention are not cheap. this unit is less than $300. my sister falls into this category, already has a peloton. the article claims over a million peloton bikes out there. much more than i ever would have expected.

dmanthree

True, but can you Zwift by just adding "power" pedals? Never used a Peleton...

spelger

don;t know. don't have one and have no interest in one. based on what i've read here on BF i presume you probably could put power pedals on a peloton. there seem to be a lot of folks that have some pretty compoicated setups. mine is quite simple: smart trainer, laptop, ant dongle. add a tv for large screen but not really needed.

Ed Wiser

The problem with riding a spin bike on Zwift. Is there is no feedback loop. You have inputs like power, speed and heart rate. But there is no feedback from the program telling the bike that a hill is certain percent. A spin bike doesn’t have a resistance loop. It may give you a warm fuzzy feeling that you are riding on Zwift fast. But it is not actually working the way the program was designed. Zwift allows it to happen because it lowers the barrier for those spin bike riders to give Zwift money.

billridesbikes

But that's exactly what this device tries to provide, the resistance feedback for a 'dumb' spin bike as provided by Zwift. Or am I missing something?
Given all the guys riding with only a cadence/speed sensor or an over/under-inflated tire on their trainer I think this solution is kind of slick.
If you can afford a Peloton bike and the $40 subscribtion every month adding Zwift too probably isn't a big deal for you.

Ed Wiser

But a peloton will not give you that much resistance as a smart trainer. All it does is turn the knob. An it will not be a calibrated resistance.

billridesbikes

Having used both Peloton and a smart trainer, a Peloton will be able to give you probably more resistance than a smart trainer, not less. I think the risk is that you have too much resistance, not too little. However the resistance selection on the Peloton is pretty smooth and easy to fine tune while you're riding. I've never been a good sprinter, but it at least it has no trouble with my puny ~900W efforts.
All your smart trainer is doing is turning a virtual knob in the device to increase or decrease the magnetic resistance. I believer the new Peloton is able to do something similar so you can automatically follow the class resistance. Your smart trainer could have given you a physical knob too.

In Zwift riders can set their smart trainer to between 0%-100% difficultly for the applied resistance, so as long as it responds to the grade in zwift in a predictable way (steeper=harder, more steeper=more harder) the idea of 'calibrated' resistance is meaningless because everyone can choose how much resistance to simulate anyway. Zwift moves you along the course based your power output and in game bike you're guy is using, not on how much resistance its applying to your trainer.

Ed Wiser

I have used a peloton and have turned the knob all the way up to its max. It does not have the resistance of my Kickr bike.
You also have the issue that this is a Kickstarter and in most cases it will be years before it comes to market.

msu2001la

Yes. This would also be way more accurate than the device being discussed, though adding power meter pedals to your Peloton is a very expensive setup that would still leave you with a single-speed bike and manually controlled resistance. You'd have to really love riding your Peloton bike to add $700 pedals (and a second screen) just to ride it on Zwift.

This device seems to work by sending estimated power based on resistance to Zwift and also allows Zwift to automatically control the resistance on the bike, so it basically turns an otherwise "dumb" Peloton bike into a "smart" trainer. It also looks like it simulates gearing by also adding/removing resistance. They show Zwift running on the Peloton screen, but I don't think that's possible without hacking the unit. So, the end result is going to be a very expensive setup with accuracy that is not going to be anywhere near as good as a basic wheel-on smart trainer setup, with a messy second screen setup.

The weird thing about a Peloton bike is that it has the ability to be a really awesome Zwift machine, or even a direct competitor to Zwift. It has a built-in power meter and measures resistance. It connects to bluetooth, has a built in CPU and a nice huge screen, etc. Peloton is a closed platform though, and doesn't broadcast any info outside of its own network. I've also never understood why Peloton doesn't have a more sophisticated resistance control (like an ERG mode), or provide automatic resistance control for "scenic rides". It'a a nice spin bike, but comes with a tightly controlled closed platform aimed squarely at participating in spin classes and really nothing else.

spelger

wouldn't that have made it a dumb trainer?

Atlas Shrugged

Top level smart trainers are capable of holding 2,000 watts with +-1%. Peloton is simply not made to perform at those levels either in accuracy or resistance.

Regarding Zwift the difficulty factor does not change the effort required to accomplish the effort rather it affects resistance, which for smart trainers becomes a issue under low cadence situations. Which is another issue with this idea, is offers only pure ERG mode with no virtual gearing so no ability to adjust cadence or speed on a climb.

dmanthree

Didin't Peleton introduce a bike with automatic resistance changes? And get sued by Nordic?

Ed Wiser

The new model adjust the resistance that the class is using. It’s a spin bike not a road bike simulator like a smart trainer. Apple and Oranges.

dmanthree

Ah, OK. For me...still worthless. But I do know several people who have them and it works for them.

Ed Wiser

It’s just such to different types of cycling.