
Flywheel owners found out that their bikes were bricked through Peloton - aaronbrethorst
https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/20/21145349/flywheel-bike-shut-down-email-user-reactions-peloton-trade-in
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JohnFen
This is yet another in the lengthy, and growing, list of examples of why
people shouldn't purchase hardware (particularly expensive hardware) that
depends on someone else's server to function, or that can be disabled
remotely.

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smoyer
If anyone has a bricked FlyWheel bike, I'd love to poke at the hardware and
see whether an open-source control system could be fitted. Honestly, the
electronics are NOT the expensive part of this bike and it would be fun to
play with an instrumented exercise bike.

My email is in my profile.

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farisjarrah
This sounds like a great idea for an open source community. Hack these
exercise bikes/street scooters/e-bikes that end up in landfills or in ditches
and release a method of flashing functional firmware to them. Reminds me of
the Open Source E-Reader Community ex: [https://github.com/fread-ink/fread-
vagrant](https://github.com/fread-ink/fread-vagrant)

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smoyer
My thoughts exactly but I didn't want to offer anything until I'd:

a) Verified that it was possible

b) Determined that there were enough people to get the "hack" done.

c) Ascertained that there would be no legal ramifications.

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yunruse
Would it even be legal to attempt to enforce against it? It would quickly be
C&D’d if you tried to sell custom firmware for such things, sure, but given
the vibrant homebrew scene for many other consumer devices (iOS, Android,
various gaming consoles) I’d say it’s absolutely viable, at least legally.

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T3OU-736
(US-centric view below, wonder if other countries have protection already in
place through some means)

This does seem like a rather interesting intersection of ownership vs
licensing. The ownership is via the purchase of the physical item (the bike
itself), but to really enjoy it requires the license (aka subscription to
Peloton or similar).

I wonder (have not looked, plus IANAL) if the terms/agreement that the owners
sign at the time of the physical purchase cover this eventuality, or if the
physical purchase and and attendant ownership imply some sort of right to
enjoyment for which there is a legal remedy.

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walrus01
I'm honestly astonished that people will actually spend money on devices that
have the ability to be remotely bricked.

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vb6sp6
i think you might be overestimating the technical knowledge of the general
public.

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Can_Not
Also lack of genuine modern alternatives for some products.

