>the idea of paying for a subscription to ride a stationary bike
You're not. Like was said above, you can ride it as a stationary bike for free. You're paying for the video content put out by Peloton which is added to daily, like a tv station. I can't help sounding like a sales person at this point but I'd also point out you get access to all their old content plus the fact that all this content is tied directly to your bike and the social network of other peloton riders.
This is such a weird thing, paying to see scenery when riding your stationary bike and then post on the social network, when you can just go out with friends and bike for real in the nature.
In an alternate reality where the opposite happened, a poster much like you just posted incredulously how you saw someone take the stairs to the gym, then hop right on a much superior stairmaster instead of just using the stairmaster the whole time.
> when you can just go out with friends and bike for real in the nature
"just"
What if you live in the city? What if you have a 10-minute window until your next meeting? What if it's raining? What if it's snowing? What if it's dark? What if you live in Arizona and it's the summer? Etc.
We all have different needs so I wouldn't write off people that want an exercise bike for their house.
If you have friends near you, and if weather permits. I would go to the gym in winter to cycle and run precisely because it allows me to exercise out of reach of the cold and rainy weather.
I've personally never taken a ride where I saw scenery-- and I don't think most people think of that when they justify their subscription to themselves. I take ones with a coach. I'm aware there's free coaching videos aplenty online I could download and rig up to some other stationary bike, but chose the Peloton anyways so it would all come integrated and at the level of quality I saw in the demo store.
In Northern Europe and the US, riding your bike outside is not a pleasant or optimal experience for about half of the year. It’s also just a lot easier to wake up, make a cup of coffee, and hop on the stationary bike than to drag my bike outside.
I agree that real is better, but "fake" scenery lets you explore and ride virtually in all kinds of natural and urban surroundings, which might be interesting to some people.
Is there something worth leaving to? I have my old subscription limping along because I do like the trainers, the music especially, and use the non cardio programs, but would like to switch to something that isn't actively making the product worse to make money. Yt dl came in handy before their cardio money grab.
Zwift, maybe. But you need / should have a power meter to do that properly, and it works way better with a trainer that can adjust resistance on its own.
I have no idea how peloton works but I while ago I thought about “gamified” cardio machines, treadmill, bike, rowing where you follow courses which vary in difficulty (like uphill or against currents) and the machine varies the resistance according to the scenery.
