Survey says commuters who switch to cycling save over a Grand a year; Team car almost takes out Vuelta rider – but he wins stage; Indoor cycling brand Peloton reveals $196m loss ahead of IPO; future Vuelta start in Morocco? + much more on the live blog

nick h. wrote:

I read an interview with a Peloton boss in the press recently. She said "Excellence is the most important habit you can curate in life." So the company is clearly out of ideas. 

Classic vaccuous corporate wank.  So much self-aggrandizing empty verbiage and borderline-illiteracy crammed into once sentence!

We have 'excellence' as a generic 'quality' that apparently exists independent of any given activity or set of values, 'excellence' as a 'habit' that you can somehow generically cultivate across all domains, and finally 'habits' as things one can deliberately add to a collection and then formally exhibit.

And none of it has anything to do with an overpriced exercise-bike with an inflated marketting budget.

(I wonder if she got confused with 'cultivate' there?  You can cultivate habits, people don't generally 'curate' them).

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

nick h. wrote:

I read an interview with a Peloton boss in the press recently. She said "Excellence is the most important habit you can curate in life." So the company is clearly out of ideas. 

 

Classic vaccuous corporate wank.  So much self-aggrandizing empty verbiage and borderline-illiteracy crammed into once sentence!

 

We have 'excellence' as a generic 'quality' that apparently exists independent of any given activity or set of values, 'excellence' as a 'habit' that you can somehow generically cultivate across all domains, and finally 'habits' as things one can deliberately add to a collection and then formally exhibit.

 

And none of it has anything to do with an overpriced exercise-bike with an inflated marketting budget.

 

(I wonder if she got confused with 'cultivate' there?  You can cultivate habits, people don't generally 'curate' them).

Yeah, I suppose it depends on how many habits you have and whether you want to display them.

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

I wonder if she got confused with 'cultivate' there?  You can cultivate habits, people don't generally 'curate' them.

I once knew a monk who had quite a collection, which he was fond of cataloguing, or curating if you like.

quiff wrote:

I want to know whether the trauma nurse thinks the BOA dials "definitely saved the cyclist's life".

Not sure about the BOAs themselves, but the nurse certainly did! Dr's would have cut them off and the cyclists' significant other would have certainly murdered them for the needless waste of expensive shoes had she not stepped in to release the dials.

alchemilla wrote:

Can't understand why anyone would prefer to cycle looking at a screen over cycling outside looking at the real world. Far more interesting outside.

That’s because you’re assuming the choice is between riding inside or riding outside, when it might be riding inside or not riding at all e.g. you can’t commute and it’s 8pm by the time the kids have gone to bed.  

For me it’s also about effective use of time.   I like racing and in a week I can make a lot more gains in 7 hours mostly riding indoors than trying to do the same outdoors.  

alchemilla wrote:

Can't understand why anyone would prefer to cycle looking at a screen over cycling outside looking at the real world. Far more interesting outside.

Sustrans advertising agency came up with the perfect illustration of that:

"Why ride a bike that's chained to the floor?"

theloststarfighter wrote:

The Peleton advert makes me feel slightly sick, can't put my finger on why.

Could be because the trainer bloke looks a bit "date rapey" according to Mrs Srchar.

srchar wrote:

Friends of mine thought I was mad for buying shares in Revolut a few years ago ("who wants to trust an app with their money?"), but the valuation has quintupled since then</humblebrag>.  

I got a Revolut card a few weeks ago. Haven't used it. But the packaging was terrific.

nick h. wrote:

I got a Revolut card a few weeks ago. Haven't used it. But the packaging was terrific.

Glad to hear it! It's not really for those of us in developed economies with established financial institutions and entrenched thinking that "traditional bank == safe, challenger/online bank == risky", nice though it is to change money at interbank rates and spend in multiple countries with one card. The "killer app" for Revolut is providing banking services in countries with poor financial infrastructure - that's where the growth will be and that's what the valuation is based on.  There's some stiff competition though...

Incidentally, I walk past the Spitalfields branch of Peloton almost every day. It is rare to see a customer in there.

peted76 wrote:

I have a friend who jumped on the Peloton bike bandwagon at the start of this year, she's turned 'fit' almost exclusively it seems from it and raves about it. She does aerobic classes (off the bike) with it, arm weights while on it and cooldowns and warm ups, I believe she's spinning six days a week. It's a proper 'gym bunny' thing, weights while you spin, hovering off the saddle malarkey..  Not my cup of tea but I can totally see the benefits she's had from it.  I'd love to have one for MrsD but unfortunately, I've not got a penthouse or glass-fronted beach house to put one in #sadface 

 

I was assuming the beautiful residence in the idyllic location with beautiful weather came with the Peleton membership.  Made it seem quite tempting.  If that's not the case I'll pass.

ridiculouscyclist wrote:

Really fail to see how the Peloton system has any attraction at all, except to a very small market of people with a lot of money to waste. Spending a stack of money to workout while staring at a person who tells you how well you're doing. Am I missing something? The novelty must last all of about half an hour! Zwift must be laughing themselves silly.

I found myself down by Spitalfields market, in London, a week or so ago. On my way back towards Liverpool Street station, I passed a ‘Peloton showroom’. It is very slickly marketed, and the ‘showroom’ is very polished looking. I can see why people could be tempted to part with their hard earned, initially anyway.

Judge dreadful wrote:

Regarding the Peloton thing, it seems to be the way things are done of late. A business turns over a lot, but makes no profit, or actually makes a loss, but people still throw money at it. Look at Uber, and Amazon / numerous professional football clubs for other examples. Turnover for vanity, profits for sanity, not anymore it would seem. It seems that it’s being used as a ‘loss leader’ . By whom, and for what, is a mystery.

Data.  It's always about the data.  They're going to get loads of user data from their widget and that data will be amazingly dataful and they'll sell it to people who like data who will data the data into data so they can data data the data and then they'll have the data they need.

vonhelmet wrote:

Judge dreadful wrote:

Regarding the Peloton thing, it seems to be the way things are done of late. A business turns over a lot, but makes no profit, or actually makes a loss, but people still throw money at it. Look at Uber, and Amazon / numerous professional football clubs for other examples. Turnover for vanity, profits for sanity, not anymore it would seem. It seems that it’s being used as a ‘loss leader’ . By whom, and for what, is a mystery.

Data.  It's always about the data.  They're going to get loads of user data from their widget and that data will be amazingly dataful and they'll sell it to people who like data who will data the data into data so they can data data the data and then they'll have the data they need.

Have you got any evidence to show that? or data?

burtthebike wrote:

vonhelmet wrote:

Judge dreadful wrote:

Regarding the Peloton thing, it seems to be the way things are done of late. A business turns over a lot, but makes no profit, or actually makes a loss, but people still throw money at it. Look at Uber, and Amazon / numerous professional football clubs for other examples. Turnover for vanity, profits for sanity, not anymore it would seem. It seems that it’s being used as a ‘loss leader’ . By whom, and for what, is a mystery.

Data.  It's always about the data.  They're going to get loads of user data from their widget and that data will be amazingly dataful and they'll sell it to people who like data who will data the data into data so they can data data the data and then they'll have the data they need.

Have you got any evidence to show that? or data?

Definitely needs a graph to illustrate the point