Peloton is known for its instructors rather than its bike. Users love Peloton because of the instructor personalities, music playlists, and mantras.
As the company fixes its hardware issues and goes through a massive corporate restructuring, it still prides itself on its incredible software platform.
Peloton's Bike Video Games
Peloton's first massive new feature in a long while is a software feature, and it involves no instructors. The feature was added a year after experts questioned whether Peloton or outdoor bikes were better.
The feature, Lanebreak, can turn bike rides into games. It is similar to Mario Kart, according to News Update.
Users will pedal along a floating virtual track; they will encounter prompts and challenges while they do so. Lanebreak was first announced last year, and some users were able to access the feature while it was in its beta form.
Now, it is rolling out as a software update to Peloton bikes in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia.
Peloton is not the first digital health and fitness app to launch gamification to keep users engaged. For Peloton, it may be a way to lure new subscribers. It is also a way of allowing users to interact more with the company's software.
Lanebreaks charts a virtual path through a bike ride, giving visual cues for users to adjust their resistance instead of just having an instructor shout through a 2D tablet.
The chief executive of Zwift, Eric Min, told WIRED that relying solely on instructor-led video content is not scalable or creative enough.
Peloton is not putting the feature front and center in its bike app, which suggests it is still a feature that is meant to complement the main classes.
The feature can be found under the More Rides tab, where Scenic Rides can be seen too. Lanebreak workouts range from 10 to 30 minutes long, and just like the instructor-led classes, they include playlists of popular songs.
How Lanebreak Works
So how does the new Peloton feature work? You will notice that the interactive mechanics are broken down into Breakers, Streams, and Beats.
Users are prompted to adjust the bike's resistance knob in order to navigate to the right lane and hit fast-changing cadence and resistance goals.
The Breakers mechanic is the favorite among users as it is visually and audibly pleasing. You can charge the breakers to 100% capacity by pedaling faster, which allows you to move more. You can also engage in a short 10-minute Lanebreak class, which is similar to playing a video game.
Currently, Lanebreak only works on Peloton Bike and Bike+ and not the mobile app or the treadmill. It does not feature the Leaderboard that users usually see during a live or on-demand class.
A spokesperson for Peloton said that users could see the Leaderboard before and after your ride, so users can get a sense of who the competition is and check the rank after the fact, according to The Verge.
Lanebreak's gamification is not suited to each user. The most customization that the feature offers is around its intensity level. There is the beginner level, intermediate, advanced, and expert level. Otherwise, the feature is a hop-on and "go" type.
Related Article: Peloton Under Investigation Due to Several Injuries Involving its Equipment
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Written by Sophie Webster
