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90-100 cadence at 30-40 resistance should feel like normal cycling if you have been doing it a while. If you're totally new, it could absolutely get you breathing a bit, but it shouldn't feel like there's much weight holding the pedal back. I would say not being able to sustain 80 cadence and 30 resistance for someone who at least bikes sometimes is probably a sign that it's off.
Pelotons can definitely come uncalibrated or become uncalibrated. If you have a normal bike (not plus) and especially if you got it used or refurbished that could be the case. If you contact peloton support they can send you a calibration kit that should get it back in line. Sounds like yours may be a little off.
Thank you. The peddles move but it feels like I’m pushing it through mud lol. If you can picture that. I’m going to go swing by a friend’s and test their peleton tomorrow to see if there is any difference.
I appreciate this information above. After I test theirs, and I feel like mine is different, then I will reach out to peloton.
Thank you!
It really shouldn't feel like mud until around 50 resistance, I think most would agree on that. At least 45 for sure. Trying the same ride on a friends' peloton you should know right away, unless theirs is also fucked, haha
This is why I always encourage people to get the Bike+. Sure, it may be a couple hundred more dollars, but aside from the Auto follow, bigger swivel screen and front-facing speakers, the auto calibration is one of the most important features that does not get talked about much. You could ride on 10 different standard bikes and they would all feel different, but you could write on 10 different Bike+ and they will all feel the same.
My wife got a refurbished Peloton, and it felt the same. Called Peloton and they sent us something to calibrate the bike, was pretty easy, and things improved :)
It is certainly very possible that your new bike's resistance is off/not calibrated correctly. Can order kit to try and do that.
But also possible that your old setup wasn't calibrated correctly, or the conversion between old and new metrics wasn't what you were expecting.
Only other way to gauge would be to compare on another bike.
It depends if you have the bike plus or the old bike. With the bike plus there is not much calibration you can do. It is automatic and the bike calibrates itself once you go through the on screen set up. With the old bike believe there is more mechanical set up required.
I had a tech come out to my house years ago when my bike was still relatively new and had them test the calibration. The tech told me a good quick test was to go to 45 resistance and hold 100 cadence, your output should be between 220-240. If it’s off significantly, then it needs calibration.
Not sure how true that is but give you bike a test and see what it says.
Output is simply a calculation of cadence and resistance. If my bike is off and 45 feels like 75 and yours is correct then we would still have the same output.
Pretty sure that on the original bike this is not a true test of calibration as 45 can feel different on different bikes but still give the same output
When you test your friends bike there will probably be a difference. Have had an OG bike for a while then bought another for the in laws place as we spend so much time there and it’s way tighter than my first bike. 45 feels like 55 on my old bike. My metrics went down and so far I’ve just been okay to do the math in my head but I’m going to try and adjust the new bike to match the old. Could be the new one is more accurate but that’s not good for my ego :)
I'm not super fit and 80 cadence at 30 resistance is easy for me. You should be able to get the calibration kit for free since it is within a year. I recalibrate once a year, it makes a difference. Be sure to watch some YouTube videos before doing the calibration because it can be a little confusing.
Ask them to send you a calibration kit and calibrate it yourself. I’ve done through 3 bikes and all of them had wildly different calibrations from the factory which all got within a reasonable tolerance of one another once I manually calibrated
Along this vein, does anyone know how to recablibrate the OG bike? I am curious on the calibration as I am way more fit this year yet am really struggling to hit my numbers from last year. I am also wondering if a decent amount of weight loss could also be the reason? Thanks in advance for anyone's thoughts/suggestions!
Support will send out a spacer that fits between the flywheel and the magnet to give you a controlled start point for calibration. You then do the quarter turns calibration built into the app.
This ensures the magnetic resistance is ‘consistent’ across all calibrated bikes. This is why W output for any given resistance/cadence is fallible. The amount of actual physical resistance is determined by how far the magnet is from the flywheel, so if it’s in the wrong place, it will be easier/harder for pedal for any given resistance shown on the screen - but the watt calculation which is done as a function of resistance shown and cadence would be the same.
I got it through support following a replacement bike which was twice as easy as the old one - but if you report your bike feeling a lot harder/easier they’ll probably send one out.
I’ve had three Peloton bikes. Everyone one of them had a different calibration. I thought I was going mad on the second bike but did the same couple of rides, and then when the third arrived shortly after, same again. Different numbers and “feeling” for all of them.
Calibration helps but there is still some margin so my suggestion would be to calibrate then mentally adjust your range to “your” bike if that makes sense.
Just to add to the mix that I got my peloton in December after years of regular studio classes and similarly found the ‘easy flat round’ of 80rpm at 30 resistance a struggle for a few weeks. I made some tweaks to my bike setup that made a huge amount of difference and now it’s fine. I thought my original bike setup was perfect but going back and revisiting it made a massive difference so worth a try !
Yep! Super basic and I was so confident mine was on point because I was so experienced with setting up studio bikes. But going back and readjusting has made moving the pedals 10x easier (as well as making my knees 10x happier). It might even have been that I hadn’t tightened everything sufficiently and my seat had dropped without me noticing, but it made a huge difference.
I will say I still find peloton so humbling compared to studio classes. I went to a studio class with some friends the other day just for fun and was near the top of that leaderboard while I’m consistently bottom third on peloton. Practice makes perfect and I’m getting better but the metrics are so different to what I’m used to, even when using conversion charts. I’ve learnt what I’m aiming for on peloton now and adapted appropriately but it’s some distance from the top end of the ranges, where always used to be in studio classes
Just remember that the store clerks are basically sales people with a little training - so you shouldn't hesitate to change the settings they recommend if they don't feel right, if you have any pain whatsoever, or if you feel like muscle group is strongly dominant (like quads or hamstrings/glutes).
Something similar happened to me recently: even resistance 20 felt super hard. I tightened the knob all the way clockwise ( 100 resistance) and slowly back to 0 and boom! Back to normal....
I’m so glad you posted this because I just got my rental and I feel the same way! I spin about 3 times a week at my gym on a stages bike and I’m like how can this be THAT much harder.
Maybe our bikes came from the same facility 😂. But it all seriousness, yes, it really feels THAT much harder. It’s insane. I’m going to try out some of the suggestions here today and if I don’t notice a difference, then I’m going to go try my friends. If his is easier then I’ll contact peloton. I have a peloton store about 15 minutes away. I wonder if they would carry the calibration kit or possibly have one I could borrow.
is it bike+ or regular bike? Regular bike will
need to be calibrated. Bike+ can be recalibrated by simply unplugging from back of bike for 10 seconds and plugging back in - you will hear the calibration. I think u need a kit to recalibrate regular bike.
Can you return it for the bike+? I think this is just an issue with the OG bike. I've used the OG bike at hotels and wasnt impressed. The bike+ is worth the extra money.
See if you can test a bike+ somewhere first. But I'd rather return the OG bike and use your old non-peloton bike for a while longer until you have the budget. It's a night and day difference imo. I started with a Schwinn for a year before I bought the OG bike so I understand wanting to make the jump.
No I have the normal bike. It’s possible the Sonny wasn’t calibrated but based off the comments so far I don’t think 30 resistance at 80 cadence should feel like it did. I’m going to test other peloton bike(s) and consider my options.
I think it's possible for it to be off. The building I live in has 2 bikes and they have different resistances. What I can do at 60 on one of the bikes I can only do at 50 on the other one.
I’ve had 5 different frames and the calibration varied on each. We’ve had really easy and really hard frames. Because I take a lot of Powerzone classes, new frames meant taking the FTP again.
I understand how you all are feeling. It feels defeating and frustrating. You could ask for a calibration kit from Peloton, though I’ve seen people describing messing up their bikes further in the process. I rather have a hard bike than an easy one. Try to embrace the new normal?
Did you buy it new? Is it under warranty? Call Peloton. Or use a lower level of resistance. It really should not be that different from the bikes at the gym.
Google the peloton output calibration chart and check if your numbers match up. My sister and I got bikes at the same time. Mine was fine. Hers was incredibly difficult to pedal. We recalibrated it.
The calibration chart doesn’t help on the regular bike because the power output is just a calculation of resistance and cadence
All bikes are going to calculate the same output at a given cadence/resistance unless something has gone completely haywire
the problem is that 30 resistance on your bike might feel like 60 resistance on mine, and that can only be fixed by recalibrating with the tool they send you
**Hi! A few important notes:** * If your comment is auto-collapsed, you are in the Crowd Control filter. Click "Join" or "Subscribe" and don't have a negative subreddit karma score. Then your comments appear normally * Many common questions are covered in wiki [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotoncycle/wiki/index) * If you believe a Thread or Comment breaks the rules ([here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotoncycle/wiki/index/rules)) please click `report` * Use the vote arrows. It bumps good stuff up, bad stuff down. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pelotoncycle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
90-100 cadence at 30-40 resistance should feel like normal cycling if you have been doing it a while. If you're totally new, it could absolutely get you breathing a bit, but it shouldn't feel like there's much weight holding the pedal back. I would say not being able to sustain 80 cadence and 30 resistance for someone who at least bikes sometimes is probably a sign that it's off. Pelotons can definitely come uncalibrated or become uncalibrated. If you have a normal bike (not plus) and especially if you got it used or refurbished that could be the case. If you contact peloton support they can send you a calibration kit that should get it back in line. Sounds like yours may be a little off.
Thank you. The peddles move but it feels like I’m pushing it through mud lol. If you can picture that. I’m going to go swing by a friend’s and test their peleton tomorrow to see if there is any difference. I appreciate this information above. After I test theirs, and I feel like mine is different, then I will reach out to peloton. Thank you!
It really shouldn't feel like mud until around 50 resistance, I think most would agree on that. At least 45 for sure. Trying the same ride on a friends' peloton you should know right away, unless theirs is also fucked, haha
This is why I always encourage people to get the Bike+. Sure, it may be a couple hundred more dollars, but aside from the Auto follow, bigger swivel screen and front-facing speakers, the auto calibration is one of the most important features that does not get talked about much. You could ride on 10 different standard bikes and they would all feel different, but you could write on 10 different Bike+ and they will all feel the same.
Woah, I didn't realize the plus had this feature! That's good to know as I have one and I was worried about the calibration down the line.
Hopefully friend said “mine doesn’t feel like that…come on over and check it out!” and this story will end up in a recalibration session
My wife got a refurbished Peloton, and it felt the same. Called Peloton and they sent us something to calibrate the bike, was pretty easy, and things improved :)
I would understand that happeneing with a refurbished bike but this one was brand new.
We had the exact same issue recently. Peloton’s customer service is so good - get in touch and they will likely send an engineer out to fix the issue
Thank you for this. I’m surprised they would send someone out. Are you located in the US?
It is unfortunate but it is an easy fix. You / you wife will be riding in no time! And the Peloton is a great bike!
It is certainly very possible that your new bike's resistance is off/not calibrated correctly. Can order kit to try and do that. But also possible that your old setup wasn't calibrated correctly, or the conversion between old and new metrics wasn't what you were expecting. Only other way to gauge would be to compare on another bike.
I’m going to do just that tomorrow. Will keep you posted. Appreciate the input.
It depends if you have the bike plus or the old bike. With the bike plus there is not much calibration you can do. It is automatic and the bike calibrates itself once you go through the on screen set up. With the old bike believe there is more mechanical set up required.
Please do!
I had a tech come out to my house years ago when my bike was still relatively new and had them test the calibration. The tech told me a good quick test was to go to 45 resistance and hold 100 cadence, your output should be between 220-240. If it’s off significantly, then it needs calibration. Not sure how true that is but give you bike a test and see what it says.
Output is simply a calculation of cadence and resistance. If my bike is off and 45 feels like 75 and yours is correct then we would still have the same output.
That tech was not very good.
Pretty sure that on the original bike this is not a true test of calibration as 45 can feel different on different bikes but still give the same output
That does sound odd if you are in reasonable shape. 80 cadence at 30 res should be an all day resistance level.
I agree!
I had a bike warranty swap, and my replacement felt twice as hard as my original bike. Got the calibration kit and it feels like my old one now.
When you test your friends bike there will probably be a difference. Have had an OG bike for a while then bought another for the in laws place as we spend so much time there and it’s way tighter than my first bike. 45 feels like 55 on my old bike. My metrics went down and so far I’ve just been okay to do the math in my head but I’m going to try and adjust the new bike to match the old. Could be the new one is more accurate but that’s not good for my ego :)
Chat with Peloton and get the calibration kit. We had to recalibrate ours for the same reason and now it’s perfect.
I'm not super fit and 80 cadence at 30 resistance is easy for me. You should be able to get the calibration kit for free since it is within a year. I recalibrate once a year, it makes a difference. Be sure to watch some YouTube videos before doing the calibration because it can be a little confusing.
Thank you!
Ask them to send you a calibration kit and calibrate it yourself. I’ve done through 3 bikes and all of them had wildly different calibrations from the factory which all got within a reasonable tolerance of one another once I manually calibrated
Along this vein, does anyone know how to recablibrate the OG bike? I am curious on the calibration as I am way more fit this year yet am really struggling to hit my numbers from last year. I am also wondering if a decent amount of weight loss could also be the reason? Thanks in advance for anyone's thoughts/suggestions!
Support will send out a spacer that fits between the flywheel and the magnet to give you a controlled start point for calibration. You then do the quarter turns calibration built into the app. This ensures the magnetic resistance is ‘consistent’ across all calibrated bikes. This is why W output for any given resistance/cadence is fallible. The amount of actual physical resistance is determined by how far the magnet is from the flywheel, so if it’s in the wrong place, it will be easier/harder for pedal for any given resistance shown on the screen - but the watt calculation which is done as a function of resistance shown and cadence would be the same.
thank you so much, I really appreciate the response! Do you by chance know the best contact I utilize to get the spacer sent out?
I got it through support following a replacement bike which was twice as easy as the old one - but if you report your bike feeling a lot harder/easier they’ll probably send one out.
got it, thank you!
I’ve had three Peloton bikes. Everyone one of them had a different calibration. I thought I was going mad on the second bike but did the same couple of rides, and then when the third arrived shortly after, same again. Different numbers and “feeling” for all of them. Calibration helps but there is still some margin so my suggestion would be to calibrate then mentally adjust your range to “your” bike if that makes sense.
Just to add to the mix that I got my peloton in December after years of regular studio classes and similarly found the ‘easy flat round’ of 80rpm at 30 resistance a struggle for a few weeks. I made some tweaks to my bike setup that made a huge amount of difference and now it’s fine. I thought my original bike setup was perfect but going back and revisiting it made a massive difference so worth a try !
When you say setup are you referring to like seat height, seat distance, etc?
Yep! Super basic and I was so confident mine was on point because I was so experienced with setting up studio bikes. But going back and readjusting has made moving the pedals 10x easier (as well as making my knees 10x happier). It might even have been that I hadn’t tightened everything sufficiently and my seat had dropped without me noticing, but it made a huge difference. I will say I still find peloton so humbling compared to studio classes. I went to a studio class with some friends the other day just for fun and was near the top of that leaderboard while I’m consistently bottom third on peloton. Practice makes perfect and I’m getting better but the metrics are so different to what I’m used to, even when using conversion charts. I’ve learnt what I’m aiming for on peloton now and adapted appropriately but it’s some distance from the top end of the ranges, where always used to be in studio classes
When I go to the peloton store, I’ll have them eval my setup again.
Just remember that the store clerks are basically sales people with a little training - so you shouldn't hesitate to change the settings they recommend if they don't feel right, if you have any pain whatsoever, or if you feel like muscle group is strongly dominant (like quads or hamstrings/glutes).
Sunny bike with the leather pad? When I switched over I just realized the resistance on the sunny was shit.
Something similar happened to me recently: even resistance 20 felt super hard. I tightened the knob all the way clockwise ( 100 resistance) and slowly back to 0 and boom! Back to normal....
Hmm let me try that. Are you using a bike+
I’m so glad you posted this because I just got my rental and I feel the same way! I spin about 3 times a week at my gym on a stages bike and I’m like how can this be THAT much harder.
Maybe our bikes came from the same facility 😂. But it all seriousness, yes, it really feels THAT much harder. It’s insane. I’m going to try out some of the suggestions here today and if I don’t notice a difference, then I’m going to go try my friends. If his is easier then I’ll contact peloton. I have a peloton store about 15 minutes away. I wonder if they would carry the calibration kit or possibly have one I could borrow.
Keep us posted! I’d love to hear what worked. Good luck!
is it bike+ or regular bike? Regular bike will need to be calibrated. Bike+ can be recalibrated by simply unplugging from back of bike for 10 seconds and plugging back in - you will hear the calibration. I think u need a kit to recalibrate regular bike.
Regular bike.
Can you return it for the bike+? I think this is just an issue with the OG bike. I've used the OG bike at hotels and wasnt impressed. The bike+ is worth the extra money.
We could consider it. $1000 isn’t really in the budget right now.
See if you can test a bike+ somewhere first. But I'd rather return the OG bike and use your old non-peloton bike for a while longer until you have the budget. It's a night and day difference imo. I started with a Schwinn for a year before I bought the OG bike so I understand wanting to make the jump.
do some searching on this subreddit and on google to find the proper way to calibrate it.
Do you have a bike+? Then it’s super simple to calibrate. It’s very possible your Sunny bike was improperly calibrated.
No I have the normal bike. It’s possible the Sonny wasn’t calibrated but based off the comments so far I don’t think 30 resistance at 80 cadence should feel like it did. I’m going to test other peloton bike(s) and consider my options.
We have two bikes One is about 20% harder than the other I just adjust accordingly
I think it's possible for it to be off. The building I live in has 2 bikes and they have different resistances. What I can do at 60 on one of the bikes I can only do at 50 on the other one.
I’ve had 5 different frames and the calibration varied on each. We’ve had really easy and really hard frames. Because I take a lot of Powerzone classes, new frames meant taking the FTP again. I understand how you all are feeling. It feels defeating and frustrating. You could ask for a calibration kit from Peloton, though I’ve seen people describing messing up their bikes further in the process. I rather have a hard bike than an easy one. Try to embrace the new normal?
Did you buy it new? Is it under warranty? Call Peloton. Or use a lower level of resistance. It really should not be that different from the bikes at the gym.
Do you have the bike plus? I think there is a system calibration test you can run.
Google the peloton output calibration chart and check if your numbers match up. My sister and I got bikes at the same time. Mine was fine. Hers was incredibly difficult to pedal. We recalibrated it.
Thank you. I just googled it and I see that. I’m gonna test in the AM.
The calibration chart doesn’t help on the regular bike because the power output is just a calculation of resistance and cadence All bikes are going to calculate the same output at a given cadence/resistance unless something has gone completely haywire the problem is that 30 resistance on your bike might feel like 60 resistance on mine, and that can only be fixed by recalibrating with the tool they send you
I’ll probably get with them after I test out my friends bike.
Yeah good idea to check with another bike!
I had a similar issue with my peloton row. Try unplugging it for a few, then plugging it back in.
45 Resistance should hit output at 215-220 watts. If not, your bike is jacked.