As one of the at-home fitness darlings of the pandemic, Peloton has since struggled as people started heading back to their gyms. Now, the company is dealing with another setback: On May 11, Peloton announced a voluntary recall of its flagship product, the original Bike model.
According to a statement on Peloton’s website, the voluntary recall is occurring because the bike’s seatpost—which adjusts up and down to accommodate people of different heights—can break during a ride, potentially leading to “fall and injury risk.” As of the end of April, the company says they’ve received 35 complaints of broken seat posts (out of about 2.2 million bikes sold) and 13 related injuries, including a wrist fracture as well as cuts and bruises.
Affected bikes were sold from January 2018 to May 2023 in the US by Peloton, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Amazon, and retailed for about $1,400. To see if your bike was one of them, check out the label on the inside front fork (which connects the frame to the flywheel) by the flywheel: It’ll have a PL-01 model number.
The fix, according to Peloton, is a replacement seatpost, which they’ll provide for free (along with a new end cap and end cap bolt) and can be installed by users at home without having to call a service tech—all you need is a screwdriver. You can fill out the form here to order it, and check out the video here for a step-by-step guide on how to switch out the posts. Until the new seatpost is in, though, you should stop using the bike, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
This unsettling news comes two years after Peloton recalled the Tread+ treadmill—their highest-end option that had a super comfortable, slatted running belt and retailed for over $4,000—due to injury risk: Adults, kids, pets, and objects could be pulled underneath the rear of the machine, according to the CPSC. By the time the product was recalled, the company received more than 150 reports of that happening, which resulted in 13 injuries (including broken bones and friction burns) and one death of a small child. Two years later, the Tread+ still hasn’t returned to market and will be “on hold for the foreseeable future,” according to the company.
Peloton’s 6.6-million user base and sales of its hardware swelled during the pandemic, when many people paused their gym memberships and instead relied on the company’s live and on-demand streaming classes to get their workouts in at home. But a couple years later, the business started to slump, due in part to competition from in-person classes, as well as a growing number of at-home platforms that offer a similar experience. In fact, if you’re looking for an indoor cycling bike that lets you take classes right at home, you now have a whole bunch of options at your fingertips.
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