I think its about the build quality, the service, the instructors, and the integration. I mean maybe you can get a separate bike with a resistance knob that matches peloton's numbers, and track your workouts with an Apple watch, Fitbit, or something similar, then rig up a tablet to follow along with the instructor, but that's a lot of hassle and while maybe you already have the tablet and fitness tracker, if you bought them specifically you aren't too far off from the price of a bike. I am not sure if you could get the competitive aspect of getting a real time update on the leaderboard as well- which while isn't strictly necessary, it does motivate me at least a bit, and watching it keeps me from getting bored.

I don't know how widely spread this is, but even before the pandemic my company had a gym benefit and it can be applied to Peloton. I didn't know that going in though, I just had a discussion with a coworker after we got it where they told me that.

And yeah, when I was in my younger years when I had more time than money, I might have cobbled together some solution like you are suggesting, but these days, I can pay for the nicely integrated solution that I don't have to debug or worry about.

Using your own bike with the Peloton class never appealed to me as you don't get your power numbers, so there is no competing with others in the room.

I hear the Wahoo Kikr is great for cyclists: https://www.wahoofitness.com/devices/bike-trainers/kickr/buy

I use the Peloton app with my Keiser M3i. I bought the Keiser because I believe it to be a better product. I also didn't want to be bound to both Peloton hardware and software. I had the Keiser for years prior to subscribing to Peloton. I just made up my own workouts. Ultimately, it's easier to just pick a class and do whatever the instructor tells me to. Overall, I'm happy with the decision. I can be a competitive person so I miss the leaderboard stuff at times but not enough to regret my choice.

In practice, it took me a few workouts to translate the resistant callouts from the Peloton to the Keiser. Also, some instructors are better than others about repeatedly calling out cadence and resistance. You can get lost in the workout if the instructor doesn't call them out enough.

In terms of just using the app and not the bike: The bike hardware is very good. Peloton claims to only break even on it and I can believe that - it’s an extremely sturdy bike.