I use my treadmill daily. Even if I'm not doing a proper guided run workout, I'll just hop on the treadmill and walk for a couple hours while watching TV instead of just sitting on the couch. It's easily the best purchase I made during the pandemic. I'm not convinced the expensive peloton machines are worth it, but I'm rarely going above 9 mph so my basic one with a TV in front of it and the free peloton subscription provided by my insurance has served me very well.
Also, as others have suggested, Peloton is really a social network... or at least they should think of themselves that way, if they want to make money. Arguably they shouldn't be in the hardware business at all. They are trying to run two radically different businesses, each of which is hard enough on its own.
I don't know if Peleton makes good ones, but Precor certainly does. That said, it was weird of Peleton to overpay for a company that makes expensive fitness equipment purchased largely by gyms, who probably aren't purchasing much of anything these days.
It's like buying an iPad pro and expecting yourself to find an interest in illustration.
Sometimes people watch a movie that makes them cry and they decide to learn guitar just like the girl with cancer in movie.
Or they decided to buy a really expensive bike and now this is a big motivator for them to ride everyday.
Or sometimes people live in a cold place, they are shy and have feelings of inadequacy and won't feel good in a gym where they think people will judge them.
Or maybe they are from a minority and kind of don't feel welcome at the only gym in the backwards small town they live.
Of course this is a personal anecdote, but I found in my life plenty of people who were never motivated enough to go to a gym, to learn surfing, to practice jiu-jitsu until they become.
Change the environment, nudge a factor here and there, tweak an incentive here, and maybe you just did enough to motivate someone.
Genuinely curious as I've (in my limited experience) only ever seen them intermittently used a handful of times and then forgotten about. My dad used to buy up used ones for a pittance for their motors which he used for hobby projects, and most of the time they looked unused except for some dust or dry rotting.
Feature-wise, a good treadmill supports inclination of several degrees in the 'up' direction and at least a couple of degrees downward. Obviously the controls need to be responsive and easy to work with while running. And the whole thing needs to be designed without forehead-slapping engineering errors like the ability (much less the tendency) to pull objects beneath the deck. If the belt is exposed at the rear without a cover or guard of some kind, as was notoriously done by Peloton, that would be an example of how not to do it.
Basically, any treadmill that doesn't suck is going to end up weighing a few hundred pounds and costing several thousand dollars. It will be designed with gym use in mind, rather than primarily for home users.
I had a Precor C964 for several years, but sold it when I moved. I eventually replaced it with a similar model from the same company (TRM 425), and I'd say those two models are examples of very good commercial-grade treadmills that will last more or less forever in a home environment. Frankly I liked the older model a bit better, as it had simpler controls with less lag.
