TCO 147 | Peloton In Canada

147: Fewer Bikes In The Studio and our interview with Brenda Kraemer

Last Updated: January 18, 2023By Tags: , , , , ,

TCO 147 | Peloton In Canada

 

The new studio designs were released which revealed a decrease in the number of bikes in the studio. We have some theories as to why.

As of recording, Homecoming schedules haven’t been released. Will the deadline to cancel be extended?

Soul Cycle introduces a home-bike.

Our biggest contest ever! How you can win a Tonal!

NYC Half Marathon canceled.

Whoop has a fascinating new feature.

Viatek announces a new line-up.

Sony is working on a Peloton knock-off.

Startup.com has an article on all the Pelo-wannabes.

Ellen talked about her love of Peloton.

Jenn Sherman was interviewed on the Jenny Hutt show on Sirius XM.

Crystal updates us on her Fight Camp journal.

The Spring line is out at the boutique.

New Tread type classes are announced.

This week’s guest, Canada Brenda, hit her 2,000 ride.

PGA pro Rory McIlroy has a Peloton and loves it.

Peloton has a new artist collaboration with Kesha.

All this plus our interview with Brenda Kraemer!

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Watch the episode here:

Listen to the podcast here:

Fewer Bikes In The Studio and our interview with Brenda Kraemer

Can I reveal my little story?

You go ahead and tell them what you did.

Am I an idiot?

You’re not an idiot. It was, however, a pretty big oopsie.

We had have a trip planned to go to Mexico for the spring break, “We don’t have the kids, so let’s go to Mexico for a week.” I know with all the coronavirus it’s like, “Should we go? Should we not go?’ We’ve landed like, “Nobody’s offering to give us her money back.” Since it seems to be everywhere, we’re just like, “At least on paper have less of it than we do.” Maybe that’s the safe play is to go to Mexico. Who knows? Then it turns out I misread the custody agreement and we have the kids. Surprise, kids, you’re going to Mexico. 

So much for that adults-only resort.

Guess which one of us is a project manager?

Usually he’s really good at it.

Normally I am, but not this time.

This was pretty major.

That’s why you’re the project manager. This is also why I’m the guy who can throw together a cool event at the last minute.

That’s also true. I just lose my stuff. You calmly go well, “That sucks,” and put it back together.

“Let’s fix it now.”

I have no patience for the fixing. I already did it once.

Luckily, you had patience for me a little bit. I just felt awful. Anyway, that’s a little insight into what an idiot I can be. People were probably like, “You’re still going to Mexico? You’re getting on a plane.”

I still got to go to work. Kids still got to go to school. I don’t see how it’s helping staying at home. It’s a risk.

It’s a calculated risk of you. There are things you can do to protect yourself. We will be doing those things. We’re not going to go around like licking the sky mall magazine. 

We’re also not going to pull a Naomi Campbell and show up in a full hazmat suit.

Speak for yourself, but that’s just because I am fashion-forward. With all of that being said, if we live to the next episode, what do you have in store for them?

There’s so much. We’re going to talk about all the new studios stuff. We’re going to talk about Homecoming. We’re going to talk about Soul Cycle and what they’re trying to do. We’ve got a very exciting new contest that you are going to want to stay tuned for.

It’s our biggest contest ever.

Then we’re going to talk about some interesting news events and some interesting celebrity Peloton stuff. I think that’s all.

Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available wherever you get your podcast. While you’re there, you should rate, review and subscribe, especially subscribe so you never miss an episode. We have a new review. This is from #skimblzbvs, “Info and humor about the bike that goes nowhere. Crystal and Tom – okay well Crystal – love the Peloton and it shows. They have great information about the bike, the instructors, the Tread and all things Peloton. Their humor is infectious and you know they enjoy this. Lots of great info, and done in an entertaining way. The rider interviews really delve into the people that make up the Peloton community and show how different, yet similar they all are. They always make me smile and laugh. Thank you!” That was very nice.

Thank you so much for what a kind review.

We have a Facebook page, Facebook.com/theclipout. While you’re there, like the page, join the group and of course, stay up to date on things throughout the week in articles and show notes and links to our big new contest. Did I mention it’s our biggest contest ever? It’s a big one. You can also sign up for our newsletter at theclipout.com, which if all goes according to plan, fingers-crossed by the time you’re reading this, we should have an all new theclipout.com. There’s a very good chance we could have an all new website.

That’s exciting. That’s news to me.

I know, breaking news to you, but what do I know? We all know my reading comprehension. Also, our children will now be on the website, so there’s all of that. Let’s dig in, shall we?

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As if the coronavirus wasn’t controversial enough, Peloton announced the new studio layout this week.

Everybody’s got something to say about it, mainly, “Why do they have those bikes?” which I get. You don’t spend any time thinking about it. You would assume big studio means more bikes.

I did it and you talked me down. It’s a very un-husband-like moment, “Okay, I’m starting to come around.”

This was after the Mexico conversation, so he’s required to let me know.

Sure, that made absolute sense, honey.

I think I can get him to agree to anything right now. I’ll just do a little shopping. In case you had missed it, the new Bike and Tread layouts have been released. They moved from 48 bikes currently in the studio down to 40 bikes. Those of you who have been in the community for a while, you know we started with far more bikes. We started with 64 bikes, then it got reduced to 56, then it got reduced to 48. Now it’s being reduced yet again to 40. The treads had a smaller, but still significant change, from 20 treads to 18 treads. Keep in mind that as we move to this new studio, we because I’m there, it’s going to have four disciplines. We’ve got the Bike studio, the Tread studio, the Yoga studio, and in case you have not been paying attention, the Strength studio. We’re separating the Strength. Why would they want less? I think there are a lot of good reasons why they’d want less.

First of all, the locker rooms. We now have four different disciplines, all of which could have classes happening at the same time. Let’s just say there are twenty people in each class. You’re looking at 80 people sitting in the lobby. That’s a lot of people and that’s a lot of people in the locker at the same time. Even if it’s evenly distributed, 40 women, 40 men, and it’s going to be double because you’ve got people coming out of classes, you’ve got people going into classes, a lot of transition. That’s a lot. I think that’s a huge reason. Another big reason is you want to keep it special.

I think this is the one that resonated the most with me, which is like even if they had this big unit they bought at Costco and fill it up with bikes, so you could have all these people in your class, is that the experience you want when you go there?

Yeah, because we all have the bike at home. When you go all the way to New York, do you want to be sitting in a room full of a hundred bikes all the way in the back? It could happen. I know you’re thinking, “That’s okay to me because I’ve got Paul.” Maybe you do, but maybe you don’t. That wouldn’t be very cool. I think it’s very special to be in a room with 40 people. I do get it. I get the concerns that we have so many home rider invasions at this point for all the different subgroups and they go in and they want to be able to ride the bikes together. I get that, but that’s not ultimately what Peloton is there for. They’re there to give us classes day in and day out. It is very cool to be able to do that, and you are going to have to come up with some unique ways to start raffling that off. Maybe from now on when you guys do challenges, now it’s challenges to be in the front row when you guys do an HRI. I don’t know, you guys are super creative. You’ll come up with something fun. Here’s the thing, and I feel like people lose this perspective. The thing that you love most about Peloton is that they exist. They came out with a Bike that had never ever existed before. It’s brand new. Everything about this company is innovative.

You could do it in your home. You love it so much, now you want to go there and do it.

That’s not my point. My point is that it’s innovative. Peloton is innovative. They’re constantly moving forward, which means they’re constantly changing the game. I bring this up because in addition to the new Tread and studios being laid out, there are some things happening. Number one, this is a biggie, Sunday the 15th is the last ride at the new studio, which I’m sure I don’t know that I’ll be on this because we’ll be in Mexico, but I’ll be bawling when I watch it because this was history making. Then the first live ride happens on Thursday the 19th. If you’re paying attention, that means we’ve got three whole days without content.

What will I do?

I know you don’t care, but a lot of people do. The only live rides that are going to be taking place are those that are in the UK studio, Germany and UK, that’s it. That’s all we get for three whole days. There’s not to be any yoga, there’s not going to be any running. There’s not going to be any walking. All of which, of course, to remind you is all available on demand. My greater point is now the schedule is changing and people are losing their minds over this new schedule. I am not even joking because they made a pretty big change that affects the West Coast quite a bit. They were very used to taking classes in the morning. They already feel like they get the shaft all the time, and now this made it worse. I feel like the 6:00 AM, which is what I did, it was 5:00 AM for me. That schedule has been jacked for a long time and they changed it. It’s jacked for me. Lots of people love it. It’s my subjective, but that’s the point. Somebody else loves the changes they made. We all just have to go with the flow and make the most of it because as soon as you get used to it, they’re going to change again because that’s what Peloton does. 

They’re very data-driven, so I doubt that these are arbitrary.

I guarantee you they’re not. I saw a lot of interesting things on the schedule. They’re going to do a 20-minute ride, a 10-minute strength and 20-minute run and a 20-minute strength, things like that. They’re only five-minute breaks in between. I actually think that people, once they give it a chance, they might actually enjoy all the different kinds of information and content that they’re going to be getting. I urge those of you freaking out to calm yourselves and just let it happen. If you don’t like it after it happens and you have feedback to give, by all means do, but I think it’s too early to give the feedback because we don’t know how it’s going to affect us. We also don’t know how long the schedule is going to stay in place once we’ve moved to the new studios. It could be six months, it could be a month, it could be a year, I don’t know.

A lot of that I’m sure will be based on data.

Give it a chance.

As of this recording, the schedules for homecoming have not been released yet. Should we panic?

I think the answer is yes, full-blown panic. We need to run out in the streets and scream. No, not at all. We talked to Peloton in general about Homecoming. I brought up the Coronavirus because I have personally been getting a lot of direct messages about the Coronavirus. This is unofficial, off the record. They made it very clear though that this is an event they plan for a year. At this time, they don’t want to turn it off. They’ve been planning hard. They’ve been looking forward to it just like you guys have. It’s early. The situation is fluid. New York is hard hit. Anything could’ve happened. They could’ve changed their minds completely. No news in my mind at this point is good news. They also told us that there were lots of things they were still trying to finalize with the instructors and that’s why they knew on Friday that it wasn’t going to be out on Monday. I don’t know that this is very obvious to people that, “This means they’re going to shut it down.” I don’t think it means that at all. 

I get why they’d be worried that could be affecting it. It’s affected a lot of things. I understand why people would be concerned on either side, whether like, “Please do it anyway or please don’t get us all killed.”

TCO 147 | Peloton In Canada

 

It’s a real thing and it is to be taken seriously. We will see. As soon as we hear, we will be pushing that schedule on out to you.

SoulCycle, do you remember them?

Yeah.

They are going to try and launch an at-home bike.

Isn’t that interesting timing?

Yeah. Many other people that were carving out a place for them in this fitness realm have gone down this road and failed. It’s interesting that they’re like, “Now is our moment to strike.” 

There are some people who have pushed back to me and said, “This is different because they’ve got a huge following.” They do in three cities. It’s a big thing, but it’s in three cities. It’s not across the country. Not to say that they’re not in more than three cities, but their following is not a rabid following in more than three cities. I feel like it’s super brave timing. I also find how they put this together is interesting. Get this, the bike is more expensive than the Peloton. It’s $2,500 right out of the gate, no extras. They don’t have extras available like your weights, your shoes, none of that is a thing. The other interesting thing is it’s $40 a month, but there’s no live classes. It’s all prerecorded content. That’s pretty ballsy.

Peloton talks about how most of the classes are taken on demand. Maybe they’re seeing that and saying, “There’s not that much of a demand for it.” Does that get you anything? Do you have to pay when you go to SoulCycle to take a class?

You do.

Is this like how you had Blockbuster to go where they were trying to take down Netflix? We all know how that panned out.

That’s the other interesting thing. If you look at their marketing for this thing, it pretty much is like, “You don’t need to come to our studio anymore. Just stay home and exercise.” That seems to be their marketing campaign, which is weird because it’s like cannibalizing their own studios. I honestly don’t know what they’re trying to do.

I think that is why so many of places like that were late to the game. They probably thought that. They weren’t wrong, but now they’re trying to get a piece of that pie and it’s like, “I think that ship sailed.”

That’s my big thing. I’m not saying their bike is bad or their instructors are bad. What I’m saying is they’re way too late to the game. Also, another thing is that people who come to Peloton often say things like, “I want to take a SoulCycle-like class.” We don’t have those. The thing is they’re dangerous to do. This is not just my opinion. This is a fact. All that dancing stuff is not a good thing to do on the bike. It’s not safe. I can’t help but wonder, I’m curious, how much of that dancing is going to occur on their at-home classes? You don’t have anyone there in case somebody gets hurt. Will it be a liability issue? I don’t know.

I say we stop teasing them and let them know what the big contest is.

I am so excited about this. For all of you out there who have been following my Tonal journey and have said, “I want one of those,” now is your chance. You could win a free freaking Tonal.

How about that? That’s pretty amazing. We need some big noise like bells and whistles. This is very exciting. How do they do this?

We are going to be putting links out. You’re going to see it on the Facebook page. You’re going to see it on Instagram. When you go out there, what you do is you follow the directions. It’s going to go to ask you a question and you have to answer it. We’re not going to tell you what the answer is. We’re not going to tell you what the question is, but what we will tell you is this contest is going to last for eight weeks. Each week there will be a new question added. Every week, you can go back enter again with that question.

There are additional things you can do while you’re there to gain extra entries. 

For example, let’s say you still aren’t on the Facebook group. You can still go to the Facebook page and you can click like. You’ve got to do it all through this app so it can track that you did it and then it will give you points. You can do things like add to our newsletter, you can go check out some things with Tonal. You can learn more about them. Don’t tell each other the answer, guy. I know you’re going to be tempted to do it.

You’re just helping somebody else when that Tonal.

The thing is you get multiple entries for everything you do. Think of it as a scavenger hunt. If you follow all the directions, each week you get a whole bunch of entries. That will be very exciting. At the end of the eight weeks, you get seven days to answer each question, like question number one will be posted this Friday, then you’ll have seven days. Then we’ll post another one and you’ll have seven days. At the end of that eight-week period, then we will pick a winner.

Apple will pick a winner.

We will not pick a winner, just to be clear, because we love so many of you guys. You guys are all amazing. We have so many people who listen to us and talk to us. We could never pick just one of you. I am super excited about this. Please make sure that you enter if you are interested in the Tonal.

Then just watch this space for a more information about how to win a Tonal. Back to Coronavirus news. The New York City Half marathon was canceled. I was going to do it this year. I was going to surprise you. I was going to go up there, run a half marathon.

I guess that would make sense with your vacation planning skills because that would have been this weekend. I actually don’t know if that’s true. I think it is though. That stinks for all those people.

In all seriousness, that’s a shame. More Coronavirus news?

This is fascinating. I’ve talked about the WHOOP before, it’s been a while. If you have been following the podcast for a while, you might remember that it’s a tracker. It tracks what kind of output you do every day, like from walking around, your workouts, etc. It tells you how recovered you are based on your sleep patterns. You have a red, yellow and green. This is interesting because WHOOP came out with this new corporate policy. This is real that they said, “If you have a red recovery day, stay home from work. We don’t want you in here.” It’s been proven that if you have a red recovery day, a lot of times your body is fighting off an illness. 

You’re starting to get sick, you just don’t know it yet, so just stay home.

It can happen two to three days before you actually get sick. It’s fascinating stuff.

It also says for them that they are putting their money where their mouth is. They’re believing their data enough to change corporate policy. Whether it’s Whoop or other people incorporating that into fitness trackers, stuff like that, if that becomes the norm of like, “I got this thing,” then you can show it to your employer and they’re like, “Just stay home,” so it doesn’t spread. That would be a game changer for cold and flu season or Coronavirus season. Then apropos of nothing, I thought I would share what we were talking about earlier when everybody’s like, “We’re run out of toilet paper.” I was like, “Who knows how that’s going to shake out?” We have plenty at the moment, but you never know. We should go on Amazon and buy it there. Buy one of those little cheap adapted, little add-on things to your toilet. You were like, “Why don’t you buy one for each bathrooms?” I go to buy three. Amazon is rationing the sale of bidets. They would only let me buy one.

Did you ever think that you would say those words in that order in a sentence in your life?

No. I just thought it was fascinating that there is now a run on the days, no pun intended. That would be gross but I’m sure it happens. We’ve got a couple of stories that John Mills throw our way.

He watches this space very closely. We’ve got some new competitor-type moves. There’s this company called Viatek. You have probably all heard of Viatek. They have a new lineup of offerings that they’re going to be putting out in 2020. The interesting things that they’re including though, and are worth-note. There’s a body dryer. Instead of using a towel, you use a body dryer because it’s better for the environment.

I didn’t realize towels were so damaging.

You get wash them and stuff.

You could just stand there for a little while. It will rectify itself.

Now you can get a body dryer.

If there’s anything I’ve learned throughout my 49 years on the planet is if you wait long enough, wetness will subside.

Anyway, I thought you guys would be interested in that and there we have that. The other interesting thing is that Sony is now getting into the Peloton competition. Have you seen a picture of this thing? Have you seen it? It looks like you’re going kite surfing.

It’s weird-looking.

It’s like a bike with a helmet on the front, which I can only imagine is like their VR version. I think it’s like they’re trying to bring into VR. I don’t know. Those are some things to check out if you want to know. Who knows? It’s Sony, they’ve got a lot of muscle, a lot of spending money too. Will this be a real competitor? Probably not to be quite honest.

The other question you’ve got to ask yourself though.

Will it push Peloton to do something else?

No.

Where are you going?

Will it bring with it a whole new round of music licensing battles? Will Sony Music not allow their artists to be in the Peloton ecosystem? Sony is very weird about that. If you ever watched a Sony movie, if you ever watched the new Spiderman movies, I always get pulled out of it because I’m like, “What are these phones they’re using?” Everybody’s got these crazy phones you’ve never seen before. You don’t see any iPhones because Sony has their own phones. They insist that all the characters use Sony-branded phones. 

You just brought a whole other problem into this mix. Peloton lawyers, you better get on it right now.

Someone needs to call Sekou.

That could get really crazy.

He can go New Jack City on him. None of that made any sense.

Before you buy a Bike, make sure it's something you will fully commit to because it's a big investment. Share on X

That is also true. That’s a reason for them to read to that episode, which was our last episode. It’s very easy to find.

TechCrunch had an article about all the startups that are trying to go after Peloton. 

Actually no, because what it is, is it’s about that Apple is actually looking at putting some code into their phone that would be Peloton-like, and it will affect all these other startups.

I totally misunderstood that.

They have this thing called Codename: Seymour. It allows like a workout guide app within iOS system. It’d be like your Watch iOS or Apple TV. It allows you to download instructional video clips for doing different exercises. For example, strength training, running, cycling, rowing. The Apple Watch helps you track your progress as you do your routine. The thing is that this already exists. There’s a company called Future that they actually send you an Apple Watch for $150 a month. You track your progress while using their visuals, sounds, vibrations and then you have this all telling you when to do the next exercise. Now, Apple Watch is going to have this all integrated. This is very interesting.

That happens all the time. I can remember when Foursquare was a thing, then all of a sudden you can check it on Facebook. Then nobody needed Foursquare anymore.

It will be interesting to see what happens with that and if it does affect Peloton, because they are integrated heavily in the Apple community.

Watch this space. Ellen DeGeneres once again professed her undying love for Peloton in a lengthy segment. It was almost like, “Is this a paid commercial?”

A lot of people think it was paid. There’s a lot of suspicion that it was paid. I don’t know how Ellen’s show works, so I couldn’t say one way or another.

I also think that it wasn’t, because I do think like you’re on broadcast television and you think you’ve got to own that.

That’s what I thought. I thought there had to be like a little thing at the bottom or something.

There seems to be, but I could be mistaken. I don’t know.

Her love sure seemed genuine.

She’s talked about it before, her and her wife, Portia de Rossi from Arrested Development.

They both just don’t even seem to age. They’re like the same age they were when I was watching them on TV twenty years ago.

It’s because of the Peloton.

I’m sure it’s what it is.

That’s why I look like 100 years old.

Tom, we can change that.

Then I’m just going to look like I’m 100 years old forever.

It’s better than 110.

I don’t know that there’s a radical difference. Anyway, past guest, Jenn Sherman was interviewed by past guest, Jenny Hutt.

How cool is that? That’s pretty cool. Jenny Hutt is on Sirius Radio. If you don’t know and you didn’t get to read that episode, it was episode 61 in case you’re wondering. Jenn Sherman was episode 11 and 12. She had a two-parter. This back when we did two-parters and we learned a lot.

We were young. The podcast was still in black and white.

It was pretty cool though because not only was it an awesome interview, but also Jenn Sherman, while she was there, she got to the studio about ten minutes early and Gary shows up. He comes in and sees Jenn Sherman sitting there. He goes into the studio. That’s how the whole thing started. That’s the whole thing that started Howard Stern. Okay. He walks her around, does a tour. She gets to go into Howard’s studio. She did get to meet Howard, but she did get to meet all the people.

There’s no way Gary’s not going to be like, “We’re going to surprise Howard at some point. There’ll be on his birthday or something.” I promise you, at some point they will bring her on that show. No doubt in my mind.

It would not shock me at all. When that happens, any of you in the audience, send me the interview. John Pruitt has been amazing about sending me all this stuff, so continue to do so. Thank you. I appreciate it. I’m very happy for Jenn Sherman.

We got the Fight Camp thing all officially set up. We had started and made the mistake of, “That’s probably full of enough water now.” You bought that fancy gel. 

It’s called base gel. You fill up things like your basketball goal and stuff like that. I filled it halfway.

It seems like, “That seems pretty solid.” Then you did around.

It was not solid.

It’s just that you’re way tougher than we anticipated.

I think it’s that I’m tougher. The whole thing moved like eight inches. Let me be clear. This is because I didn’t put it together correctly. Because then I filled it up the rest of the way and now the thing’s like a brick wall, it won’t move.

That’s not fair. You slide it around when you have to. I don’t want to make it sound like it’s a pain in the butt to move back and forth.

You can move it but when you’re just punching on it, it does not move. It’s not sliding like it was before.

It’s moving the way it’s designed, the way they promised you it will.

Here’s the moral of that story. Fill it up the way they tell you to and it’ll work.

Follow the directions. It’s a radical concept.

This is really cool because I like the way that when you pull up the app, it shows you, they call it the prospect path. For those who have never actually used or have done any boxing. You don’t have to do it if you’ve done boxing. The cool thing is when you pull it up, it walks through different combinations that you’re going to use and then builds on them. For example, you start with a one, two, like a simple left, a simple right. They go through that, but then they add in some squats, they add in some shoulder taps. It’s an amazing workout. I was dead after twenty minutes.

In fact, we filled up the other half entirely with her sweat.

What a great workout. I love that the trackers that go in the gloves, you can see each punch and it’s very accurate. You can see every time you make contact, the number goes up. It’s great that the harder you punch, the more your output goes up. You can see a direct correlation between what you’re doing and it makes you want to work harder.

After you found out that I messed up the Mexico vacation, your output was way higher.

It was super high.

That’s probably why you ended up having so much patience.

They did have a punch count. You have this metric, “Here’s the goal that you’re going after.” I doubled it the first time. I’m pretty sure it was because of Tom and the Mexico trip. It’s awesome. I love the way it looks. It’s very sleek. I love the all-white. I like the white gloves.

Since it’s all white, can you use it after Labor Day? Is that okay?

Yes. It says in tiny words at the bottom like it’s totally okay to use it.

They don’t send you an off-white one on Labor Day. You just got to roll with that.

It’s also cool that you can use Fight Camp if you already have a heavy bag. If you already have a bag, you can also buy their gloves and their trackers. Then you can do your own workout on your bag that you already own.

Is that a little cheaper for people then?

It is, yeah. It’s a different price point. I don’t remember what the price is off the top of my head, but it is definitely a different price point.

If anybody’s interested and they want to check it out, they can go to JoinFightCamp.com.

If you do and you end up buying one, make sure that you choose The Clip Out in the survey after you buy.

That way they’ll like us more. The Spring Line came out. I couldn’t say a thing about what you chose to buy. You’d be like, “Look, maybe I’ll just wear this in Mexico. Wait, we don’t have that now.”

No more date night. I’ll take all my cute little dresses now. I’d put more like mom dresses in now.

We’re happy with the Spring Line.

It’s beautiful. There were so many things. There was something for everyone. It was not all pastel-y. There were pastels in it, but that was not all it was. I have to say that Soul Fire is an amazing product. I’ve never used it before. These leggings feel like I’m wearing a cloud. I love them. They’re soft and these are small. I love it so much. I’ve got several of the t-shirts, sweatshirts. There was a lot to choose from.

There are new Tread-class types.

This was super exciting for people who are trained to work on their endurance and their speed. They came out with a class called Endurance and they came up with a class called Progression. The Endurance class is your typical working on your endurance. I feel like it’s similar to a tempo run, but a little less intense than a tempo run. It helps with your endurance. The other one though is a progression. I know a lot of you are going to be intimidated by this because you start off the class at one speed, and you increase that speed throughout the class without stopping. It’s a little intimidating. Here’s what I recommend you do. I got done doing a Beginner Progression run with Oliver, 30 minutes long. Go check it out. It’s totally doable. I was done by the end, but it was not like, “I’m going to punch somebody in the face” done. It was like, “That was a great workout” done. It was completely doable. Start a little on the low side. You can always increase. Remember, you are not tied to the treadmill. You have options. Anyway, I highly recommend you give it a shot because this is the kind of training that makes you faster. If you are a turtle like myself, that’s what we need to work on.

Generally, we do past guest updates, but I guess this time we’re going to do a present guest update because CanadaBrenda hit 2,000 rides. Is this like pricing on paperback novels? Is that like 1895 American rides? 2000 Canadian rides?

No, she just did 2,000 rides. Congrats to CanadaBrenda, Brenda Kraemer.

You can learn more about her in the interview. PGA Pro Rory McIlroy? That’s a golf thing.

Apparently, this guy is a huge deal. I didn’t know either, but he’s like almost as important as Tiger right now when it comes to golf. To be honest, I had no idea who he was. I didn’t know anything about him. I just randomly showed pictures to people at work until I found a hit, and then they told me all I needed to know.

He is a huge Peloton fan.

TCO 147 | Peloton In Canada

 

He is pretty cool. He was talking about how he got super high numbers on his Bike. He was like, “That wasn’t really my Bike that one time. I think the Bike I was on was a little juiced.” Then he was talking about how the Bike at home that he has is not juiced and he rides it at 50 resistance and 90 cadence for 45 minutes.

Even I know that is success.

That’s his normal. He’s like, “I can bang that out for 45 minutes. No problem.” If you guys want to see the video where he talks about Peloton, make sure to check out Facebook.com/theclipout.

There’s a Kesha collaboration coming from Peloton.

It’s super cool. It’s going to be with Olivia Amato doing this one. It’s only a Bike ride apparently. It’s going to be on March 12th 2020 at 8:30 PM Eastern. Make sure you don’t miss it. If you do, take it on demand.

—

Joining us all the way from Canada is Brenda Kraemer. Brenda. How is it going? 

I’m good. How are you both?

We’re great. It’s good to do this finally. I feel like I’ve been talking to you forever, Brenda, but I’ve never gotten to talk to you.

Thanks for having me. I’m honored to be here.

When I ask for people to suggest our next interviewees, you got mentioned many times. There are many people that wanted to hear from you. It is exciting. 

I’m honored. Thanks.

You’re our first candidate interview, so that’s cool. Brenda, the first question I always ask is how did you originally find Peloton?

It was back in August 2016 and I was looking for some spin classes online. I had my own spin bike that was pretty decent and I would ride on and do my own thing. I came across the Peloton app. I went to the Peloton website and thought, “That bike is incredible.” I’d never heard of it. It wasn’t available in Canada. It was a big investment when you take the 25% exchange rate on the dollar as well. I thought I’m going to sign up for the free two-week trial on the app. I loved it even more. I made a deal with my husband, Mike, that if I tried the app for a couple more times and I remained committed to it, we think seriously about purchasing the Bike. During those two months, we took a drive over to the Michigan Peloton store, which is only about three hours away from where we live. We were impressed and we wanted it immediately.

We waited for the Black Friday Sale and then we bought it. The problem with that is Peloton didn’t ship to Canada. We had to come up with some ingenious way, the store wouldn’t allow us to ship it there for pickup. We had to ship it to one of those border parcel pickups in port here in Michigan is where we had it shipped. That’s when Peloton would do that. They don’t do that anymore. We were nervous about the purchase because there’s no warranty with the Bike as soon as we brought it across the border. We were worried it would not work when we get home, everything went through our mind. We picked it up. We paid duty at the borders, so we paid another 15% to get it across legally. Close to 1,950 rides later, here we are.

I know that they have a lot of issues with music licensing and that’s part of why they don’t want to send it to other countries because they haven’t paid for the licensing in those countries. Was the functionality the same once you got the Bike into your home and up and running?

There was no problem with it at all. Everything worked, touch wood, it was all fine.

Peloton delivers the Bikes, not the Tread, to Canada now.

The Bike is now available in Canada. It’s not available all across Canada. It’s a misnomer. It’s only available in 4 provinces out of the 10 provinces and 3 territories.

I did not realize that. I thought it was all of Canada. 

It’s not.

Probably, Canada gets spread out and massive that it’s hard to deliver to some spots.

There are a lot of remote areas. The area versus the volume and demand is not quite there yet. Hopefully eventually it will be all across Canada but right now, it’s not.

With their current system, if you bought it now where you live, would you have been able to have it delivered to your home?

I believe they do deliver to my area.

Out of curiosity, how long was it between when you purchased and when they started delivering to Canada?

It was November 2018 when the Bike became available in Canada. I had it almost two years before it was legally available in Canada.

Now is worth taking the chance then.

Yes.

I was envisioning if that was us, it would be two days later.

That is our luck. 

I thought you have to pay more for paperbacks was maddening. Every book I ever bought was $2.99, but in Canada it’s $3.99.

The exchange rate kills us but there’s nothing we can do.

Tell us what it’s like to be a Canadian Peloton rider compared to the US.

It’s a little bit different but not much. Talking about the apparel boutique, all the apparel isn’t always available on the Canada website. We have a limited offering. It does offer enough variety but it is limited. We don’t get the special lines that are rolled out. The Black History line that was rolled out is not available in Canada. There was that Heart and Stroke apparel line that I absolutely love. The red workout gear, that wasn’t available in Canada either. It’s hit and miss. We don’t get free shipping, which is unfortunate, nothing we can do about it. The number of stores is limited as well. There are only 6 across the entire country with 3 of those being right in Toronto. It is a little bit different, but when you’re on the Bike, it’s not different at all. The experience is still the same.

Do you feel like the Canadian community is similar to the US community? Do you think it’s different? If so, why? 

When you say community, are you thinking about the OPP or the people?

The people. The OPP is a mess of its own. I don’t even know what to say about the OPP anymore.

To answer that question, I started a Canada Facebook page in October 2017. The purpose I did that was to try and connect and see who else had a Bike in Canada. I knew the OPP page was not the place to make those connections. I thought, “Why not start a smaller group?” That’s what I did. On our page, you have to be a Bike owner or an app rider. That helps keep the page positive and encouraging. You don’t necessarily have to live in Canada, but you have to have a Canada connection. We have some people on our page that live in the US but maybe they were born in Canada or lived here for a while. There’s always that Canadian connection. I’d say our community only has about 1,400 members at this time. It’s slowly growing. We’re positive and encouraging. We have the same questions as the OPP about pedals, headphones and heart rate monitors. We celebrate milestones. It’s similar but no one gets snarky or having to answer the same question multiple times.

Do you think that’s because of the size of the group or because you’re Canadians?

It would be a little bit of both. I think we are a nicer group. That’s what we always get tagged with.

If you’re going to be painted with a stereotype, being nice is not a bad one. If you want to dispel it, it’s easy. Somebody is like, “You Canadians are all nice.” You can be like, “Go F yourself.” They’re like, “Okay. You’ve made your point. That’s not true. Thank you for the education.” 

We agree and move on. We’re still getting to know each other. We’ve had a couple of group rides. We’ve already had one and we’ve got another one coming up that I’m trying to organize on February 22, 2020 when we’re going to do 10 to 15-minute on-demand rides. The last one that we did was a 10-minute ride. That has helped to try and bring people together. That’s what’s great about the Bike is riding with different people all across the country and being a group. That’s what I enjoy with the Bike.

It’s cool regardless of whether or not you’re in Canada, in the US or another country, you can all ride together. Assuming you can make a match on time zones, you can all ride together and that’s cool regardless of what country you’re in.

You should petition for a Canadian music ride.

Leanne had a Celine Dion rides. I took that because I’m a Celine Dion fan. They did have a Canadian ride. I’m trying to think who did it but I can’t remember. There was one a long time ago.

Was it Canadian bands that Americans know or was it real Canadian stuff like Tragically Hip and Blue Rodeo?

It was the latter. It was the Canadian bands that Americans know. Tragically Hip ride, that would be amazing.

I don’t even know where he pulled that out.

Blue Rodeo is one of my favorites. I’m impressed, Tom.

I have my moments.

She was all prepared for you to tease her about being Canadian. You blew her mind. 

I actually knew something.

You had an actual fact. I’m impressed.

I know it seems rare for Americans about actual facts anymore. 

Brenda, have you ever made it to the studio in New York?

Yes. I’ve been there quite a few times and I’d say I’m fortunate. New York is only a 1.5-hour plane ride from Toronto, so it’s not too far away. I highly recommend everyone take the trip because I’ve had some of the best times in my life in New York with the people I’ve met and ridden in the studio.

I’m jealous. I love going there. 

It’s weird to think that she lives in another country but it’s closer to New York than we are. 

That is a crazy thought. Do you have any memorable moments that you were in the studio that was amazing?

I’ve got a couple. The most one that stands out is soon after I got the Bike. I had the Bike in December by the time we got it all set up. Lisa Getty had posted on the OPP if anybody would want to do all the live rides one day with her. I thought, “Wouldn’t that be fun?” I signed up and then regrettably thinking, “What did I get myself into?” That was back in the day that there were only about eight live rides a day and they were all 45 or 60 minutes.

I love how you said, “Only,” that’s a short ride.

There were fifteen ladies all across the US. I was the only Canadian that put their hand up and say, “Sure. Let’s do it.” On February 12, 2017, we did it. We called ourselves Bitches Be Crazy. We committed to riding all day. The problem is there was a slight bump in the road. That was the day the studio’s roof started to leak. All the afternoon rides were canceled. On Jenn Sherman’s ride, her 11:00 ride, I don’t know if you’d go back, I don’t even know if it’s been wiped off the on-demand. There’s nobody in the studio, but there are buckets around her Bike because the roof was leaking. They ended up canceling all the afternoon live rides. That changed what we were doing that we agreed to take four on-demand rides and finished the commitment of the eight rides all day. That was incredible.

I would expect nothing less than that from the Peloton community. We’re like, “We committed to eight rides, so we will do eight rides.” They were all 45 to 60 minutes. How many miles did you do then?

I forget. Matt Wilpers started at 6:00 and we did take about half an hour for lunch to get refueled and change your clothes because you’re sweaty. We finished at about 3:00. It was a long day but you sure felt good. You accomplished something amazing like that with people. We’re chatting on Messenger the whole time and having a great time as we’re riding.

A lot of people have never had a chance to experience that. I don’t think people do that as much as they used to. There were a few months in there back at that timeframe where people were doing multiple rides. Did you go all out in those rides? Did you keep it at a low-impact type of ride the entire time?

Slow and steady. There was nothing all out at all. A lot of us tried to have milestones that day too, so each ride was somebody’s special ride between the fifteen of us, so that helped. We were celebrating as we were riding as well.

Those rides caught on for a while because there was such a focus on heart rate training at the time. Many of us were talking about the fact that you don’t want to be in zone four on every ride. You want to be in a zone two and you want to do that for a long amount of time because that’s where you’re burning all your fat. People were spending a lot more time on those longer rides and being able to do that. I feel that was why it caught on for a while.

It was endurance zone two for sure.

Now, it’s a lot harder though. There are way more live rides. 

There are more live rides but there are a lot of shorter rides too. There are a lot of twenty-minute rides in there now.

To complete that, what we did is in September 2017, all of the Bitches Be Crazy met in New York. We got to meet each other face-to-face, we rode and laughed the entire weekend. That’s my most memorable of the Bike because that was special.

That would a great way to wind up that whole journey. That’s a fabulous way to do that.

In 2018, I did go to HRI. I have had the chance to experience HRI and I loved it as well. It was before it got big. It was big but still personable enough, which was nice.

What was your favorite moment from that? 

I’d have to say the JSS Tribe party. It was amazing.

Explore all the instructors, and get as involved as you can be in the community. Share on X

That was a great party. 

That was fun but I’m sorry, the correct answer is when we hosted the Q&A.

You did use one of my questions. My name didn’t get mentioned. I should have said that. I’m sorry.

He’s only teasing. 

We wanted to hear you say sorry. 

He made it 23 minutes without saying that. That was impressive. 

Have I said about yet? Because everybody teases me that I say a boot. I don’t say a boot, I say about.

You’ve got a little bit of a boot.

There is a little bit of a lilt there 

We’ve been giggling at each other every time you’ve said it, in a nice way because we think it’s adorable. It is not us making fun in a mean way. It’s cute. You have a lovely accent and I wish I had a cute accent because I have a flat Midwestern accent, which is annoying to people.

That’s why I was nervous about doing this because everybody says I sound like an eight-year-old girl on the telephone. I’m thinking it’s going to sound horrible.

Not at all. Whoever’s telling you that is wrong. 

They’re a dirty liar.

I’ve been back to the studio with a lot of ladies that I’ve met over the Bike. I’ve been with Mike, my husband, a couple of times. I hadn’t been there yet in 2019. It’s June and July 2020, we’re planning another trip.

Does Mike ride as well?

He also rides as well. He’s about 1,100 rides, but he does not get involved with the community. He lurks in the background and listens to my stories.

What was your guy’s fitness level before?

I’d say we were both active. I worked out 4 or 5 times a week. I did the Jillian Michaels DVDs. I love her. I love somebody yelling at me and telling me to work harder. I had the spin bike that I would dangle on my own music, cadence and resistance. I did a lot of step classes as well.

I have a question about Mike. You said when you were thinking about getting the Peloton, he was like, “We’ll get the app and see if you stick with it.” It sounds you’ve been sticking with stuff like this for quite some time. Why was Mike questioning you? Let’s drill down on this. I learned a lot from Dr. Jenn Mann. I’m paying it forward.

I should ask him but even if he would have said yes or no, I didn’t need his permission. He wanted to make sure that I was invested in it because it was a big investment.

It is, although we joke on such a huge purchase, it should be that both people in the household should be a joint decision. That’s great that he rides it too. You guys are getting a ton of use out of it.

We have got our money back a million times more.

What kind of bike were you using before? 

I don’t even know the name of it.

I was curious. 

It was sturdy and decent. I had to buy my own little cadence and resistance monitor because it wasn’t on the bike. When I was doing the app for Peloton, I tried to sync them but it wasn’t even close. It was by no means even comparable to Peloton.

That’s something that a lot of people who use the app and think that Peloton is not worth the investment. That’s something that they downplay and don’t realize there’s such a huge value too. 

I will also say I get the skepticism in that you’re paying more for something you already get from a monthly fee standpoint. 

I can understand that from a monthly fee standpoint but I’ve heard many people who’ve used the app and moved over to the Bike say that they were replicating what Peloton was asking them to do and then they got the Bike and they were like, “I wasn’t at all. I was way off.” As a person who’s owned the Bike from day one, when I tried to explain that to people who have the app, they do not want to hear that. I get it especially for me because I’m in love with Peloton that they don’t believe that I’m right.

You’re a shill for the man.

Are you able to use the referral system in Canada?

Yes, on weekends. That’s how I got most of my Peloton apparel. We get CA$125 for each referral, but the cost of our apparel on our boutique is more. That $25 that we get makes up for the difference in cost.

As a person who’s not from Canada, if you go to the US store online, you order what you want and have it sent to somebody and then ship it to yourself? Can you do that?

Mike and I are fortunate enough that we have a vacation home in Phoenix, Arizona. I buy off the US site and ship it to our place in Phoenix, then bring it back then. If you order off the US site, they won’t ship to Canada, but you could ship it to a friend’s place in the US and then bring it across.

That’s a great thing to know.

We were trying to figure out how to get Canadian referrals and then use them at the US boutique. That’s what she’s trying to figure out. 

I would never, Brenda. They’re going to find your Canadian page long before they find me.

Peloton is good. If I did refer a Canadian person, that means I have a CA$125, they will switch it to US$100 to use in the US boutique and vice-versa. They’re accommodating for doing stuff like that.

Is there ever anything in the Canadian boutique that isn’t in the US boutique? 

No. I could say Ketchup Lays chips because you don’t have that in the US. 

I will say whoever decided that gravy was the condiment of choice for French fries, genius.

Gravy and cheese, definitely.

Do cities have different personalities? Is Vancouver considered a ruder city than Ontario? 

I don’t think so.

I got plowed into at least ten people, no hyperbole. 

It was like Tom was invisible and they didn’t even turn around be like, “I’m sorry,” or anything. They plowed into him and kept going and it kept happening.

We were taking a Disney Cruise, so we were leaving from Vancouver. It happened 10 or 12 times. To put that in perspective, we were in Canada for a grand total of about three hours. I’m like, “What is happening?” I was starting to have an existential crisis. 

It’s like, “Am I still here?” 

“Do I exist physically in this plane of reality? I don’t know.”

Downtown Toronto was like that too. Everybody is in a big rush. It’s a typical big city like anywhere in the world.

We were in Manhattan and I didn’t get that. That is weird. The first time I’m like, “There are jerks everywhere, whatever.” It’s the eighth time in twenty minutes.

The funny part, Brenda, is it was the kids and us, so there are four of us and it only happened to Tom. That was the funny part because we kept having it happen.

I wasn’t wearing some giant American hoodie like I was trying to make a statement. I had a Mystery Science Theater 3000 hoodie or something. It was regular nerd stuff that we all love, borders don’t matter.

I can’t explain it.

It was one of those moments. It was funny. We were starting to ask a whole different question. You got distracted by yourself.

I was talking about the gravy and the fries. That’s good. Do you think I’m fat in America? That’s how you know that country is spread out because they have to walk way more because it’s like, “Americans are fat. Can you imagine how fat we’d be if we put gravy on our French fries instead of ketchup?” It was good. Overall, how well-known is Peloton there? In the States, it hit a critical mass where they don’t have to explain what it is if they’re going to make a joke about it on late-night TV or something. Is it like that there or not quite much?

We did have the commercials and they are shown fairly regularly. I don’t know if they’re aired in the provinces where it’s not available. It’s hard for me to know how well-known it is. A lot of people that see me wearing something on Peloton, I do have to stop and explain, “It’s this Bike and you ride with people all over the country,” and they don’t quite get it yet. I’d say there’s still a lot more that can be done to get the word out there in Canada.

Is spinning popular in Canada? Are there spin studios everywhere?

TCO 147 | Peloton In Canada

 

We don’t have SoulCycle as you do in the US. It would only be a major gym. We have GoodLife Fitness across Ontario but we don’t have a lot of private spin studios at all.

That might be some of it too because Canada has a lot more outdoor sports on a regular basis than America does. 

I think so too maybe.

You can play hockey outside. We can’t or at least not in many places. 

Not on a regular basis, anyway.

Do you want to know another weird thing about Canada? Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, it was the second-most cabled country in the world. More people had cable television in Canada than in any other country but Belgium.

Are you googling random facts over there?

I wrote a paper about that when I was in college. It was called Invasion USA: Protecting Canadian Cultural Sovereignty Against the Onslaught of American Television. It was much cheaper for them to run American television. American television had permeated Canada to the point that they didn’t have near as many Canadian-produced shows that would have their own cultural touchpoints. They were like, “We could make a TV show or Cheers is popular. We’ll pay somebody for the rights to that.” That was the easy way to do it. They started instituting all these rules and regulations to enforce that. Cable came on and that was an end-run around their version of our FCC and then they had to figure out a new way around it. There you go.

You have so much in there, Tom. 

I’m weird when I know something. 

You know a lot of things. I don’t understand why you know them sometimes.

I was a Mass Communications major. I got a good grade on that paper and it was because unbeknownst to me, the instructor is Canadian. He was like, “This is true. This is happening every day and it’s awful.” He was impressed. Up until then, he hated me. 

Brenda, I cannot imagine that there is anybody in Pelotonia that does not know your leaderboard name, but in case there’s somebody out there, tell them your leaderboard name and how you came up with it. 

It’s boring. It’s CanadaBrenda.

It’s not boring. It’s so you. It’s memorable because there are a handful of people that I have known since the beginning and you are one of them, CanadaBrenda, I always recognize that name.

When I picked it, I didn’t even know about the OPP when we first got our Bike. I had no idea. When you sign up on the Bike, pick something and I’m thinking, “I like my name in it. I’ll add Canada because I thought I was unique, so I’ll put the two together.” There are a lot of Canadian people now. There are a lot with Canada or Canadian in their leaderboard now.

Do you think that you were one of the first Canadians to have a Bike?

I might be in the first dozen, Triplet Moms, Susan Rapport had hers before me and there might be a couple of other people, but we’re first dozen or so that had it.

You are the Canadian pioneers.

If you ever get in an argument with an American, you can be like, “Do the exchange rate. I love Peloton 25% more than you do. It’s quantifiable.”

It’s about 35% now.

You had to pay that other fee at the border. 

We had to pay the Canadian tax, so that was 15% on top of that.

You love Peloton a lot.

Looking back you’re like, “That was a good choice,” but at that moment, that was a roll of the dice.

It was a risk.

Do you have any advice for people who are now getting their Bikes?

Like the rest of the people that you’ve interviewed, many say explore all the instructors, get involved in the community. Mine is for newbies and for oldies, I always think to be open to ride the change with Peloton. The schedule, the contents, the instructors are going to change. Peloton is still new and evolving. Be excited and open to evolve and change with them because the best is still yet to come.

That is the first time we’ve ever heard that piece of advice. You are right.

No one likes change. That’s always the proverbial but there’s so much that this Bike and this company is still going to offer us. Be open to it and don’t get stuck on, “They changed the schedule on me or my ride isn’t available anymore.” Go with the flow.

If NBC cancels your favorite show, you’re not like, “I’m done with NBC.” 

You’re going to find another one.

Where can people find you on social media?

I’m on Facebook. I have a personal page and then our Canada Peloton Riders page. I am on Instagram but I don’t post much because I can’t figure that out. We don’t have kids that are literate in all the fancy social media stuff. I follow with few people and I don’t post much at all on Instagram. I have Facebook for sure.

How does it work up there? Is there a Facebook.ca or are you using the dot-com?

The dot-com, so search on Canada Peloton Riders Facebook page. If you have a Canada connection and want to join that page, we’d love to have you.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to join us. Hopefully, it was relatively painless. I know you were nervous. 

It was fine, thanks.

We got fine. We didn’t get okay. 

I’ve been married long enough to know what fine means, Brenda. 

Genuinely, thank you so much for this. People are going to love hearing your interview. We appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to do this. 

You’re welcome.

—

That brings another one to an end. What, pray tell, do you have in store for people on the next episode? 

I knew you were going to ask me that.

If you really knew, you’d already know the answer instead of having to scramble for it.

Mexico.

You’re a very busy woman. I totally understand.

I am super excited about this. We have Eric Tostrud, is going to be on March 20th 2020. He is going to tell us all about Peloton for Parkinson’s. You do not want to miss this. Also, I’m going to let you know it’s a little bit emotional, so buckle in but you’re going to love it. It’s emotional in a good way.

Until then, where can people find you?

People can find me at Facebook.com/CrystalDOKeefe. They can find me on, Instagram, Twitter, on the Bike and of course the Tread, @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter, @RogerQBert or on Facebook at Facebook.com/TomOKeefe. You can find the show online at Facebook.com/theclipout. While you’re there, like the page, join the group. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter at theclipout.com and also don’t forget to try and go win a Tonal. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep pedaling and running.

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