• How Your Peloton Bike Calculates Speed

    Among the metrics displayed on your Peloton screen is “speed”, presented in MPH with no explanation. I have been a daily Peloton rider for years, and I have always wondered how that speed is calculated. Recently, I though it would be nice to know how many watts I’d have to produce during a workout to…

  • The Red Baron

    a Biography of Rittmeister Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: In February 1999, when this page was originally posted, this was the Internet’s primary resource on the Red Baron. Wikipedia has pretty much put an end to pages like this, but I leave it here, in more or less its original state,…

  • What I learned from my second Century

    I wasn’t completely sure I was going to be finishing the French Creek Iron Tour until I passed mile 80. Around mile 70 the course heads out of the wooded hills into farmland where the sun and the wind start to make you think, “how much do I really want this?” I really do enjoy…

  • Why I wear a Lumos Helmet

    My last helmet, a Giro Atmos II, made the ultimate sacrifice in a high-speed crash last October. I replaced it with a Lumos helmet, a high tech alternative with lights and Apple Watch integration. But is it really a step up?

  • French Creek Iron Tour

    My First Century For my first century ride, I chose the French Creek Iron Tour. Of the local events I know about, this was actually the hardest (over 6,000 feet of climb). I picked it for two reasons: one is that it was fairly close to home so I didn’t have to get up too…

  • Peloton Leaderboard – Numbers and Position

    Peloton Leaderboard – Numbers and Position

    The Peloton leaderboard contains a great deal of information on how you’re performing, both against others who are taking / have taken your class as well as how you’ve performed in the past. It’s a fairly data-packed screen, so let’s get into it… Exhibit A (above) is my own line item on the leaderboard, taken…

  • Peloton’s Calibration Problem

    If you’ve been a Peloton member for any length of time, you probably have been hearing about “calibration”. Not from Peloton, no. They hardly ever mention it. It is a topic in social media, though, and it seems that there is a widespread problem that Peloton may have no way of getting on top of.…

  • Peloton and METs

    Following up on my post about the Peloton display numbers (and a little arithmetic regarding Output), a visitor to the site asked about METs, so I thought I’d post a follow-up…. Calculating METs is unfortunately considerably more difficult than calculating output in kilojoules. Well, it’s not that it’s so difficult, it’s that the level of…

  • Your Peloton Screen – Resistance, Cadence and Output

    Your Peloton Screen – Resistance, Cadence and Output

    Understanding the various numbers on your Peloton bike display is key to understanding how well you’re doing.