Capital Bikeshare vs Peloton: The ultimate DC-area cycling showdown

Capital Bikeshare's station across the street from Falls Church, VA's Audacious Aleworks. (Photo by me)

When I don’t have any big plans on weeknights, my recent routine has been pretty consistent: exercise, cook dinner, then settle in for the daily “All Star Trek” marathon on the Heroes and Icons (H&I) channel.

Cheap, corny commercials enhance the entertainment value of the nightly broadcast, which features an episode from every existing live-action Trek series (sans Discovery). Hall-of-Fame slugger Frank Thomas peddles testosterone booster Nugenix with the tagline “she’ll like it too,” while former USC and NFL journeyman quarterback Rodney Peete and his wife tout the purported benefits of weight-loss concoction Lipozene as a doctor deadpans that “his blood pressure and cholesterol have really improved” thanks to the pill. There’s also auto insurer The General, which does everything it can to make car-free life look miserable in its efforts to lure people with utterly horrid driving records (though, refreshingly, I’ve never seen a straight-up car commercial on H&I).

It was through H&I’s ads that I first learned of stationary bike manufacturer Peloton, whose commercials featuring models pedaling endlessly inside luxury homes as the machine yells at them fit right into the channel’s collage. But Peloton, which (like some certain other corporations) calls itself a tech company, rose above the fray, becoming so cool that my apartment complex shelled out $2,245 of us tenants’ rent – or, about one-tenth the cost of building a parking spot in a DC garage – to plop one of the bikes in our building’s gym. Nevertheless, I stuck with our gym’s elliptical and rower, since when I bike, hike, or run I prefer to utilize Rock Creek Park or other parts of our region’s expanding trail network.

But then, Monica Ruiz-portrayed Peloton Wife pedaled an H&I ad to where none had gone before: viral fame.

And that settled it. It was time to break my routine and see how this venture capital-backed bike stands up to the DC transportation system’s most rugged competition: Capital Bikeshare.

Peloton: Vigorous pace, stuck in place

A Peloton ad airs on H&I during a recent edition of "All Star Trek." (Photo by me)

To maximize the tech bro-dystopian vibe of this particular morning workout, I'd thrown on the Hyperloop t-shirt my uncle had gifted me last Christmas. But my Peloton ride was almost over before it started.

I can start my workout on any other machine in my apartment’s gym by – at most – just pressing a button. But the Peloton trendily forced me to create an online account. I nearly defected to our Concept2 rower but backtracked at the last second, surrendered my dignity, and handed over an e-mail address and password to the company and its investors.

I was then presented with a list of virtual classes. But I wanted to enjoy the quiet morning and not be yelled at by someone in a studio 225 miles up the Northeast Corridor. To just start a simple workout, one conducted on my terms, I had to track down a “more” tab, then scroll and click again. But, just as residents of Tijuana somehow navigate their city’s microtransit system, I persevered and was finally able to pedal.     

   

I cranked up the resistance to 60 out of 100, mimicking a trip up Woodley Place, and set out on a 10-mile ride. According to the machine’s possibly-erroneous readings, I cruised along at 22 to 24 mph – unhindered by cars – burning 500 calories and reaching the finish line in under 30 minutes. By the time I hopped off the bike, my Hyperloop shirt was as drenched as a guinea pig in an Elon Musk submarine.

But was I in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Where Silence Has Lease?” In that episode, the Enterprise’s instruments show the ship traveling straight ahead at high speeds, akin to the Peloton’s readings during my ride, but the crew is unable to find their way out of a bluish void that eventually projects a face – a “damned ugly nothing,” according to Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge.

I never saw a face (though I would have had I taken one of Peloton’s classes). But at the end of the workout, despite all that effort, I hadn’t escaped my apartment’s gym. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it was raining outside but I could stay in for some sit-ups and weightlifting.

However, Peloton didn’t get me to any of the many amazing DC-area destinations that I’ve biked to over the past few years.

Capital Bikeshare: If only the journey were free from cars

My cycling route from Central DC to Audacious Aleworks. (Screenshot by me)

A couple nights later, I set out from my central DC office to one of those destinations: Falls Church, VA’s Audacious Aleworks Brewery & Taproom. I hopped on a Capital Bikeshare bike by simply scanning the barcode attached to my keychain; no login necessary. (Granted, I did have to create an online account a while back to purchase the $85 annual pass that grants me access to the Lyft-operated system).

The 14-mile route I took – over the 14^th street bridge, down the Mount Vernon Trail past National Airport, then westbound on the Four Mile Run and Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trails to reach Falls Church – was not the shortest possible trip. But much of the ride was on dedicated bike paths, and the W&OD’s long, but gentle grade through the forest – a reminder of the trail’s origins as a rail line – is preferable to the more direct Custis Trail’s sharper undulations through I-66 exhaust.

According to Capital Bikeshare’s own numbers, this workout was not nearly as strenuous as the one Peloton provided. Even though the 1 hour, 20 minute trip (including two brief stops to dock and re-rent my bike, helping avoid overage fees for trips over 30 minutes) took nearly three times as long as my Peloton ride, I apparently burned just 438 calories. Granted, CaBi may have under-counted the calorie burn, as the company’s time-based calculations assumed I’d only traveled 11 miles, rather than 14.

However, interaction with cars – a big part of what reduced the speed I could travel and, accordingly, the strain on my body – created stress that negated any benefits of the more relaxed rate of exertion. If Peloton’s spinning-in-place experience was reminiscent of “Where Silence Has Lease,” this felt like one of the many Trek episodes where the ship must take “evasive maneuvers” in a futile effort to avoid threats such as temporal anomalies, Romulan torpedoes, or a Borg tractor beam.    

To just reach the 14^th street bridge, I had to navigate the perpetual chaos that car-based transportation inflicts on central DC. Then, on the Mount Vernon Trail, I was blinded by car headlights from the adjacent highway in several spots, forcing me to slow – and even stop a couple of times – to ensure I stayed on the bike path. And finally, near the end of the ride I encountered an unanticipated trail closure in Banneker Park that is forcing cyclists to cross hostile Sycamore Street, where I had to dodge an inattentive right-turning Uber driver. (This final detour caused my last segment to take longer than 30 minutes, costing me $1.50).

But on this CaBi ride, I also was treated to some amazing sights that only outdoor cycling can provide. Descending planes bound for DCA roared over the Mount Vernon Trail at Gravelly Point. I threaded between a waterway and a WMATA bus yard on the Four Mile Run trail. And on the W&OD trail, I cruised along though the cool December air, guided only by CaBi’s so-so strobe light and a nearly-full moon that illuminated a lingering dusting of snow from the day before.

And at the end of the journey, I was rewarded by a couple excellent imperial stouts and one of Audacious Aleworks’ tasty grilled cheeses – products the tech industry cannot disrupt.

       

The Washington and Old Dominion trail in Reston, VA, pictured earlier this year. (Photo by me)

Prior to this self-administered competition, I assumed I would find CaBi practical and Peloton absurd. But after my two workouts, I can see that there’s a place for both.

CaBi, though a bit sluggish on hills, is an excellent way to combine exercise and mobility. If you’re really feeling it, continue west on the W&OD another 11 miles past Falls Church, dock your bike at one of the system’s outermost stations in Reston, and head over to Bike Lane Brewing – literally, a bike shop and a top-notch brewery under one roof. And once your workout’s done, you can take public transit back home – or to wherever you want to go – without worry.     

But it’s inevitable that, even if you’re on a comfortable trail for most of your route, at some point you will have to interact with automobiles. Weather conditions also can drastically impact the experience, in some cases rendering a ride impossible.

Indoor stationary bikes do offer a way to avoid these externalities and just let loose, even if they lack the sensation and thrill of an outdoor CaBi ride. The tech-oriented culture surrounding the pricey Peloton, however, is not needed. The plight the protagonists of 2003 Academy Award-nominated French animated comedy film The Triplets of Belleville face – Tour de France cyclists are kidnapped by the mafia and forced to race each other on stationary bikes in a gambling hall – feels more authentic.  

Personally, I’ll continue to primarily use CaBi for my cycling workouts, though I won’t rule out using Peloton again – or maybe, one of the gym’s other, less trendy stationary bikes – in certain situations.