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Peloton’s Lanebreak gaming feature is here! Us, like many other users, hopped on our Peloton Bike as soon as it came out last week and gave it a whirl. We’ve seen gaming content on rowers like the Ergatta water rower, but this is the first we’ve seen on an exercise bike.
It reminds me of Guitar Hero, but with a lot more sweating. Lanebreak is unlike Peloton’s other content that features an instructor, but I think it’s a nice change up. In this Peloton Lanebreak review, I’ll give you our quick take of the new feature and our team’s thoughts.
How Peloton Lanebreak Works
Lanebreak is a digital game found on the Peloton Bike and Bike+. When you’re in the library on both of those bikes, you’ll find the Lanebreak feature under the “more rides” section with the manual mode and outdoor rides.
Kind of set up like a computerized racing game, Lanebreak displays 6 lanes and a single wheel that rolls through them. Unlike racing games though, the only player on the screen is you and the wheel is your avatar.
As you move through the game, different lanes light up for you to be in. When you change your resistance level, you change which lane you’re in. The lane furthest to the right is for the higher levels of resistance while the far left lane is for the least amount of resistance. Directly behind your avatar, you’ll see your resistance level on the right, output level in the middle, and cadence level on the left. Your other workout metrics are displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Once you’re in the correct lane, you’ll start collecting points and different obstacles pop up for you to receive more points. The blue lines are “beats”. You get so many points for hitting each “beat” line. “Streams” are sections in green where it will tell you to stay within a certain cadence range when you’re pedaling. “Breakers” are the orange sections where you increase your speed and output throughout. A percentage will display at the top of your output. You must hit at least 100% in order to earn points. You can “charge” up to 200% to get the max number of points.
Currently, there are 21 of these games. We expect that Peloton will be adding more. They are labeled by the type of music they contain and what kind of ride they are. For instance, there’s a
“Low Impact Dance Pop” game and “David Bowie Hits” game. They also range from different durations of 5 up to 30 minutes. You can also choose between 4 difficulty levels in each game depending on your resistance level preference.
Of course there’s a leaderboard, it is Peloton after all. The leaderboard shows the ranking of members who have played the game in the last week and of all time. There is a leaderboard for each difficulty level to make it fair.
Our Take On Lanebreak
Overall, our team really likes the new Lanebreak feature. Each “game” or ride is structured like a class, so you’ll get a good workout in. I took the “Hip Hop Gold” ride and the beginning and ending felt like a nice warmup and cooldown built-in. I was at a lower resistance and the primary objective was to hit the “beats”. The middle incorporated more of the “streams” and “breakers” and where the class was harder.
I really love Peloton’s use of music and one of Peloton’s instructors Emma Lovewell even helped sync the music to the rides. This touch really keeps up with the high quality content Peloton has and it makes each game or ride feel fun, not to mention a nice workout.
The different objectives also provide some variety to your ride with the “breakers” working like sprints or speed pushes to get your heart rate up.
The layout is really easy to use and Peloton has a tutorial if you want to practice before trying out one of the games. Once you go through the tutorial, it’s pretty self explanatory.
Our only thought is that we wish there were ways to earn more points. Right now, you earn the same number of points no matter where you are placed within the lane, so you won’t be rewarded riding on the right side of the lane at a slightly higher resistance. On the leaderboards, there’s multiple users who hold the top spot because there’s a maximum number of points you can earn in each game.
For those who are really competitive it might be discouraging to share the top spot with other members. Unless you didn’t get a perfect score, you might not want to retake a ride either. Although you could just for fun and for the killer playlists.
We think Lanebreak is a nice change up to taking trainer-led classes. I’m wondering if they will do something similar or offer it on the Tread as well. Since they are so short, you could take one before or after a class, too. We’re excited to see what changes (if any) Peloton may add to Lanebreak in the future.
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