Peloton Sold Rusted Exercise Bikes To Customers After Covering Up The Corrosion

*TreadmillReviewGuru helps consumers find the best home fitness products. When you buy a product we recommend, we may earn a commission.

Just a few weeks after Peloton’s CEO, John Foley, stepped down and Peloton laid off 20% of their corporate positions, reports that the company sold rusted bikes to customers is coming to the surface.

In internal documents that were obtained by Financial Times, it was stated that a “rust converter” chemical solution was used to hide rust on the equipment before it was sold. One of the documents said, “It is acceptable if you see some rust through the black layer as the severity of this rust is reduced using the rust converter.”

Peloton stated that the rust affected at least 6,000 bikes. The solution became a standard procedure so the company could keep up with the demand and avoid another recall. Last year Peloton also recalled the Peloton Tread+ after a child died.

“Project Tinman”

This procedure named, “Project Tinman” allowed exercise bikes to be sold with internal rust after it was covered with the chemical solution. Apparently, the solution covered the rust with a black layer. Peloton’s exercise bikes are black.

Workers in Peloton’s warehouses who were handling the bikes said equipment with “severe” rust was still shipped to customers paying up to $2,495 per bike. The New York Post reported that a current Peloton employee stated: “Sometimes bikes had stuff on the outside, so we couldn’t deliver them, but…(there were) a lot of bikes that were rusted on the inside that they still sold”.

Also in the report from the New York Post, a spokesperson from Peloton said, “Our internal testing, based on industry standards, confirmed the cosmetic oxidation issue would have no impact on a Bike’s performance, quality, durability, reliability, or the overall Member experience.” According to this spokesperson, Peloton hasn’t received any complaints from its members about the rust being an issue.

Here at Treadmill Review Guru, we have both the Peloton Bike and Bike+. In our testing we haven’t experienced any issue with either bike, but our team is disappointed to learn that Peloton has sold rusted equipment in the past. We hope they will be better for their community and members going forward.