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For anyone as confused as I was, peloton is the term for riding bicycles close together in a group. Not the brand of indoor exercise machines.
by shmapf 4y ago
For anyone as confused as I was, peloton is the term for riding bicycles close together in a group. Not the brand of indoor exercise machines.
- hackernewds 4y agoThank you. Testament to the strength of Peloton's brand that most of us related to the exercise bike right away. Unfortunately brand does not sustain a company in the absence of a product+price market fit
- mupuff1234 4y agoImo there is a product+price market fit, just lacking the ego fit.
- Kukumber 4y agoIt's not the "strength of the brand", it's a brand name that should have never been allowed in the first place because of that kind of confusion, that's specially why they went with that name, they knew, it is market manipulation, for the same reason Phone is not allowed as a phone brand That brand is only known in few US states, the world refer to peloton as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloton
- Lio 4y agoThis! They actually had the balls to threaten a few bloggers for using the term peloton correctly on YouTube. Luckily the blogger didn’t give in and the exercise firm had to back down. I also note that tickets to the (most excellent) Tour of Flanders came from a different firm also calling themselves Peloton. So the exercise bike group aren’t exclusively trading under name either.
- morpheuskafka 4y agoThere's a difference between whether a name is sufficiently distinguished to trademark and whether it is prohibited as "market manipulation." One certainly could not trademark the word "phone," but it would be perfectly legal to sell a phone branded as such.
- hn92726819 4y ago...and? Yes, there's a difference, but Peloton isn't just selling "peloton bikes," they've trademarked the name Peloton. Unless you are agreeing that a phone company named "Phone" would be as bad as a company named "Peloton"
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoTheir business is exercise equipment. The trademark is only enforceable in that domain.
- dieselgate 4y agoMy grandma is from Spain and my favorite thing she’d make when I was a kid is “papas al pelotón”. Just cut a potato length wise into circular “wheels” and fry them up. Have always additionally thought the company Peloton was a bit absurd with naming
- Barrin92 4y ago>Testament to the strength of Peloton's brand that most of us related to the exercise bike I think in this case it's simply that people don't know where the term originally comes from.
- moskie 4y agoIt was also sly of the author to put the word at the beginning of the title so that it should be capitalized.
- z9znz 4y agoIt's not sly, it's just a correct succinct headline. I don't see an equal or more terse way of saying the same thing.
- adrianmonk 4y agoEqual length: "Planet’s most energy efficient locomotion is peloton riding, finds new research" "New research finds peloton riding is planet’s most energy efficient locomotion" Arguably these put the emphasis on different things, but they're pretty close.
- z9znz 4y agoThey are indeed the same number of words, but as headlines go they are extremely weak compared to the original. In my view they are not at all close. The original (before HN edited the title) told you what the subject was immediately. It went from specific to general. "Planet's most energy efficient ..." is the most terrestrially broad introduction one could use. Likewise, "New research finds ..." is such a common phrase that it almost repels people (particularly since much research is bogus). It's only a subset of US English speaking people which will be confused by the original title. To the subset of US residents who have never heard of the company Peleton, and the hundreds of millions of English speakers outside the US, this headline wouldn't have been confusing at all.
- dang 4y agoOk, we've knocked it out of head position in the title above.
- Spooky23 4y agoLol. My quick take was “you’re literally not going anywhere, how could that be efficient!?!”
- Psychoshy_bc1q 4y agoPeloton is the term for the biggest group in a cycling race, usually there the favorites are. the term isn't used outside of races.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agoCorrect. A more widely used term (in my experience) for this sort of thing is a "pace line", which isn't always as wide as a peloton due to lack of road closure.
- rodary 4y agoPaceline has nothing to do with road closures. Riders form a paceline because of the crosswind which forces everyone to look for draft on the left or the right side of a rider in front of you. Eventually, there's not enough road for everyone to be in the draft and the first paceline is formed (also called an echelon). More specifically though, paceline refers to the mechanics of the echelon, the way riders rotate, or take turns at the front to stay in the echelon. This rotation is the paceline.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agoPelotons - the race variety of a paceline - can only be safely formed with road closures because they typically swell to fill at least one lane of the road. They are not just 1 rider behind another, but often 2-4 riders wide. Pacelines for group rides and the like can be formed whenever, and they do not form just because of a crosswind. When I used to train with a group, we would almost always form pacelines in single file, on every ride.
- reillyse 4y agoIt just means platoon in French.
- dieselgate 4y agoInteresting, I’m not a French speaker but my Spanish is OK. Always thought it was rooted in “pelota” as ball - but after looking both meanings are accurate just one being a bit more literal
- fomine3 4y agoIt's also confused me that Peloton supercomputer listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloton_(disambiguation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloton_(disambiguation)