Peloton debuted its Bike Plus with a much-desired feature: GymKit support. But now, the company’s pulling back some of that functionality. A Peloton spokesperson confirmed to The Verge today that GymKit no longer works with Bike Bootcamp classes and instead will “only be available in cycling classes for now.” The spokesperson also said: “Peloton is committed to bringing the GymKit integration to all workouts and disciplines within Apple’s terms of service,” seemingly suggesting bootcamp workouts didn’t fall under those terms.
This change is a disruptive one for users who might have purchased the Bike Plus specifically for its GymKit support. It’s the first piece of hardware from the connected fitness company to support GymKit, and the direct Apple Watch integration makes tracking workouts easy, especially during Bike Bootcamp, which fuses cycling and strength exercises. Now, users will have to find a way to track these trickier workouts, like starting a cycling workout, ending it, switching to a strength-training workout, ending it, and so on. People can also try a cross-training workout, but that might not capture the entirety of the workout, either. When paired with the Apple Watch, the Bike Plus also displays users’ heart rates on the screen. This is also now gone from bootcamp classes.
This is the reality Peloton users will have to deal with for the time being, at least until Apple starts supporting the bootcamp classes in its terms or Peloton figures something out on its end. I have a Bike Plus at home and use it with an Apple Watch, and I noticed the change immediately. It was upsetting! My output always seemed unusually high during bootcamp workouts, so it’s possible they weren’t accurate, but seeing my heart rate on the screen and having my workout automatically tracked was nice. I’m sad to see this functionality go, but I hope it might return in the future, albeit it with more accurate metrics.
