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It can be incredibly frustrating if you find that your new, shiny Peloton bike rocks or wobbles as you work out on it.
If this is happening to you, then you’re not alone. It’s an issue that many new Peloton owners experience. Thankfully, it’s an easy problem to solve.
I’ve researched the most likely scenarios for rocking Pelotons (there are two main ones) and I’ve got the answer for each. I’ve included direct, actionable advice so that you can go ahead and sort the problem once and for all. Allowing you to hop back on the bike and dive into your next live-streamed workout.
Ready? Let’s go!
Why does my Peloton wobble?
There are two scenarios where you’re likely to experience rocking of your Peloton bike as you use it:
- Firstly, when it’s placed on a carpet, particularly a deep-pile carpet
- Secondly, when it’s situated on a hard floor, but the stabilizing feet aren’t correctly deployed
Let’s take a close look at each of these scenarios now and see what the best solution is.
Peloton wobbles on carpet
At around 135 lbs, a Peloton is a heavy piece of exercise equipment. That means that it has enough weight to keep it steady on many types of firm flooring. However, on carpet (especially on those with a deep pile), the cushioning that the carpet fibers provide can cause movement as you pedal. This can be made more severe when you’re doing a workout that gets you standing up to pedal.
So, what’s the answer? Well, the best route to solving this is to get a firm base for your bike to sit on. Here we’re going to take a tip from the Pros.
The best solution is to get some VersaFit flooring tiles. These are commercial-grade gym floor tiles (the kind that you’ll see squat racks parked on). They are 5/8” thick and each 39.4” square tile is 27 lbs. They’re constructed from recycled tire rubber that’s been formed into large pellets and joined together into the floor tiles.
All of that means that you get a thick, hard-wearing rubber tile that gives a heavy-duty floor covering to go underneath your Peloton.
You’ll need two tiles and this will give plenty of room for your bike (at around 24” by 48” footprint) with ample space front, back, and sides.
Take a look at the Force USA product page and you’ll see that there are a few variations:
- Residential-grade tile – constructed from smaller pellets on a base of larger pellets
- Commercial-grade tile – constructed from large pellets throughout and in a variety of color choices
- Commercial-grade reversible – large-pellet construction, with a design that can be flipped over
Which one should you go for? All the options come in at a similar price range. The Reversible tiles, however, have one major advantage – double the lifespan! With their unique double-sided bevel round the edges they can be used either side up. That’s fantastic because it means that, if one side ever wears out or gets damaged, you can just flip it over and you’ve got a fresh new face to use.
There’s another great advantage to using these rubber floor tiles with your Peloton – noise and vibration reduction. If you’ve got your Peloton on second floor of your home, or you’re in an apartment, then you may be concerned about workout noise traveling through the floor and disturbing sleeping kids or difficult neighbors. No problem with the VersaFit tiles as the rubber pellet construction soaks up all of that vibration noise and stops it from going any further.
Editor’s Recommendation:
The perfect way to cool yourself down on your Peloton is the Lasko High-velocity Floor Fan:
- Targeted Airflow Pattern to deal with the toughest workouts
- Remote control so you can adjust the speed as you pedal
How to level peloton bike on a hard floor
If you have your Peloton bike situated on a hard surface, such as solid wood flooring, then any wobbles are really easy to solve.
Squat down next to your bike and you’ll see that each corner of the bike base has a little foot attached to it. These are the stabilizing feet and you’ll notice that they’re fitted into the bike base with a screw thread. The feet can each be adjusted by twisting them one way or the other. Clockwise lowers the foot and counter-clockwise raises it.
When you’re at eye-level with the bike base see which of the feet are off the ground. Lower these feet till they sit square on the floor and you should see a huge difference in the stability of your bike.
Take a look at the video below from Peloton to see how easy this is to do.
Conclusion
It’s a shame when folk put up with niggles like a wobbly Peloton, because they’re problems that are so easy to fix. With a little knowledge (and maybe a couple of rubber floor tiles) you can have this issue disappear and you’ll be on the bike and smiling through a vibration-free workout in no time.
Sorry, typo. By ‘smiling’ I obviously meant ‘sweating profusely and grimacing with pain’. But, y’know, vibration-free.
Have fun.
