The Peloton corporation has worked long and hard to shape an enduring solidarity among its loyalest customers. Diehards jump on the saddle every morning for some tender love and care from their preferred instructors, slowly sharpening a parasocial blood-bond forged in the fires of cortisol. I’ve had my bike since early December, right as yet another amalgamation of the pandemic arrived at my doorstep, and I can attest to the Stockholm Syndrome that sets in when one of your few remaining portals to the outside world is a spartan cardio studio inhabited by an outrageously ripped coach begging you to crank up the resistance meter a few ticks higher.
So I wasn’t shocked to discover that the denizens of r/PelotonGoneWild have taken the enthralled liturgy of this community to its natural, concupiscent conclusion. The world’s first and only Peloton porn club was chartered last February, right as lockdown ferality was reaching its apogee, and its existence confirms a pet theory of mine: Squeeze enough people into a tight environment — a warship, a restaurant kitchen or a Wi-Fi-enabled exercise bike during a generation-altering tragedy — and it’s only a matter of time before they start exchanging thirst traps.
R/PelotonGoneWild isn’t what you might think it is. When you scroll through the stacks, you won’t find an overabundance of posts thirsting over the various Peloton instructors who dutifully lay siege to our thighs, calves and glutes in 45-minute doses. Yes, as a rule, they’re all attractive and jacked (the cult of Rigsby has reached galactic proportions), but the posters of r/PelotonGoneWild are mostly eager to claim the bike for themselves — to show off the gains that they’ve worked so hard to achieve. No hero worship, just aspirational amateur erotica. Nude mid-ride snapshots, post-workout shower selfies and cheeky nip slips (and dick slips) abound.
Some put in the extra effort with their homebrew smut, exploring the outer reaches of what is possible, or even desirable, in the chaste realm of training. I’ve seen a precious few who are brave enough to astride the saddle in a butt plug, or more enthusiastically, use the Peloton’s natural leverage in a sex tape. The company has pioneered an eager, all-inclusive society of home-fitness geeks, and this is its after-hours underbelly. “It’s less about the bike and more about the position the bike allows you to showcase,” says one contributor. “Not to mention, it’s ‘riding a bike.’ That alone is sexual in nature.”
That poster stumbled into the subreddit the way so many others do. She has been a Peloton member since the summer of 2020, and didn’t associate anything remotely kinky with the brand whatsoever. But as she waded deeper into the cult — buying up Peloton gear, carefully cultivating a list of her preferred pedagogues and programs — a stray Google search led her to this crucible of kink, hiding in plain sight. She believes the appeal comes from the perversion. Obviously, nobody drops $2,000 on a Peloton solely to assuage some carnal thoughts lingering deep in our mind palace. But the eternal logic of the internet dictates that there’s always some wonderfully profane juice to be found by injecting a lascivious attitude into an inert environment. Simply put, the poster wanted to join in on the fun.
“It’s definitely making something sexual out of a workout and bike. People are into different things,” she explains. “The appeal is getting compliments and feedback on my body, which I work hard on, from random people.”
I like the idea of r/PelotonGoneWild shocking, and perhaps enticing, everyone who beseeches some innocuous advice about their newly acquired exercise bike. Another poster tells me that they were scouring Reddit for information on adjusting the seat height when this furtive explicit contingency revealed itself from the trees. “I was on my anonymous/kink account, which is probably why it showed me a sexual result,” she says.
Like many other passersby, she was immediately seduced by the premise. “I have a mirror near my bike where I can see my own body on the seat. I’m an exhibitionist in general so the idea of people seeing me ride the bike is kind of hot,” continues the poster. “I liked the way my ass looked and wanted to share it.”
Others are ushered into the community after gaining a reputation for themselves in other, more generalized fetish corners dedicated to the meld between sexuality and exercise. A third poster tells me that she too purchased a Peloton during the pandemic, and that her boyfriend suggested having some “fun on the bike.” (What that meant, she didn’t clarify.) She uploaded the results to a separate subreddit, where the denizens heartily directed her toward her true calling — r/PelotonGoneWild.
“Since then, I’ve had a lot of filming with other toys and getting creative with my boyfriend,” she says, noting that a number of the new subscribers to her Fansly account have arrived specifically for her Peloton content.
I have no idea how Peloton regards the upstart kink influencers drifting in the wake of their boutique exercise classes, but I hope that they maintain a sanguine, holistic approach. I have been on the web long enough to know that whenever a company forges a tight cult of adherents, a nascent porn trade is sure to follow. We have gamers who play Overwatch to work out their BDSM fantasies; there are strippers pouring through the Roblox servers. Within that context, the rise of Peloton kink was simply inevitable. The memes, the metrics and the undaunted power of human curiosity coalesce, and suddenly, a stationary bike is establishing new frontiers in carnal desire.
Luke Winkie
Luke Winkie is a writer and former pizza maker from San Diego. In addition to MEL, he's written for Rolling Stone, Vice, the New York Times, Gizmodo, Vox and anywhere else good content can be found.
