The Most Exclusive Spin Class Is in Your Living Room

How John Foley turned cycling alone at home into a status symbol.

- Rebecca Greenfield

It’s 9:30 on a Thursday morning in July, and Candace Ryan is getting ready for her second workout of the day. Already dressed in spandex from a 6 a.m. visit to the gym, Ryan wraps her blond hair in a tight bun before clipping her white and orange spinning shoes into the stationary bike in the corner of her bedroom. For the next 45 minutes, she’s in a trance, at times clenching the handlebars to pull herself over faux hills simulated by tension on the bike’s wheel.

The machine is a $1,995 Peloton. Its frame, matte black with splashes of orange, is made of ultralight carbon steel and aluminum. Unlike the hard, chafing seats on most stationary bikes, the Peloton saddle is remarkably comfort able. The bike forgoes a chain for a rubber belt, making it almost silent. And instead of relying on friction to create the tension that simulates hills, the Peloton uses magnets.It feels like pedaling through butter. As Ryan pumps away in her reverie at her Shelter Island,N.Y., summer home, a leader board displayed on the 21.5-inch waterproof Android tablet affixed to the bike shows the progress of 81 other Peloton riders around the country, synced in a virtual pack.Three-quarters of the way through her ride, Ryan is battling for the top position with Jose59 and Battishill, the usernames of two men she’s never met, who are also riding alone at home. “All right, Candace!” a disembodied woman’s voice encourages from the tablet. Ryan, 41, laughs and pedals faster.