Earlier this year, Peloton launched a new feature on the Peloton platform called Peloton Lanebreak, a virtual six-lane track with an on-screen wheel that you are in control of.
To find Lanebreak, you need to hit the “More Rides” option in the Peloton menu. It’s currently available for Peloton Bike and Bike+ users. You’ll be given a brief tutorial on first trying out the game, and away you go. It’s incredibly simplistic and reminds me of a toned-down Thumper or Beat Saber. Your goal is to manoeuvre the wheel from left to right using the resistance dial to hit the target areas and rack up points. It quickly becomes addicting, and I constantly found myself smiling or singing along to each song.
To hit the high score charts, you need to complete challenges within each musical category. Some points will have you pedalling as fast as possible, whereas other areas require you to keep your cadence at a certain number. I’d urge you to try and keep in the higher resistance bands as much as possible to increase your score further. If there are two lanes, pick the one to the right if you want to score big points.
There are four difficulty levels, beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert. I opted for both advanced and expert as the other two difficulty levels were too easy for me. If I’m going to work, I’m going to push myself.
“I find Lanebreak incredibly fun and different from the regular classes…”
When picking out a musical category I’ve gravitated towards my personal favourites: Broadway, Afro-beats, and David Bowie. Once you finish, your stats and ranking will be shown at the end, so you can retry and try and come out in the top 100 on the leaderboard. I’ve yet to break the top 100 leaderboards on any of the categories, but I’m trying (and I’m close!).
I find Lanebreak incredibly fun and different from the regular classes I usually do. It’s also a lot more fun than the Scenic Ride feature. It’s easy enough to pick up, but you can challenge yourself here all while being entertained. You’re in the driver’s driver’s seat and trying to rack points can be highly motivating.
The music selection is excellent but I will say after twenty rides, I need new tunes. I’ve exhausted all the options and need some new songs. It’s also missing genres like Pop Punk and Emo, Sad face.
I will say though that Lanebreak gets monotonous pretty quickly. With limited playlists and not much to do within the game, you’ll mostly find yourself going back to regular classes. It’s fun to drop in and fool around with, but it doesn’t have long-staying power in this form. Hopefully, Peloton makes adjustments and uses user feedback to expand on its offering, the bones are there, but it needs some more love. This will like more of a tech demo in this state. It has a lot of potential to be a really unique and fun experience, that gamers will love. Trust me, it will make you sweat.
If you have a Peloton already, there’s no reason not to try this mode. It’s fun, but I wish Peloton would add a feature to compete against your friends. Lanebreak also suffers from reusing many of the same visual assets, making every ride feel the same. A more diverse virtual landscape would be lovely. I like to start my workouts with a Lanebreak ride or end with one, depending on my mood.
There’s no denying that listening to songs from Hamilton doesn’t fire me up but I can only hear the same song so many times. I’m not throwing away my shot! However, this mode will get tiresome once you’ve exhausted your playlists and given it a few goes. Here’s hoping it gets constant updates and more features and challenges in the future, because I like the idea of gamifying my fitness routine. It is a lot of fun; now I wonder when we will see Peloton’s own Peloverse. I’m ready cycle right in.
