Peloton appears to be quietly beta testing a new feature specifically made for power zone riders: ERG mode. In the Peloton world, this is known as auto-resistance for power zone classes, and will allow the Peloton Bike+ to automatically adjust the resistance to keep you in a specific zone the instructor has called out, even as your cadence changes. It will also automatically increase or decrease your resistance to take you to the correct zone for the next interval when the time comes – even if you don’t change your cadence at all.
Auto-resistance has been a feature on the Peloton Bike+ since it launched – and if you turn it on, the Bike+ will automatically adjust your resistance to the range the instructor is calling out in on-demand classes.
However, this feature has never been enabled in power zone rides – until now. Under the beta test, some members are reporting that they are now able to use the feature during power zone classes. It is currently designed so that it will keep you in in the middle of your zones, automatically changing your resistance to keep you at the same power output as your cadence changes. This will result in much smoother graphs for many people. If you’re the type of rider that likes to ride at the top or bottom of your zones, you might not want to use this until they add the ability to adjust where in your zone it keeps you at.
Although it is known as auto-resistance (or auto-follow, or automatically changing resistance) in the Peloton world, this feature is known as ERG mode across the cycling industry, and has long been available on smart trainers & platforms like TrainerRoad, Wahoo, Zwift and more. It keeps you at a fixed power output by changing your resistance for you.
This seems to be a limited beta test for now, with no timeline on a wider release yet.
This feature is made possible by the same data that powers the target power zone indicator on Peloton bikes, which was added last year. The Peloton software knows what zone you should be in as the ride is taking place. Thus, as your cadence changes, it can make the resistance larger or smaller as needed to keep you at the same output even if you speed up or slow down (or increase/decrease your resistance to take you to the next zone as well when it is time).
Although the target power zone indicator feature is available on both the Peloton Bike & Peloton Bike+, the new ERG mode, or auto resistance feature, on power zone rides will only be available on the Peloton Bike+. The Peloton Bike hardware does not support automatically adjusting the resistance like the Peloton Bike+ does.
This is the second big piece of news for Peloton’s power zone riders this month. A few weeks ago, Peloton announced that three more Peloton coaches would be teaching power zone classes.
As a reminder, you can also check out the free Home Fitness Buddy power zone library & timer tool – where you can see the structure of all power zone classes, and easily search for different rides based on what zones are or are not included, and more.
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