Hidden Peloton Bike+ Feature: Adjust & Control Resistance through the Peloton Screen (with Video Demo)

Peloton has hidden a new feature on the Peloton Bike+ that will allow you to adjust and control your resistance (in increments of 5 points) by swiping up and down on the monitor of your Peloton Bike+. However, the setting is disabled by default and requires you to enable Developer Mode to turn it on.

Update – It appears Peloton may have removed this feature as of December 4th, 2020. If you try this, please let us know in the comments if it is there for you or not.

We’ve made a video showing how to turn on developer mode, how to enable the setting, and then showing the new feature in action. You can watch it embedded below or find it here on YouTube.

If you’re the type of person who likes written instructions, we’ll provide those as well, including some highlights of the new feature.

How to enable Developer Mode on the Peloton Bike+

  1. Tap “Settings” at the top right of your screen.
  2. Choose “Device Settings” from the menu that appears
  3. Click System
  4. Click About
  5. Scroll to the bottom where you see “Build Number”
  6. Tap on the Build Number line 7 times, until you see a message that Developer Mode has been turned on.

Now that your developer settings are turned on, you can then actually turn on the new feature! (And if you ever want to turn Developer Mode back off, when you go into Developer Options there is a toggle at the very top to disable it).

How to Turn On Resistance Control through the Peloton Bike+ Screen

  1. Make sure developer mode is turned on (if you just did the steps above, you’re good)
  2. Go into Settings -> Device Settings -> System
  3. Click into the new “Developer Options” menu
  4. From the long list that appears, choose the “Gestures” item. You shouldn’t have to scroll to see it.
  5. On the new screen pick “Peloton Gestures”
  6. There is a single option shown for “Enable In Class Gestures”. Turn this on.
  7. That’s it! You can now click the Peloton logo at the bottom of the screen to return to the normal Peloton home screen

Now, with the new option turned on, when you’re in a class you can swipe up or down with two (or more) fingers on the screen of your Bike+ to adjust the resistance! Swiping up with two fingers will increase your resistance by 5 points. Swiping down with two fingers will decrease the resistance by 5 points. It doesn’t matter where on the screen you swipe, this feature works from pretty much anywhere on the screen. At time of publishing, there is also no option to adjust in increments other than 5 – even doing a long swipe up or down the entire height of the screen does not change the adjustment amount. Swiping your screen up or down with a single finger does not do anything.

The swipe adjustment works with the auto-follow feature turned both on and off. And as always, you can still adjust your resistance by manually turning the resistance knob as normal. You also still have the ability to double tap your screen to hide or show all the popup windows. Even if all windows are hidden, the Bike+ will still adjust by +-5 when you swipe on the screen.

While this is a neat feature that we’re sure some people will love, it’s probably not for everyone, which is why it might be hidden in the developer section (or it’s still having final tweaks made to it). It’s easy enough to adjust the resistance knob manually most of the time anyway, unless you find yourself using an accessory like the SpinTray. That said, it’s a nice optional feature for people to have now who would like to use it!

One interesting note – on the screen where you turned on the “Enable In Class Gestures” option, the description of the option read “Multi finger swipe up/down to control resistance on Titan”. Titan is the internal Peloton codename for the Bike+ – this was revealed in a recent analysis of Peloton code that also found code for the Mazu, or Peloton Rower.


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Chris Lewis
Chris Lewis is the creator & founder of Pelo Buddy. He purchased his Peloton in 2018, and uses all the different devices: Peloton Bike, Tread, Row, and Guide. He has been involved in the fitness industry for more than a decade - previously co-founding the websites Mud Run Guide & Ninja Guide. You can find him on the leaderboard at #PeloBuddy.

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