Peloton Will Replace Your Now-Useless Flywheel Bike for Free

Peloton has successfully crushed its competitor, Flywheel, after the latter admitted that it ripped off the concept of a streaming service in which users pay to watch classes remotely. Magnanimously, Peloton will even take that Flywheel bike off your hands and swap it for a refurbished Peloton, so we can forget this whole thing ever even happened.

Flywheel settled with Peloton over patent infringement earlier this month, but the companies only just announced that they’re working together to switch customers over.

“We understand your disappointment at this news, but we have partnered with Peloton to provide an exclusive offer for you to enjoy their world class At Home product,” Flywheel’s email to customers said, via Vice.

“Partnered” might be a strong word, since part of the settlement following Peloton’s suit for technology theft was that Flywheel point customers to them. In turn, Peloton will replace the $2,000 Flywheel bikes with refurbished ones of their own. Peloton is also happy to drag away the corpse of your lifeless Flywheel bike and…do what with it? Melt it down to create more Pelotons?

In the settlement, Flywheel Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Naumowitz said that “Flywheel admits that Flywheel’s Fly Anywhere Bike and associated services infringe the Peloton Patents as alleged by Peloton [and] that Flywheel copied elements of the Peloton bike in developing its Fly anywhere bike.”

Flywheel is set to stop offering virtual classes by the end of March, so those who opt to keep their bikes will have nothing to stare at but a blank screen. Even so, the company isn’t dead, and will remain in the fitness class business despite shutting down several locations last year after Peloton filed its lawsuit.