Quick Answer: Just Ride is Peloton's free, class-free mode. It works without an active All-Access Membership, shows live cadence, resistance, output and elapsed time, and lets you pedal while doing whatever you want on screen. What it doesn't do is save your ride to a profile, show a leaderboard, or sync anywhere — which is the gap most people hit within a week of cancelling.
Table of Contents
- What Just Ride actually is
- What Just Ride doesn't do
- Getting your rides recorded anyway
- Just Ride vs a training app
- How to start a Just Ride
- How FitSwitch fits in
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Just Ride actually is
Just Ride is the mode your Peloton drops into when you don't pick a class. On the Bike and Bike+ it's reachable straight from the home screen, and critically it does not require an active subscription.
When you're in it you get:
- Live cadence in RPM
- Live resistance on Peloton's 0-100 scale
- Live output in watts
- Elapsed time and estimated distance and calories
That's a genuine, functioning bike computer. If all you want is to pedal for 40 minutes with numbers in front of you, Just Ride does it and costs nothing.
What Just Ride doesn't do
This is the part worth understanding before you cancel a membership on the strength of it:
- It doesn't save your ride. Once you end the session, the numbers are gone. There's no history, no personal records, no trend over time.
- There's no leaderboard, no Power Zone tracking, no output PBs.
- It doesn't sync anywhere. Just Ride sessions don't reach Strava, Garmin Connect, Apple Health or anything else. The Peloton doesn't broadcast the data.
- There's no structure. No coaching, no intervals, no plan. You're supplying all the motivation.
For a lot of people the first two are tolerable and the third is the dealbreaker. Riding consistently and having none of it recorded gets demoralising quickly.
Not sure which route to take?
FitSwitch does it in hardware — 55+ apps, automatic resistance, and metrics broadcast to your watch. No sideloading, no developer mode.
See FitSwitch →30-day money-back guaranteeGetting your rides recorded anyway
The reason Just Ride sessions vanish is that a stock Peloton doesn't transmit its data. It shows you your numbers on its own screen and nowhere else — it isn't a Bluetooth or ANT+ power sensor, and it doesn't implement FTMS.
Once your cadence and power are broadcast as a standard cycling sensor, everything downstream just works: your Apple Watch or Garmin records the session as a real workout, it lands in Strava with full power data, and training apps can read it.
That converts Just Ride from "pedalling with a stopwatch" into a properly logged training session — without paying for a membership.
Just Ride vs a training app
If structure is what you're missing, the better answer isn't a Peloton subscription — it's a training app on the same screen:
| Just Ride | Training app | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free to ~$15/mo |
| Structure | None | Workouts and plans |
| Saved history | No | Yes |
| Automatic resistance | No | Yes, on Bike+ |
| Leaderboard / social | No | Varies |
Zwift, Rouvy, TrainerRoad and the free TPVirtual all run on a Peloton screen and all cost less than the membership — TPVirtual costs nothing at all.
How to start a Just Ride
- Wake the screen and sign in to your Peloton profile (a free account is fine)
- From the home screen, choose Just Ride (on the Tread this is Just Run)
- Set resistance manually with the knob or the Bike+ dial
- Tap the screen to end and exit
If your metrics read zero during a Just Ride, that's a separate hardware issue — see Peloton metrics not showing.
How FitSwitch fits in
FitSwitch is a hardware device that plugs into the Peloton's USB port and does exactly this bridging. It reads cadence and resistance directly from the bike, broadcasts them as a standard cycling power and cadence sensor over both Bluetooth and ANT+, and on the Bike+ drives the resistance motor for ERG and SIM mode.
It also puts 55+ apps on the Peloton screen — streaming and training — with no computer, no developer mode and no sideloading, and keeps them updated so a Peloton OS update doesn't wipe your setup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Just Ride work without a subscription?
Yes. Just Ride is available without an active All-Access Membership. You'll still need a free Peloton account to sign in to the screen, but you won't be charged.
Does Just Ride save my workout?
No. Peloton doesn't store Just Ride sessions to your profile, so there's no history or personal record tracking. Recording the ride requires broadcasting the data to another device or app.
Can I see my output in Just Ride?
Yes. Cadence, resistance, output in watts, time, distance and calories all display live during a Just Ride. The limitation is that none of it is saved or transmitted.
Does Just Ride sync to Strava?
Not on its own. A stock Peloton doesn't broadcast ride data, so there's nothing for Strava to receive. With power and cadence broadcast as a standard cycling sensor, Just Ride sessions record to Strava with full data.
Is Just Ride the same on the Tread?
The equivalent is Just Run, and it behaves the same way — live metrics on screen, no saved history and no sync without a way to broadcast the data.
Is Just Ride enough to stay fit?
Physiologically, yes — the bike doesn't know whether a class is playing. What you lose is structure, progression and accountability, which is why most people pair it with a training app rather than riding unstructured indefinitely.
Not sure which route to take?
FitSwitch does it in hardware — 55+ apps, automatic resistance, and metrics broadcast to your watch. No sideloading, no developer mode.
See FitSwitch →30-day money-back guarantee