On Thursday, Peloton issued a voluntary recall of its original Bike (model number PL-01) sold between January 2018 and May 2023. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a subsequent warning, and told consumers to cease using the recalled model “immediately.”
Peloton said the recall is due to the vulnerability of the seat post, which has been reported to “break unexpectedly during use,” and poses serious risks of falling or injury. As of April 30, Peloton was notified of 35 instances of the seat post breaking during use, 13 of which led to lacerations, bruises, and in one case a fractured wrist, per the CPSC report.
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The recall applies to the Peloton original Bike sold in the U.S., which spans about 2.2 million bikes. The company is offering free seat post replacements that can be self-installed. No refunds will be issued as part of the recall.
“Our commitment to Member safety is unwavering,” Peloton said in a statement. “For Peloton, it was important to proactively engage the CPSC to address this issue. We worked cooperatively with them to identify today’s approved remedy.”
Peloton’s popularity boomed during the pandemic — sales surged by 172% in Q4 2020, and the company reached over one billion in total revenue for the second quarter of 2021. However, Peloton’s profitable reign was relatively short-lived, and when lockdown restrictions eased, so did sales — by the end of 2022, the company’s revenue was down to 678.7 million.
This is the second injury-related recall for the exercise equipment company. In May 2021, Peloton recalled about 125,000 of its Tread+ treadmills following the death of a six-year-old child. In January 2023, the company agreed to pay $19 million in civil penalties for “knowingly failing” to report hazards associated with Tread+, noting that Peloton was informed of several safety issues related to the equipment between 2018 and 2019, but did not immediately report the hazards to CPSC.
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