WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. moves into the White House on Wednesday facing many weighty issues: a global pandemic. A crushing recession. Racial injustice. Right-wing extremism.
But Mr. Biden's personal weight-control and exercise regimen will face a different kind of burning question: Can he bring his Peloton bike with him?
The answer, cybersecurity experts say, is yes. Sort of. But more on that later.
A Peloton, for the uninitiated, is part indoor stationary bike, part social media network. The bikes are expensive — upward of $2,500 apiece — and have tablets attached, enabling riders to livestream or take on-demand classes and communicate with one another. Each rider has a "leader board name," a unique identifier posted on the screen alongside "output," a measure of how hard the rider is working.
When Mr. Biden was cloistered during the coronavirus surge this spring, The New York Times reported that he began each day "with a workout in an upstairs gym that contains a Peloton bike, weights and a treadmill." The Biden team did not respond to requests for comment, but a person close to the president-elect said that Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, engage in regular morning negotiations over who gets to ride first.
