Peloton is accusing Flywheel of copying its hugely popular at-home fitness bike

Flywheel has historically offered studio-based cycling workouts. In November 2017, it launched its FLY Anywhere bike, which is designed to be used at home.
A spokesman for Flywheel told

Competition is heating up in the fitness world as two of the biggest names in indoor cycling go head-to-head in a new lawsuit.

On Wednesday, Peloton, the high-tech fitness company that is known for its popular home-fitness bike, filed a lawsuit against one of its biggest competitors, Flywheel, accusing it of creating a copycat version of Peloton's proprietary bike.

Peloton claims that Flywheel's uses Peloton's technology to stream live and on-demand classes, track

Flywheel, which launched in New York in 2010, has historically only offered studio-based cycling workouts. This changed with the launch of its home fitness bike, FLY Anywhere, in November 2017. The bike is designed to bring the studio experience into customer's homes. A spokesperson for the company told The Wall Street Journal that its

The bike starts at $1,699 and functions in a similar way to Peloton's in that it allows users to stream on-demand and live classes from their home. Customers have the option to stream these classes from their own device or pay extra to have a screen included on the bike itself.

Peloton's most basic bike package starts at $2,245. All of its bikes are fitted with a screen that streams its on-demand and live classes.

Both machines require users to pay extra to subscribe to the classes.

In a comparison of the two bikes from December, a reviewer from aSweatLife wrote that the biggest difference between the two bikes is the classes you can take on it.

Peloton claims in the lawsuit that months before Flywheel's new bike was launched, one of its investors, Michael Milken, approached Peloton CEO John Foley, pressing him for details about the company's technology and business strategy and presenting himself as a potential investor.

Peloton's suit accuses Milken of providing this information to Flywheel, which allegedly used it "

Milken, who is not named as a defendant in the suit, is best known for inventing the modern junk bond. He spent 22 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of violating securities laws.

However, a spokesman for the company told The Journal that it denies any claims of patent infringement and said that this lawsuit is "a classic example of a big business trying to intimidate a competitor out of the marketplace."

Flywheel has raised $120.9 million in venture funding, according to Crunchbase. It has 42 studios across the US.