Peloton voluntarily recalls over 800,000 bikes for potential seat post issue
Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Exercise equipment company Peloton is voluntarily recalling approximately 833,000 exercise bikes due to a potential issue specific to the bike’s seat post, the company announced Thursday.
According to the company announcement, the recall affects “certain Original Series Bike+ models manufactured from December 2019 through July 2022 for sale in the U.S. and Canada.”
“The Original Series Bike+ seat post can break during use, posing a potential fall and injury risk to consumers,” the company stated.
Peloton said it has so far received three reports of Original Series Bike+ seat posts breaking “out of approximately 833,000 units sold in the U.S.”
“Peloton has received no reports of a seat post breaking, out of 44,800 units sold in Canada,” it added.
According to a recall announcement on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website, the affected bikes were sold at Peloton and Dick’s Sporting Goods stores nationwide, as well as online at Peloton, Dick’s, Amazon and eBay from January 2020 to April 2025. The bikes retailed for approximately $2,495, according to the agency.
The CPSC also stated that of the three broken seat post reports Peloton received, two included “reports of injuries due to a fall.”
Peloton said Thursday that impacted users should stop using the recalled bikes and contact Peloton for a replacement seat post.
The replacement seat post is a CPSC-approved solution, a Peloton spokesperson told ABC News.
Both the company and the CPSC noted the new seat posts can be self-installed.
The affected bikes bear the model number PL02 and serial numbers beginning with the letter “T,” according to Peloton. The serial number can be found “inside the front fork, behind the front fork, or behind the flywheel,” the company said.
In a statement to ABC News, the Peloton spokesperson said, “The integrity of our products and our Members’ well-being are our top priorities. We are taking this opportunity to make replacement seat posts available to all affected Bike+ users and we encourage them to contact us to receive the redesigned seat post as soon as possible.”
Peloton previously voluntarily recalled over 2 million bikes, Bike Model PL01, in 2023, warning that the bike seat post assembly could break and cause users to fall.
(NEW YORK) — Consumer sentiment soured in October as a government shutdown threatens to weaken a wobbly economy beset by an uptick in inflation and a sharp slowdown of hiring, fresh data on Friday showed. The reading marked a decrease from the previous month but it came in higher than economists expected.
Shopper attitudes have worsened for three consecutive months, resuming a decline that took hold after President Donald Trump took office, University of Michigan Survey data showed.
At its low point this year, consumer sentiment fell close to its worst level since an acute bout of inflation three years ago. The measure remains well below where it stood in December, before Trump took office.
Year-ahead inflation expectations ticked down from 4.7% in September to 4.6% in October, the data showed. The outcome anticipated by respondents would put inflation well above its current level of 2.9%. Long-run inflation expectations held steady from the previous month, data showed.
The data on consumer sentiment is likely to garner more attention than usual, since the government shutdown has halted closely watched releases from the federal government, including monthly jobs and inflation reports.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is a key bellwether for the outlook of the nation’s economy.
A government shutdown typically risks only modest damage for the economy but it can cause a marked decline in consumer sentiment, threatening a later drop in consumer spending, some experts previously told ABC News.
Consumer sentiment fell more than 7 points from December 2018 to January 2019, coinciding with the most recent 35-day government shutdown, according to a Committee for Responsible Federal Budget analysis of University of Michigan survey data. A souring of consumer sentiment, albeit limited, occurred over each of the three most recent shutdowns that preceded 2018.
The government shutdown, which entered its 10th day on Friday, has shown little sign of resolution. The Senate has rejected dueling funding proposals from Democrats and Republicans in seven separate votes.
The shutdown has coincided with a delicate moment for the nation’s economy, as a hiring slowdown stokes recession fears and inflation proves difficult to fully contain.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last month that policymakers face a “challenging situation” while they attempt to navigate the economy through a “turbulent period.”
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday is set to unveil its latest decision on the level of interest rates, hoping to guide the economy through a topsy-turvy stretch of slow hiring and rising inflation.
The high-stakes announcement marks a flashpoint in the monthslong pressure campaign directed at the Fed by President Donald Trump.
In recent weeks, Trump has moved to fire one member of the Fed’s board of governors and secure Senate confirmation for another. Both officials are on track to be among the 12 policymakers who will cast votes on the interest-rate decision, though their status remained uncertain days before the Fed meeting.
The race to reshape the Fed comes after Trump railed for months against the central bank and its Chair Jerome Powell for declining to heed his call for lower interest rates. In July, Powell stressed the importance of political independence, saying it allows central bankers to make “very challenging decisions” based on “data.”
Still, the central bank is widely expected to deliver the policy shift long-sought by Trump, though the size of the rate cut will all but certainly fall short of Trump’s desired outcome.
Powell recently hinted at the possibility of a rate cut, appearing to indicate greater concern for flagging employment growth than for elevated prices. Investors peg the chances of a quarter-point rate cut at about 96% and a half-point cut at nearly 4%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
In a social media post on Monday, Trump reiterated his criticism of Powell, saying the Fed chair “MUST CUT INTEREST RATES, NOW, AND BIGGER THAN HE HAD IN MIND.”
Five meetings and nine months have elapsed since the Fed last adjusted interest rates. The federal funds rate stands between 4.25% and 4.5%, preserving much of a sharp increase imposed in response to a pandemic-era bout of inflation.
In recent months, the economy has suffered a sharp hiring slowdown alongside an uptick of inflation, setting the conditions for what economists call “stagflation.”
The economic conditions have put Fed policymakers in a bind. If the Fed raises interest rates as a means of protecting against tariff-induced inflation, it risks tipping the economy into a downturn. On the other hand, if the Fed lowers rates to stimulate the economy in the face of a hiring slowdown, it threatens to boost spending and worsen inflation.
Last month, Powell said the central bank faces a “challenging situation,” putting pressure on both sides of the Fed’s dual mission to maximize employment and control inflation.
Still, Powell said, the “balance of risks appears to be shifting” in light of a hiring slowdown made clear in a weak jobs report earlier this year that included sharp downward revisions of job gains over recent months.
Trump recently moved to fire board member Lisa Cook, who sued Trump over her attempted ouster, saying the decision violated her legal protections as an employee at the independent federal agency. Trump said he removed Cook over mortgage fraud allegations against her.
Federal law allows the president to remove a member of the Fed board “for cause,” though no president has attempted such a removal in the 112-year history of the central bank.
Last week, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Fed to let Cook continue serving in her role as a governor of the Federal Reserve System as her lawsuit moves through the courts.
Days later, the Trump administration filed a request with an appeals court asking to remove Cook by Monday, before the scheduled vote on interest rates. That day, an appeals court rejected Trump’s bid, clearing the path for Cook to vote at the Fed meeting. Trump may appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Last month, Trump called on Cook to resign on the same day that Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, posted on X part of an Aug. 15 letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing Cook of falsifying bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, “potentially committing mortgage fraud,” the letter stated.
In a statement provided to ABC News at the time, Cook said she learned from the media about Pulte’s letter seeking a criminal referral over the mortgage application, which predated her time with the Federal Reserve.
“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said in the statement last week. “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
The Senate voted 48-47 on Monday to confirm White House economic adviser Stephen Miran’s nomination to serve as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, paving the way for Miran to cast a vote on interest rates.
Miran has vowed to safeguard central bank independence but said earlier this month that he does not plan to resign from his position within the Trump administration. Miran is filling a vacancy created by the early retirement of Fed board member Adrianna Kugler, whose term was set to end in January.
Miran said he plans to take an unpaid leave of absence from his current role. Miran reached the decision after “advice from counsel,” since his term on the Fed board would last four months, Miran said at a Senate hearing this month.
(WASHINGTON) –The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, opting for its second interest rate cut this year in an effort to jumpstart the flagging labor market.
The widely expected move delivers a lowering of interest rates sought by President Donald Trump, though the size of the cut falls short of the major drawdown called for repeatedly by the president.
The policy marks the first interest rate adjustment since the outset of a weekslong government shutdown that threatens to cool economic activity, all the while sharply restricting the release of gold-standard federal data prized by Fed policymakers.
In a rare exception, the U.S. government issued an inflation report last week showing a continued acceleration of price increases, which may complicate the Fed’s attempt to revive the labor market.
Inflation has picked up in recent months while hiring has slowed, posing a risk of an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation.”
Those economic conditions have put the Federal Reserve in a bind, since the central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment.
“Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated. The Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate and judges that downside risks to employment rose in recent months,” the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a policymaking body at the Fed, said in a statement on Wednesday.
If the Fed raises interest rates as a means of protecting against tariff-induced inflation, it risks tipping the economy into a downturn. On the other hand, if the Fed lowers rates to stimulate the economy in the face of a hiring slowdown, it threatens to boost spending and worsen inflation.
Last month, the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point, opting for its first interest rate cut this year. The federal funds rate stands between 3.75% and 4%, preserving much of a sharp increase imposed in response to a pandemic-era bout of inflation.
Last month, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a policymaking body at the Fed, projected two additional quarter-point rate cuts over the remainder of the year. By contrast, Trump has called for rate cuts totaling as much as 3 percentage points.
Trump has carried out a pressure campaign at the Fed with little precedent.
In recent months, Trump moved to fire one member of the Fed’s board of governors and secure Senate confirmation for another. Both officials were among the 12 policymakers who cast votes on last month’s interest-rate decision, though their status remained uncertain days before the Fed meeting. They both stand poised to cast votes again on Wednesday.
Stephen Miran, a top White House economic advisor who joined the Fed last month, cast the lone vote in favor of a larger half-point rate cut.
Trump attempted to fire board member Lisa Cook, who sued Trump over her attempted ouster, saying the decision violated her legal protections as an employee at the independent federal agency. Trump said he removed Cook over mortgage fraud allegations against her.
Federal law allows the president to remove a member of the Fed board “for cause,” though no president has attempted such a removal in the 112-year history of the central bank.
Last month, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Fed to let Cook continue serving in her role as a governor of the Federal Reserve System as her lawsuit moves through the courts.
