Ok, we've knocked it out of head position in the title above.

It's not sly, it's just a correct succinct headline.

I don't see an equal or more terse way of saying the same thing.

Equal length:

"Planet’s most energy efficient locomotion is peloton riding, finds new research"

"New research finds peloton riding is planet’s most energy efficient locomotion"

Arguably these put the emphasis on different things, but they're pretty close.

They are indeed the same number of words, but as headlines go they are extremely weak compared to the original. In my view they are not at all close.

The original (before HN edited the title) told you what the subject was immediately. It went from specific to general.

"Planet's most energy efficient ..." is the most terrestrially broad introduction one could use.

Likewise, "New research finds ..." is such a common phrase that it almost repels people (particularly since much research is bogus).

It's only a subset of US English speaking people which will be confused by the original title. To the subset of US residents who have never heard of the company Peleton, and the hundreds of millions of English speakers outside the US, this headline wouldn't have been confusing at all.