Las Vegas IHRSA was exhausting, consuming and exhilarating, all at the same time. With the exception of enjoying some adult beverages outdoors with Bill Pryor and Barbara Hoots on Wednesday night, between Tuesday night and Friday morning I never stepped outside the convention hotel.
There's an unbelievable amount of both time and money being invested specifically toward Indoor Cycling. The shear amount of new models, new technology and new education that I saw tells me that major & minor manufacturers see Indoor Cycling as a huge growth opportunity.
A very exciting time to be an Indoor Cycling Instructor for sure 🙂
I'm working on a number of articles/reviews about my experiences this past week at IHRSA and first wanted to give you these quick, random bits from the show.
Sales are good! Every major manufacturer's representative I spoke to had positive things to sale about the health of the market.
Lots-O-Watts: Club/studio purchasing agents had their pick of Indoor Cycles with power indication from; FreeMotion, Keiser, Schwinn, Spinning and Wattbike. There were also a few that were brand new to me or prototypes on display including; POWERbahn, EVO and Monark from Switzerland that uses Rotor bicycle power cranks.
My favorite quote from the show: “Indoor Cycling is a completely different sport from outdoor cycling. It's frustrating to me when people pull ideas from some outdoor cycling coach or training program and try to apply them to indoor cycling.” Angie Sturtevant – Spinpowerâ„¢ Program Director / Power Specialist Master Instructor.
Attendance: The place was packed. Every vendor I asked said they were impressed by the attendance – and they weren't just North Americans. I heard a lot of; “no speak English” when I approached participants.
Most talked about subject: Soul Cycle's /Flywheel's influence on our industry. I was asking every participant I could find their thoughts on the state of our industry. At some part of many conversations one of those two brands was mentioned. Not always in a positive tense, but there's no doubt that the successes of Soul Cycle and Flywheel are well understood and on the minds of many.
Get ready for an avalanche of new Indoor Cycling technology: FreeMotion launched the new commercial / club quality Tour de France Indoor Cycle where the Instructor can control the pitch of everyone in the class 🙂
No batteries required: It's a simple thing and it may sound insignificant, but the self-charging power meter on the new Spinner Blade Ion was really impressive. I'm going to bet they will close sales with big clubs based on this feature alone.
Great ideas here for our new Instructors! Leverage opportunities to fill in by sharing and showcasing brand “you.”
Certified fitness professional and fitness writer Stephanie Vlach and I discusses how Instructors can leverage subbing opportunities to market themselves – from her recent article in the March 2013 IDEA Fitness Journal – IDEA subscription required.
Leverage opportunities to fill in by sharing and showcasing brand “you.”
Almost every role and function within the fitness industry involves marketing. It doesn't matter if you're a fitness director promoting a group exercise program, a manager preparing for a membership drive or a personal trainer attracting new clientele – baseline knowledge of marketing is vital.
You can hear Stephanie's ideas below or you will find this episode in your Super Secret iTunes Podcast feed.
I had Shazam working overtime as I moved from one manufacture's booth to the other this week. During one of Chuck Cali's MyRide+ demo rides, I caught this epic finale of his last climb.
It's an interesting track. The “Big Finish” of E.S. Posthumus — Ushas comes with about 25 seconds of the track left. Chuck explained that with the emotional “help” of the music gone, it was up to the riders to summit the climb using their own internal motivation – and by the looks of the participants they did 🙂
I had a chance to walk through the show as exhibitors were putting the last minute touches on their booths and shot a few pictures.
I'll be updating this post as I get each file uploaded this morning – Internet is very slow here.
I felt like Charlie walking through Willy Wonka's chocolate factory – everywhere I looked it seemed there was something new I had to take a picture of.
This fitness model could have been Jillian Michaels' younger sister – I didn't ask if she was.
Yes those are gear shifters like on a real road bike. This new Tour de France bike has 30 “gears” and I thought they were awesome.
iPod stand for Cameron's FreeMotion S11-9 Instructor Bike
New handle bars for the Schwinn AC Performance +
Cool blue light that glows on the new Spinner Blade Ion – Barbara will love that.
FreeMotion Aero-Bar extension – I know that the Instructors at LTF have been asking for those.
Keiser M3 with Trixter handle bars
MyRide+ ready for Chuck Cali 🙂
Speed Play Cleat Insert for Spinning or Schwinn pedals offering a LOOK cleat option.
Real Ryder Computer – no power/watts yet.
I guess this would be the natural progression – although I'm not seeing it at a Life Time Fitness anytime soon.
I'm heading to IHRSA today and there's a bunch of new Indoor Cycling related products I'm aware of + a few rumors of new products to be launched this year. I'm really excited to see/ride/experience & hear what other's have to say – and then report back for you.
Beyond all the fancy new stuff – getting some face time with people I dearly enjoy, but see infrequently, will be a real treat for me.
Let's start with the people I'm excited to see at IHRSA:
Since chastising me back in 2009; “John you, and the people you're involved with, are forgetting that people come to our classes to HAVE FUN! –Barbara Hoots has become a great friend to both Amy and me. The girl knows how to generate excitement in a studio and build a following of loyal participants. Barbara was a huge hit at both of our conferences – no one will forget the official ICI/PRO Thong she handed out 🙂 and her Indoor Cycle Studio Design business has taken off into the stratosphere. The women knows exactly what people want in a studio.
The ICG Team – Jim Karanas and his crew of Master Trainers have been a real joy to work with over the past year of their sponsorship of ICI/PRO. They've graciously offered to put me up in Las Vegas, sharing a room with Chuck Cali – I'll let you know how it goes.
Bill Pryor from Spynergy Consulting and I recorded a Podcast back in February 2010 that has launched dozens of new studios that we know of! Bill has a very discerning eye for products and services in our niche that could benefit Indoor Cycling Studio owners – so I'll be following him around, getting his take on what he sees.
I'm not aware of moredelightful person than Cameron Chinatti from Stages Indoor Cycling – I'm eager to ride the new carbon drive S11.9 and Cameron has a very unique session planned during the show, but as I'm sworn to secrecy, I need to wait to tell you about it.
Sally Edwards has grown to become a true friend and mentor to me. I'm excited to see her for real and give her a big hug for everything she's done 🙂
Next… Products and Services
MyRide + I'm aware that Jim Karanas and Team ICG is installing MyRide+ video display systems all over the country. I've ridden and even taught a class using MyRide+. I'm very curious to talk with club owners and managers to learn how MyRide+ is improving their classes and if they are seeing increases in their club's member retention and profitability. They have a strategic partnership with Affinitech to provide cost effective, turn-key AV solutions for the video display systems that bring the HD MyRide+ video to life.
The Spinner Blade Ion It's taken a long time for Spinning® / Star Trac to bring an indoor cycle to market that includes power indication. Josh Taylor has promised me a complete review to understand exactly how the Spinner Blade Ion measures power, how it displays data to the user and how did they figured out the “self charging” part. I see from this new video that Angie Sturtevant has left Saris / CycleOps and returned to Spinning as their Director of Power Base (sic) Training – I grabbed her title from the video… shouldn't that be Power Based Training? Either way, Angie really knows training with power, so I hope she's at the show so I can pick her brain about what programming Spinning has in store for us .
POWERbahn – this could very well be the future of Indoor Cycling. I've ridden a prototype of this revolutionary Indoor Cycle (it doesn't have a flywheel – and doesn't need one) and a pre production POWERbahn indoor cycle will be on display at the Spirit Fitness booth. Try as they might, Indoor Cycle designers have never truly replicated what it feels like to ride outdoors. Ask any of your roadies if their road bike felt different than riding indoors, once they get outside. The hills feel bigger, downhills steeper and POWERbahn may have solved all of this and created a near perfect simulator for riding outdoors. Now if they could just find some IC programming to go along with it…
A little bird told me that there maybe a club/commercial version of the Tour de France bike (as seen on TV – I'm told you don't really need to wear a helmet) at IHRSA this year. The TDF bike adds the element of elevation through pitch control forwards (going down hill) and back (climbing) and control of the pitch may not be by the rider?
I'll be posting pictures of all the cool stuff I see and if it works, I hope to do some live interviews on the show floor.
If you have any specific questions for anything/anyone please add them and I'll try to get you some answers.
Las Vegas IHRSA was exhausting, consuming and exhilarating, all at the same time. With the exception of enjoying some adult beverages outdoors with Bill Pryor and Barbara Hoots on Wednesday night, between Tuesday night and Friday morning I never stepped outside the convention hotel.
Updated 3/23
