There is no way we can comprehend the tragedy of Jeff Wimmer's death, and it's left us searching for answers that might be difficult to ever find. In these darkest hours, the pain touches us all in the indoor cycling community, and I mourn this loss as if it were my own.
Jeff was the silent force behind the success of my studio in south Georgia. With a high jobless rate in this indigent community, Jeff donated many bikes over the years without question or expectation of anything in return. The white NXT's that fill our studio, given out of generosity and love, are a tribute to his memory. The legacy of his warmth, tenderness and talent will endure forever.
Barbara Hoots
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John's Note: Jeff Wimmer and his company StudioCycles was a fixture in Indoor Cycling pretty much from the very beginning. I remember him telling me how Johnny G used to purchase bicycle parts from Jeff, all the stuff that Johnny used to build the first prototypes of the Johnny G Spinner.
Jeff brought an incredible amount of passion and professionalism to Indoor Cycle maintenance and the refurbishing of used cycles.
I had the privilege of interviewing Jeff back in 2009. If you haven't heard Jeff before or would like to learn some of the early history of the Spinning program, it maybe fun for you to hear this.
Barbara Hoots wasn't the only person Jeff has helped. You can listen to Studio owner Michael Stadvec describe how Jeff's contribution of bikes made his event; The Tour de Pier a success, in this interview from last spring. I'm going to guess that Barbara and Michael weren't the only two people Jeff has helped over the years.
Thankfully it wasn't my wedding anniversary (Amy and my 25th is Sept 23rd) but the 5th anniversary of indoorcycleinstructor.com!
Wow – what a ride this has been. Everything started back on August 2nd 2008 with this post. Well actually all this probably started 6 months before I published that first post. I had become intrigued with the thought of starting an Internet radio show, after listening (and become addicted to) sales and marketing Podcasts while driving between customer locations.
As a travelling sales guy, I spent my days “interviewing” prospective customers. A typical 30 minute meeting would consist of me asking a series of questions of my prospect and then listening to their responses – but rarely was this reversed, where the person would be asking me questions. So I thought; why not create an Internet radio show / Podcast that featured interviews with experts and personalities connected to my real passion, Fitness & Indoor Cycling?
How tough and/or expensive could this be?
Well it wasn't as difficult as it may seem and I think I spent about $50.00 in total to get started. The whole Podcasting thing really came into its own around 2008. iTunes was firmly established as the Podcast feed reader – although there were dozens of similar services competing for this space (most are no-longer) – and at the time the iTunes store was one of the top five places on the Internet where people searched for content specific to their interest. So beyond Google and YouTube, the iTunes music store was the place to be.
Of course we needed a website. The open source, blogging software WordPress was becoming very attractive to Podcasters. It was most importantly free, easy to use and automatically created the special RSS feed that connected indoorcycleinstructor.com to The Indoor Cycle Instructor Podcast in iTunes.
So I bought a $30 headset mic, registered the domain $9.95 and signed up for some cheap hosting @ $5.95 a month. But nobody warned me about how much time I would need to invest in all of this 🙁
I've done some simple studies on how much actual time I invest to produce one 30 minute episode:
2-3 hours recruiting each guest for the show, spread over days, weeks or for a few – months or even year. The folks at RealRyder have the distinction of being the most elusive to date. I'm still working on a few that could eclipse them… stay tuned.
One+ hour consisting of a dozen emails and one (sometimes two) 30 minute pre-calls to sort out the topic and questions.
One hour for a late cancellation & rescheduling
60-90 minutes for the actual recording session
2 hours post production; editing to make each guest sound good (I swear I have removed at least a million “uhms”, “you knows”, lip smacks, sniffs, etc…), creating and uploading the MP3 files, creating the post and then promoting the episode.
272 episodes x apx 9 hours = around 2,400 hours!
But they've been totally worth every minute as long as you've enjoyed them!
When I started all of this I had a concern that we'd run out of things to discuss. After all this is just Indoor Cycling… what's there to talk about?
As it turns out a lot. As I look forward I see that we've just scratched the surface.
There's lots more coming during year 6 here at the Indoor Cycle Instructor Podcast
*Note to self – add calendar reminder for 9/23 so you don't miss that anniversary… and don't forget to find something special for Amy.
Improving support for our iPhone/iPad users > we've finally figured out how to configure the player to show and play on your iDevice 🙂
We're upgrading all of the Podcast and Audio Class Playlists this morning to a new HTML 5 player (the kind Apple will display) so you may find a player that doesn't work using your computer. Hope to have everything done in a few hours.
It was the Podcast that launched dozens of new cycling studio startups. Our February 2010 interview with Indoor Cycling Studio consultant Bill Pryor (Podcast #88) presented the idea that a passionate Instructor could open a successful studio. We're aware of dozens who did and Bill has assisted over 200 entrepreneurs around the world plan and operate their new fitness business.
That was three years ago and there's been a lot of changes in our industry as it affects independent studios; all the new indoor cycles with power/watts, MyRide+ big screen virtual ride offerings from ICG and others, rider metrics displayed and captured by Performance IQ & MyZone and the ascension of SoulCycle, Flywheel and the new Peloton studios that have interjected an enormous amount of buzz in our market.
Online payment systems from MindBody Online and others have dramatically reduced both the time and effort required to manage a profitable studio.
Teach to a full house of 50 riders and expect to receive $500.00 for your efforts.This isn't a typo – this outfit is planning to compensate Indoor Cycling Instructors up to $500.00 a class. Teach a regular schedule of 13 packed classes a week and you'll be interviewing stock brokers for ideas where you should invest your $300,000 annual compensation.
Want to work for Peloton Cycling? Check to see if they're hiring here.
To that end, Peloton has borrowed a lot from boutique studios and what riders are addicted to, starting with the charismatic instructor. “Instructors who can command an audience and have great fitness knowledge are arguably like actors, they should be paid as such. We’re tripling what the going rate is to work at a studio,” says Foley, adding that with this platform, Peloton teachers will become “global celebrities, capable of reaching thousands of riders at a time, instead of 50.” (We’re expecting defections any second now.) – I'm assuming they're referring to defections from SoulCycle & Flywheel – John
Peloton's goal here, as I see it, is to recruit the very best 10 Instructors… not just the 10 best Instructors in New York, but the 10 best Instructors from anywhere on the planet. $300k should be enough of an incentive to motivate just about anyone to pack their bags, move to a new gig and start teaching in the Big Apple.
How can they afford to pay Instructors so much?
The financial “Holy Grail” for Peloton is delivering on-demand classes to home users riding their new Peloton Indoor Cycles. This bike looks very cool/well designed and they recently raised over $300,000 using Kick Starter to fund the design and early production.
Created by John Foley, the former president of Barnes & Noble eCommerce, Peloton has built a sexy at-home bike that won’t look out of place in your high-design living room. It comes with a 22-inch tablet-like, touch-screen monitor that allows you to ride along with live classes at Peloton’s 50-bike studio in New York City (opening in Chelsea in the fall), or stream one on-demand.
So your potential class size is limited only by the number of those new cycles they sell.
I'm dying to learn more about all of this; the new Indoor Cycle, the technology, their plans for the Peloton Studio… everything. I'm working on getting a representative on the Podcast ASAP.
Congratulations to Cameron Chinatti and husband Jeremy – they're having a baby! OK, Cameron is having the baby… but I'll bet that Jeremy will be there to hold her hand, all the way to the end of their rollercoaster ride. I ride that will last about 22 years or so.
Congratulations to Cameron Chinatti and husband Jeremy – they're having a baby! OK, Cameron is having the baby… but I'll bet that Jeremy will be there to hold her hand, all the way to the end of their rollercoaster ride. I ride that will last about 22 years or so.