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.
- New players coming: TriCore Indoor Cycling is the educational & certification programming that compliments the quite interesting EVO Indoor Cycle.
John is a member on the AFS (Association of Fitness Studios) Advisory Council.
Holding certifications from; Schwinn, Heart Zones, Team ICG and Life Time Fitness, John's held regularly scheduled cycling classes between 1998 and 2015 when he moved to Florida.
When the weather permits, you'll find him riding and leading outdoor groups by himself or with his Tandem partner (wife) Amy.
- Show some love, ride up front… - September 15, 2024
- Personal Spinning® Threshold (PST) Assessment - September 12, 2024
- Understanding FreeMotion's New Carbon Belt Drive - September 9, 2024
I hope sometime in the near future we can hear a more detailed explanation of the quote by Angie. I really want to know why she made that statement. I’m not questioning her, I’m wondering if it pertains to periodization or am I way off base?
Sandra at the time we were discussing 20 min field tests and her view that they aren’t appropriate for Indoor Cycling because as she said, it’s a different sport. I’m working to get her on the show to discuss her ideas on what is appropriate and the new SpinPower training program, hopefully soon.
I was kind of wondering the same thing… IMO, training approaches used in training plans for outdoor cyclists can be used quite effectively in indoor classes (i.e., intervals of specific time & intensity, etc.), and can be presented as part of a fun, engaging class (you don’t even have to call them intervals – you can call them climbs, break-aways, sprints, surges, or whatever connects with your students). The physiological principals are the same, indoors or out. I do tend to agree that for most indoor cycling classes, a 20 min field test is not necessarily the way to go, though…
john I googled Freewheel and came up with bike shops. Is that the right place?
Thanks for catching that Chuck – file that as “posted under exhaustion”
Freewheel is the chain of bicycle shops that sponsors our MS150 team.
Flywheel is the chain of studios with the TorqBoard display system that spun off of Soul Cycle.