Ironically enough, it was Zwift/virtual cycling itself that put a a lot of these studios out of business around my area.

I think there are a few still in business where I live though.

Isn't the whole attraction of Zwift that you can do it in the comfort and convenience of your home? Why would I pay a membership fee to go use zwift somewhere else? Then I have to pack up my stuff, makes sure I make it on time, travel, bring a change of clothes, all that crap. Or, I can go to my basement and hop on a group ride at the intensity of my choosing, whenever I want. Also, if I'm going to ride with other people, I'll do it outside, but because I'm a loner triathlete, I ride alone always anyway. I see no point in riding with other people IRL, but on zwift.

I don't know of an interface to link a studio full of riders other than each having their own instance of zwift on an ipad or equivalent. Probably not worth the cost to set up a studio like that. Covid killed a significant number of ride studios, all of the ones I know/knew of used Computrainers (i.e. not Soul Cycle/Peloton/Spin Class, etc) . Some of those still exist.

There can be significant benefit riding together in a studio, I still do Computrainer rides in a studio on Saturdays in the winter. I know I can squeeze more effort out in those classes than I can in my basement on Zwift even when riding with others on Zwift which I also do throughout the winter. Many of the riders at the studio are long time friends so its also a social thing.

There is a big time commitment and effort to riding in a studio that some cannot afford; especially now that there are more options and better experiences than there used to be.

Ironically, I rarely ride in groups on the road as I find it hard to do the workout I want to do.

We used to run a nine station Computrainer studio for a good number of years. Classes were run multiple times per day, every day during the week. We initially found that our draw was equally split between those who wanted to ride structured workouts and those who wanted a social aspect to their indoor riding.

The year before Covid, we noticed our numbers started to trend down somewhat, roughly at the same time that we were considering divesting ourselves of the business, as we were getting older and our business interests were shifting. Covid then hit and we closed down completely.

Until Zwift came out with their Hub and virtual shifting, I couldn't see a viable non-Computrainer pathway to take. Given the huge range of bicycles and drivetrains people were using--ranging from 6 speed downtube shifting to the latest electronic group--it would have been hard to standardize on a trainer, other than getting a fleet of smartbikes. If we went that route, we'd have gone with Stages as they seem most durable, but the cost outlay would have been huge and we still would have to deal with pedal and crank length preferences. Given that our weekend rides were structured around Computrainer's Real Course Videos, shifting would be required. The same would be true with Zwift, other than for erg-based sessions.

I could see getting a series of Wahoo Core trainers with the Hub cog, which would make drivetrain pretty agnostic. There still would be issues with rear wheel attachment, but not insurmountable, and we'd likely place Ipads in front of each station to run Zwift. This would necessitate each ride to have their own account, which would be another incurred cost for the participants, though most likely would already be subscribers. But in the rush to start each session, I would not want to deal with account management issues.

So, in terms of hardware outlay, it would be 'bout the same or perhaps a little less than for a Computrainer system. Setup and breakdown would be more complicated, but the single Zwift cog and virtual shifting would help. The biggest issue, I think, is that demand would be nowhere big enough to cover costs and turn a reasonable profit.

It's the divergence of exercise from sport for cycling. A spin studio largely is exercise. Zwift, largely people using that it is for sport. Folks who ride bikes for "sport" at any level (even weekend group rides) are a vastly minority group of people to folks doing something on a bike for exercise.

I have tried locals only Zwift groups, there's even a local one of maybe 30 folks. They maybe do one "event" on Zwift together a couple times a year. Big fail there. I can't even in an area where I know there's plenty of Zwifters get enough people corralled to in the off season have a weekly indoor ride of "locals" on Zwift. The appeal being that on a Discord you would know who you're talking to or could do some team stuff together online.

As fun as it sounds, I can't see it working. Maybe a couple world wide studios in NYC, London, Tokyo or something would work. But not in average sized city in the US.

I gave up and we instead use bike lights and ride off-road gravel in winter, then I ride solo on Zwift on weekends. Zwift is just so time efficient for the work, I hoped the off season thing would work as the outdoor winter rides are a bit shorter/easier than I prefer usually.

I’ve done one computrainer class about 8 years ago and at the time I considered starting my own studio. SOOOOOOO glad I didn’t do that! Talk about bad timing! Zwift, smart trainers, and the lock downs put an end to that business model QUICK!

But it is unfortunate as I had a lot of fun working out that hard and competing against everyone on the large screen they had. I think the wheel on setup was quick and easy and I don’t think using something like Zwift is all that necessary. Maybe by using a wheel on setup, or a hub type setup(ease of setup would be key, hence me still pondering the wheel on trainer despite it not being perfect), and then just attaching a weight and ftp to each trainer, and running it all through a single program projected onto a large screen. Maybe that would work? I wouldn’t want to deal with individual ipads. Idk. Just thinking. I prefer outdoors, but I would prefer this, any day over zwifting by myself.

But unfortunately, as a realist, and a guy with kids, I doubt the cycling studio will ever make a comeback.