So it appears that my company (Fortune 100) is going to be going through a “work force re-prioritization.” It seems that they are having trouble meeting their financial targets. I’ve been through this before and as a contingency plan always start shopping around. But I’m thinking maybe it’s time to leave the corp. world and start up something of my own. I was looking at franchise opportunities, consulting in my field, and artisanal foods. I am also looking a purchasing a computrainer and just bought a huge plasma television for a rediculously low price. Add to this a live /work loft. It seems my city decided it needed to redevelop a downtown area and allowed a developer to build 40 live/work lofts. Of the 40, 19 sold at full price (2 years ago,) and then the bottom dropped out. They tried to auction them off at roughly 60% of what they sold for previously to no avail. The developer is now trying to sell off their other undeveloped parcel (which has sat vacant on a busy main street for 2 years) where they had planned another 40 of these units and is now trying to fire sale these lofts. They have sold a couple but there are still quite a few available with street frontage on a main arterial. As I drove by them today it dawned on me that the work area - which is on the ground level (the live area is on the 2nd floor) - would make a perfect indoor cycling center - you could easily fit 10-12 computrainers in there and play the course on a couple of 60" plasmas or through a projector on a roll down screen.
So here’s the question… if you had one of these places accessible… with all the video courses… would you and your buddies pay to ride it? For example you could bring your bike, pay a fee, and ride Kona. Granted the computrainer thing would have to be only a portion of the business…
We have between 1-5 classes/day 7 days a week. It’s usually hard to get a spot, the classes fill up within hours of putting the schedule live online. We have 14 computrainers. It’s currently -14 windchill with a foot of snow on the ground in Chicago.
maybe every once in awhile but not often. I’d rather ride on my CT at home in the winter. No driving anywhere. Jump on when i want to, listen or watch what i want etc.
Your store looks great. Just curious, are your computrainer classes modeled after a spinning class (showing a multi-rider computrainer mode), or do you use ergvideos, etc?
We charge $15 per session, or most people buy a punchcard (12 sessions) for $150… ($120 for club members). This route comes out to $10 per class. We’re by far the least expensive in chicagoland, and best coached if I must say so myself! They usually last 1hr to 1:15. Saturday classes are an hour and a half, Sundays we put on a course and let people ride 2-3 hours.
They are structured nothing like a spin class. Multi-ride Computrainer software is used (live feedback with wattage, HR, Cadence, etc). The whole program is a progressive one, generally beginning in November and running through March. We test threshold monthly to monitor and track progress, and throw in some team time trials throughout the winter to mix things up and keep it fun and competitive.
Here’s a little video of our last 2man team time trial:
a couple of observations. (1) definitely more likely to get real use if its possible to use the machines outside of a “class” context (2) classes are still potentially important to get people in, motivated and hooked (3) you have to get the pricing right to avoid the situation i was in. i used to train on CT’s at a center that had 14 machines. then my wife and i thought about what i was paying to do that, what it would cost for both of us, and how much a 2nd hand CT would cost. i dropped out of the classes and we got our own CT. originally i thought i might go back for the coaching side of it, but that seems more and more unlikely now (its been 2 years).
So it appears that my company (Fortune 100) is going to be going through a “work force re-prioritization.” It seems that they are having trouble meeting their financial targets. I’ve been through this before and as a contingency plan always start shopping around. But I’m thinking maybe it’s time to leave the corp. world and start up something of my own. I was looking at franchise opportunities, consulting in my field, and artisanal foods. I am also looking a purchasing a computrainer and just bought a huge plasma television for a rediculously low price. Add to this a live /work loft. It seems my city decided it needed to redevelop a downtown area and allowed a developer to build 40 live/work lofts. Of the 40, 19 sold at full price (2 years ago,) and then the bottom dropped out. They tried to auction them off at roughly 60% of what they sold for previously to no avail. The developer is now trying to sell off their other undeveloped parcel (which has sat vacant on a busy main street for 2 years) where they had planned another 40 of these units and is now trying to fire sale these lofts. They have sold a couple but there are still quite a few available with street frontage on a main arterial. As I drove by them today it dawned on me that the work area - which is on the ground level (the live area is on the 2nd floor) - would make a perfect indoor cycling center - you could easily fit 10-12 computrainers in there and play the course on a couple of 60" plasmas or through a projector on a roll down screen.
So here’s the question… if you had one of these places accessible… with all the video courses… would you and your buddies pay to ride it? For example you could bring your bike, pay a fee, and ride Kona. Granted the computrainer thing would have to be only a portion of the business…
I live in the Northeast and my local bike shop set one up. I do use it and its excelent. Most sessions have between 3-8 people at them and we do pay.
We’ve been tossing around the same prospect. I seriously worry about the seasonality - seems like it’ll get good use in the winter and then next to none or 7 months. I do think that many people don’t want to deal with the relative hassle/complexity of operating a computrainer in their basement and would rather travel a little and have the setup ready for them.
So it appears that my company (Fortune 100) is going to be going through a “work force re-prioritization.” It seems that they are having trouble meeting their financial targets. I’ve been through this before and as a contingency plan always start shopping around. But I’m thinking maybe it’s time to leave the corp. world and start up something of my own. I was looking at franchise opportunities, consulting in my field, and artisanal foods. I am also looking a purchasing a computrainer and just bought a huge plasma television for a rediculously low price. Add to this a live /work loft. It seems my city decided it needed to redevelop a downtown area and allowed a developer to build 40 live/work lofts. Of the 40, 19 sold at full price (2 years ago,) and then the bottom dropped out. They tried to auction them off at roughly 60% of what they sold for previously to no avail. The developer is now trying to sell off their other undeveloped parcel (which has sat vacant on a busy main street for 2 years) where they had planned another 40 of these units and is now trying to fire sale these lofts. They have sold a couple but there are still quite a few available with street frontage on a main arterial. As I drove by them today it dawned on me that the work area - which is on the ground level (the live area is on the 2nd floor) - would make a perfect indoor cycling center - you could easily fit 10-12 computrainers in there and play the course on a couple of 60" plasmas or through a projector on a roll down screen.
So here’s the question… if you had one of these places accessible… with all the video courses… would you and your buddies pay to ride it? For example you could bring your bike, pay a fee, and ride Kona. Granted the computrainer thing would have to be only a portion of the business…
The challenge is pricing… if you’re charging enough to earn decent money from say a 100 uses a week in winter it very quickly becomes worth heavy users buying their own, and work out in the comfort of home, particularly if they decide they can make-do without the watts.
Can you do multi-user with video btw?? My local place just shows the course profile with watts.