I’ve recently taken a new job at my local YMCA. I have a pretty cool mix of responsibilities between aquatics and fitness and one of those is to develop new programs for our members. There is a program that I would like to start but want to see what the tri community thinks of it.
The main question is…
Would you pay (and how much) to bring your bike in to the Y to set up on a “Y-owned” trainer with 19 other cyclists and take part in an indoor cycling class run by another cyclist or triathlete? Feel free to reply yes or no, and I would love to hear some rationale for or against. Remember, I’m very curious how much you would pay…assuming the cost was per class ranging from 60-120 mintues.
Not sure where you live, but in Calgary, Alberta where we long cold winters indoor cycling is definitely popular. Last year I paid about $15 a session. May be good to offer a 5 or 10 card pass for a small discount over single-time drop in fees.
Local rec centers typically charge ~$3/session for classes.
I doubt I’d pay unless it was an indoor TT series. Possibly if it was a cycling/tri specific class, there was an erg program, and the cost was relatively low (<$5/session).
No. Why haul my bike and rent a trainer when most have one at home or with in a few sessions could pay to buy their own. Save the time hauling and driving and use it to train more. I guess if you like people maybe but since I hate most people hell no.
Thank you for the honesty. Obviously I anticipate some people will have this view, which is why I’m looking for feedback. But since you wrote “Why haul my bike and rent a trainer when most have one at home or with in a few sessions could pay to buy their own.” Here’s my reply!
Being around the sport for over 10 years, I see how much people enjoy (even need) the company of others to get some motivation in their workouts and training. Sure, I could invite my friends over to my basement to ride, but I don’t want them dinging my walls carrying in their bike or stinking up my house with their sweat. For the same reason some people pay for exercise classes, I think it would be a neat addition to their winter training.
People who are serious enough about the sport to do that probably already have their own trainers/rollers.
Being with a group adds a little benefit to the typical monotonous indoor training.
I can’t see paying more than $5 for a session and I wouldn’t do it if I had to buy the Y membership as well.
As of last week (before I bought my own rollers) I’d pay probably $5/hour for something like this:
-Bring your own bike at any time
-Trainer available
-Once you do your business on the trainer, some statistic (distance or joules generated) is recorded and added to a leaderboard
-Top positions on the leaderboard at the end of winter gets some percentage of the total revenue as a prize.
It’s a huge pain to haul my bike anywhere (compact car, no bike rack), so there’d have to be a pretty sweet reason to do my exercising at the Y instead of at home. Plus, since I’d probably be coming to or from work on my way to the Y, that means my expensive bike is sitting in full view in/on my car all day.
Incentives that the Y trainer could have that I couldn’t get at home:
-Competition against others in the fairly competition-bare winter
-Some other people around, though my social brain turns to mush when working out, so this isn’t a huge plus
-Prize money/equipment/race entries.
I would pay for indoor group cycling rides for a Computrainer group ride. I’d not likely be interested in this service if it was just a group of people riding trainers. I’d prefer to just ride in my basement with a couple buds.
If you’re a good coach and make a fun, interactive class, I would definitely pay. Preferably $10 or less, but if you’re excellent, I can spend more.
There was a local coach who did paid indoor sessions at a bike store in Socal - they were excellent, and I definitely kicked my rear way harder in the session than I would otherwise on my own. It’s also a nice opportunity to make friends with a mixed level of triathletes - I’m not uber fast, but am fast enough that most casual triathletes can’t ride with me, and I end up riding with the same 5 guys on every group ride. It was fun to be able to ride with raw beginners and guys stronger than me - I got motivated by the ‘crusher’ in the group, and similarly, I’m pretty sure I motivated a lot of the beginners or slackers there with my cups of sweat. (I poured out over a cup of sweat in an hour from my Cycleops riser block once, for real.)
It’ll depend on the tri community where you are , how good you are, and how convenient the sessions. Winter’s always a good time - there’s pretty much nowhere to ride if it’s snowing outside and even diehards would welcome a group session. The single biggest limiting factor for me doing more of them was driving to the session in rush hour in Socal, which was incredibly painful. Otherwise, I loved it.
Not sure where you live, but in Calgary, Alberta where we long cold winters indoor cycling is definitely popular. Last year I paid about $15 a session. May be good to offer a 5 or 10 card pass for a small discount over single-time drop in fees.
which program did you do that with since there are quite a few in town.
Critical Speed does have drop ins for some sessions. The indoor bricks are worth every penny.
I doubt it then. I already pay my membership fee, I already have a trainer at home that I use, and when I want company, I join the drop in performance cycling class on the spin bikes for no extra fee. Just sayin’.
19 other like minded athletes, ie. those training to achieve goals
video distractions
and most importantly, trainers with power. I’m not saying have 20 computrainers at $1000 each, but some sort of trainer that gives a power reading, like KK which estimates power based on MPH.
I would love to be able to offer a trainer with some type of power, but that’s just not practical. It’s a YMCA, they aren’t going to drop that much on this equipment, not yet anyway.
Let me add these to the list of incentives… (again, this would be in the winter months)
You’d be riding YOUR bike, not a SPIN bike. Work on your position all winter.
Pool on location for pre or post ride swims.
Treadmills on location for pre or post ride runs.
Shower facility on location
You don’t have to clean up, just take your bike with you.
No nagging spouse at home yelling at you to stop working out, or for being too loud, or for making a mess, or for…
I coach Masters Swimming at our local Y and the fee for that is $25fee per month. No a big fee but a charge none the less. The point is there is precident for other activities in Y’s programs.
There’s a local cycle center near me and I paid to go to it (gift card for Christmas) but I used it to get a package…I have a trainer and have access to gyms with spin bikes already but I don’t get good enough workouts. The setup there is pretty good though, about a dozen computrainers with Erg video on the big screen with a power summary overlay of everyone in the class with a variety of courses depending on the day. I wouldn’t pay if it didn’t have that but honestly had some of my best workouts of the year in there I think. If you are just talking spin bikes then obviously there are plenty of gyms that have that included with the membership.
