Your first ride is $10
Thirty minutes, one bike with your name on it, and a room that is louder than you expect. Nobody is watching you. Everybody is working.
Here is everything that happens between walking through the door on Riverside Avenue and walking back out with wet hair.
What to bring
Water and a towel. Both of them, every time. Thirty minutes on a bike in a dark room moves more sweat than the number suggests, and you will want the towel long before the last song.
Shoes that match the class. Sculpt happens off the bike, so tennis shoes are what you want. Cycle and Fusion put you on the bike, and the bike wants cycling shoes with cleats.
The shoe situation
The bikes take SPD and Delta cleats. If you don't own cycling shoes yet, ask the desk about shoe rental when you book.
That is the honest answer, and it is worth asking before you arrive rather than at the door. If you are booking a Sculpt class, none of this applies: tennis shoes and you are set.
Arrive fifteen minutes early
Fifteen minutes, not five. The desk sets your bike up with you, and it is not a formality. Seat height, fore and aft, handlebars, then clipping in and out a couple of times until it stops feeling like a puzzle.
A bike set to somebody else's legs is the single most common reason a first class hurts in the wrong places. Fifteen minutes fixes it once, and after that the setup is yours.
How the gears work
There is one knob, and it is the whole gearbox. Turn it right and the flywheel gets heavier, like riding uphill. Turn it left and it lightens, like the road flattening out.
When the instructor says add a turn, that means one full rotation of the knob to the right. Add two turns and the hill gets steeper. Take a turn off and you are back on flat ground. The calls come out loud, in time, and nobody minds if your turn is a little smaller than the rider next to you. The resistance is yours.
What the class feels like
The lights drop, the first track starts, and the warm-up is gentle enough that you will wonder what the fuss is about. Light resistance, legs turning, the instructor talking you through the bike one more time. Then the first climb arrives: the knob goes right, the cadence slows, your legs start telling you about it, and the room gets quiet in that way a room does when everyone is working.
Sprints come after. Resistance drops, legs go fast, and the whole thing lasts less time than it feels like. That pattern repeats, climb and sprint, with just enough flat road between them to get your breath back. Somewhere in the middle you stop counting.
The last song is always the loudest, and you will find something left in your legs that you were sure had gone. Then the resistance comes off, the lights come up a little, and the stretch takes a few minutes on and off the bike. You clip out, wipe the bike down, and walk out into Riverside feeling like the day started over.
Claim the $10 first ride
Give us a first name and an email and the code comes back to you. New riders only, one per person.
Bring the code to the desk, or use it when you book a bike. Either works.
Pick the bike you want
The whole week is on the schedule with the spots that are still open. Choose a class, choose a bike, and the room is yours for thirty minutes.