Originally Posted by chaadster

Wow, I thought spin bikes have been standard equipment in gyms for at least 10 years. I can’t recall exactly, but I think I took my first spinning class in the previous century, like ’98/’99, and I felt like I was behind the curve then!

We have a community of about 1,500 residents and we are the largest community in the county so, yeah, we are very rural. The community is very lucky to have a benefactor from the area who established a foundation. Among their good works are a community center that houses a library, community room, and a gym that includes a walking track, full size swimming pool, raquetball/wallyball courts, and a small resistance training area that is mostly Nautalus with a few free weights. The foundation also had a lot to do with equipping the rehabilitation center at the local hospital.

There has always been an Airdyne style “stationary bike” and a recumbent machine that uses a pedaling motion but otherwise looks more like a lounge chair. Due mainly to room, but also to interest, there were never spin bikes. I never heard what changed but three spin bikes were added about two years ago. They rarely get used and sit against the back wall of the community room (which also houses the big screen and DVD player). I used one of the bikes quite a bit last winter and never had to reset the size adjustments because nobody else used it. The fitness center also purchased three hybrid bicycles that they loan out during the summer but they got very little use. I saw the signup sheet for it a few days ago and there were only about 15 sign-outs the entire summer.

Recently a trainer from a not to far away larger city opened her own training business and has been gathering a following, mostly in the 20-30 something female clientele, but she has sparked interest in something beyond basic aerobics classes. She hung up a sign-up sheet for spin classes. I’m sure the focus will be aerobics but I’m hoping it might spark more interest in cycling in general.

We have a beautiful area for cycling with many paved rural roads with wide shoulders. Flat land with occasional rolling hills and very little traffic (except during sugarbeet harvest which is going on now). We have a lot of runners in the area but cycling is pretty much limited to recreational pursuits around town. You see very few cyclists out on the road until you get over by lakes country.