We have talked before about how RealRyder is much more than just a fitness equipment manufacturer! Whilst it’s true our stationary bike is becoming universally recognized as having revolutionized the indoor cycling world, the company goes way beyond just producing a great product.

Everywhere you look and with everyone who is involved with RealRyder, you see a real passion and enthusiasm that is difficult to generate and very refreshing to see in the modern business world. We are not just talking about RealRyder employees (although they are definitely passionate and enthusiastic!), but the wider “RealRyder Team” of studio owners, indoor cycling instructors and perhaps most significantly RealRyder customers!

Never has this been more apparent than last weekend with the two charity events where B-East and Sweat Therapy raised a combined $39,000 for Breast Cancer and the March of Dimes with RealRyder indoor cycling events in the Hamptons and Tallahassee. These events take a lot of organisation and hard work, but if you look at the pictures from both events, everyone had a lot of fun sweating their butts off for a great cause!

Trade Shows are another venue where the enthusiasm and enjoyment shows through, both here and from Europe where we get great reports and pictures from our colleagues in RealRyder Italy! You also see great friendships and relationships developing through these indoor cycling classes and a real sense of community. Sean Harrington our President quite rightly refers to it as the “RealRyder family”!

Not convinced? Take a look at the RealRyder Facebook Page and look at all the smiling faces in the pictures and videos on our page and all the other RealRyder Indoor Cycling Studio pages.

So where does this passion and enthusiasm come from, is our stationary bike really that good? Are people really having that much fun in our indoor cycling classes? The answer is yes to both questions, but there is something else as well! RealRyder cares passionately about looking after “our” people and these people are like us, they have an equal passion for fitness and people. It may well be what attracted them to our company and our unique stationary bike in the first place!

We often talk about the relationship between indoor cycling and outdoor cycling and how a RealRyder stationary bike really is different to other stationary bikes or spin bikes. We always love to get feedback on what we are writing and our president, Sean Harrington just sent us some great insights on both these two topics, which we wanted to share with you.

Hi Guys,

I love to read these articles, because they share so much good information that normally never comes out in advertising or even on a web page. Everything on the RealRyder Blog I have read is right on and so even though I want to comment there is very little more for me to say. Sometimes however it brings us thoughts that I want to share and this is one of those times.

Indoor cycling on any stationary bike with the right instructor will give you a good workout. The class member will burn lots of calories and during the workout will sweat like a fountain. The fact that you can get a good workout of this type on any conventional stationary bike makes it easy to confuse why you should use a RealRyder instead and what all of the excitement about our bike is all about. In a way good workouts in an indoor cycling class are easy to come by.

It is for the following reasons that RealRyder is more than a GOOD workout, RealRyder is a GREAT workout! The human body is very adaptive. When work we do is repeated your body and brain will find a way to do it with less effort. Working out is different than playing a sport or riding a bike outdoors in a race. When you ride competitively you want to adapt and perform more work with less effort, but when you are trying to get fit you need to trick your body into doing as much work as possible by keeping it from adapting.

On an old fashioned group cycling bike instructors find things to add to the workout to keep their students from being bored and to keep them from adapting, but unfortunately what they add often is not safe or it is in complete opposition to correct cycling form. For example “jumps” when riders pop up on the pedals in multiple sets or using hand weights to involve the upper body. These exercises are not compatible to outdoor cycling and one of the reasons more committed road and mountain bike cyclists don’t train in group cycling classes.

It is very important to change workouts constantly and the more variety there is in your workout, the more difficult it is for your body to adapt. RealRyder has more variety, because it has movement and this allows you to develop many more routines. With a well motivated and trained RealRyder instructor there are infinite types of workouts that can be performed.

The key is that all of the additional routines are used in real life cycling. There is nothing you do in a RealRyder class that doesn’t happen on the road. A RealRyder Indoor Cycling Center is a place that indoor and outdoor cyclists will both feel comfortable in.

Thank you Sean!

Have you tried one of our indoor cycling classes yet? It doesn’t matter whether you come from the road, mountain biking or triathlon. As Sean describes, it will feel relevant and as close as you can get to real outdoor riding! For those of you who are already into spin classes, you will feel right at home as well, but the RealRyder stationary bike will prevent your indoor cycling hitting a plateau and help you break through to the next level!

So check the Facility Search on the right to find the nearest location where you can try one of our indoor cycling classes. Sean makes some excellent points here, which will only be reinforced when you experience the RealRyder stationary bike and feel the difference for yourself!

We just wrote about two charity events that took place on RealRyder stationary bikes last weekend! Our own Adam Reid was at Sweat Therapy Fitness RealRyder Cycle Studio in Tallahassee leading their March of Dimes ride!

This event was an indoor cycling relay, which went on all day with 16 RealRyder stationary bikes being ridden by 16 teams from 9am through to 5pm! At least it was a relay for the team riders, Adam however rode the whole day (8 hours)! Now to put that into perspective the longest one day professional bike race is Milan – San Remo and that ONLY takes about six and a half hours!

Riding 8 hours is some achievement, but riding for that long indoors can create some additional difficulties, specifically boredom and discomfort! On most fixed stationary bikes, spinning bikes or even bike trainers you are really stuck in one position with little movement! This story is a testament to Adam’s fitness and endurance, but also to the forgiving nature of the RealRyder “moving” stationary bike, that you can ride it for extended periods without discomfort. We talked about this in a blog titled How Long is Good on a Stationary Bike? back in April.

We asked Adam to tell us about his eight hour day on a stationary bike!

I didn’t have much of a plan and just went for it – the intensity of the first class was relatively high and it stayed very lively throughout – with new people transitioning in every 30 to 60 minutes for the relay I essentially repeated the first class 8 times. The only weird thing was finishing the first three classes looking up at the clock and cheerfully announcing “Ok team only five more hours to go”!

The amazing April was my domestique for the day and she kept me going with orange juice and soy lattes – Fabio Biasolo (an Ultra Distance Cycling Champion, who works with RealRyder) told me he once went through 200 oranges over 24 hours during one of his Race Across America events so I thought I’d try the same. I think I drank 96 ounces of OJ and went through probably half that in water. I took a couple of bathroom breaks but otherwise I was on the bike for the whole ride.

I had fantastic support from DJ Willie Brown and we played off each other really nicely – he played a track I rode to it – if I didn’t like it I’d give him a hand signal and he’d mix something else in – it was seamless and I loved working with him.

Surprisingly my legs felt fine. My head still feels like it’s full of cotton wool but physically I’m good – testament to the bike no doubt – I can’t imagine doing that many consecutive hours on a “stationary” indoor bike – also the boredom would have done me in, way before my legs gave out!

Adam makes it sound simple, doesn’t he! Apart from having the right tool for the job with the RealRyder tilting stationary bike, great support and a huge amount of positive group energy, he had one other essential element – fitness! Where does Adam’s fitness come from? He puts in many hours every week teaching RealRyder Indoor Cycling Classes and training instructors!

Sweat Therapy is a great place to work out, with an excellent team of instructors and a variety of different indoor cycling classes on the RealRyder stationary bikes! For more information on Sweat Therapy Fitness, click on their logo on the right to go to their website and Facebook Page which you can access through the website.

So if you want to do longer indoor cycling sessions, do them on a RealRyder moving stationary bike!

This is the second part of “Indoor Cycling for Charity”! The stories of two RealRyder Indoor Cycling Studios raising money for charity at the weekend! We told you about Sweat Therapy and the March of Dimes, here is more on indoor cycling energy being channeled into fundraising with the B-East story! We have featured B-East in the Hamptons before it is a very popular indoor cycling studio in Amagansett, NY and on Saturday they were raising money to fight Breast Cancer.

The event was to raise funds for the Ellen Hermanson Foundation and Ellen’s Well, two charities that provide support to local breast cancer survivors. The day started with a two hour indoor cycling ride, with all 44 of B-East’s RealRyder stationary bikes in use! After the high energy ride was an equally high energy “Cancer Sucks” party at the D’Canela Restaurant next door!

Now to the serious business, B-East raised over $26,000 with more donations still coming in! So congratulations to Romaine and B-East for making this happen and thanks to everyone who made it to Amagansett on Saturday to support this great event!

Last word to the owner and organizer Romaine Maxwell:

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT WORKED SO HARD TO MAKE THIS EVENT SUCH A HUGE SUCCESS!

Whether you sponsored a rider, were a rider, donated an auction item, bought or sold raffle tickets or were one of the instructors on Saturday…..THANK YOU!

So that’s it “Indoor Cycling for Charity” – Part Two!

You can get more information about B-East by clicking on their logo or going to their Facebook page for the latest updates, plus a lot more photos from this event! Hamptons.com also wrote a great article about B-East’s Breast Cancer fundraiser!

So if you are going to be in the Hamptons this summer and you are looking for a great workout venue check out B-East; they don’t just have the RealRyder stationary bikes! Take a look at their website for all the details on different classes and instructors!

RealRyder Indoor Cycling Studios were busy raising money for charity at the weekend! While B-East in the Hamptons were raising money to fight Breast Cancer, Sweat Therapy in Tallahassee were raising money for the March of Dimes! We know RealRyder people are passionate and hard working and it’s great to see all this indoor cycling energy being directed at such great causes! More on B-East in the next post, this is the Sweat Therapy Fitness RealRyder Cycle Studio story!

Sweat Therapy have just moved to a new location due to the popularity of their indoor cycling classes and ran the March of Dimes Charity Event in conjunction with re-opening their doors on Saturday June 12th. The event took the form of an 8 hour indoor cycling relay and they raised $13,000 to benefit babies through March of Dimes! This  is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

This was an all day event with 16 bikes being ridden by 16 teams from 9am to 5pm! Sweat Therapy certainly live up to their name – 8 hours on stationary bikes? Impressive! We have some pictures from the event and they have a lot more on their Facebook Page which you can access through the website link below.

Shannon Colavecchio, one of the instructors at Sweat Therapy and heavily involved in organising this event, wrote a great blog about the work involved (organising and participating!) and the satisfaction of pulling something like this together. Here is the link to Shannon’s blog, which is definitely worth reading!

So if you are looking for a great place to work out in Florida, check out Sweat Therapy; they have an excellent team and run a variety of great indoor cycling classes, all on the unique RealRyder stationary bike! Their New address is:

The Manor @ Midtown
1122 Thomasville Road,
Tallahassee, FL
Next To Finnegan’s Wake

For more information on Sweat Therapy Fitness, click on their logo on the right to go to their website.

Congratulations and thanks to everyone who made it to Tallahassee on Saturday and gave their energy and money! Indoor Cycling for Charity – great job everyone!