Jan 26, 2009

Global Ride, a new video productions company producing “virtual ride” cycling training DVDs, has a mission of getting outdoor cyclists inside during the off-season.

Too many outdoor cyclists think that indoor cycling, or Spinning ®, is a substandard method of training. For that matter, too many indoor cyclists never go outside and ride. We want to motivate outdoor cyclists to come inside by providing them an experience that feels like the outdoors and utilizes true cycling training principles. In turn, we hope this will also motivate hardcore indoor cyclists to want to get out and encounter the scenery for real.

A first-person video perspective, multiple coaching tracks, great audio and video of exotic locations are the tools these DVDs use to get riders involved with the ride.

Perfect for any home or commercial gym setting, the DVDs promise to deliver high-quality training and superior value over the other virtual cycling DVDs available on the market.

“There isn’t much out there,” says Global Ride spokesperson Jeff Saporito. “We have created the best product, and for a purpose. We have a mission to bridge the worlds of cycling, not just fill the market with DVDs. We want to convince people to look past their preconceptions and cycle outside their boundaries.”

To learn more about Global Ride Video Productions and their virtual ride DVDs for Spinning® and indoor cycling, visit www.globalride.net.

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Global Ride has announced the next series in their line of virtual ride DVDs will showcase Italy, taking riders on a journey through Veneto and one of Italy’s smallest regions: the Ligurian coast.

“Most people don’t like staring at walls, watches, clocks or sweaty butts while they suffer through an indoor cycling class,” says Global Ride. “Even many training DVDs still have you looking at butts or getting yelled at. Ours are different.” The feedback to the Hawaii series has been overwhelmingly positive, both from individuals and club owners utilizing the technology in their group cycling sessions.

The Italy series promises to capitalize on Global Ride’s standards of quality established by their Hawaii Series; high-energy commercial music, a first-person perspective that moves at the rider’s pace, superior butt-free video that isn’t overwhelmed by graphics, bonus yoga/pilates/strength training sessions and multiple selectable coaching tracks provided by a new team of professional cyclists. The DVDs are professionally designed to provide superior training for indoor or outdoor cyclists.

The series is to be released as three DVDs, available separately (US$29.95) or in a boxed set containing all three (US$74.95). A specific release date is TBA, but it is expected to launch before the end of this year’s winter training season.

To learn more about Global Ride Video Productions and their virtual ride DVDs for Spinning® and indoor cycling, visit www.globalride.net.

Now that the ads are finished, you can watch them in all their glory. A lovely voiceover track has been added to each one and, well, we like them. Here you go:

And also watch the Maui Rollers and StrenDurance videos.

Here are some of the new advertisements for our virtual cycling DVDs.  They’re actually not completely finished - we’re going to record some fancy voiceover tracks to tell you all about the wonderfulness that is our product.  But, until then, you can at least enjoy the purely visual version (accompanied by the auditory magic of Andy Hunter).  

 

Above is the Oceanside Ride commercial.  Click here and here for the StrenDurance and Maui Rollers commercials, respectively.

With the launch of our new website and the relocation of this blog from Cycling Fusion, we’ve changed our look a bit.  Adopting the Global Ride colors and a cleaner presentation, this new format should do well to lead us on with our blogging joy.

As we continue to evolve, things are coming together.  A few commercials have been recently produced to advertise each Global Ride DVD and you should be able to see them online soon.  We’ve also been mentally scheming some fun and quite silly viral video ideas that will hopefully be produced over the course of the next week or two.  Everyone likes a chuckle.  And a Snickers.  Unfortunately, I’m not going to send you a Snickers, so you’ll have to make do with the chuckle.

As mentioned many times throughout this blog, our virtual cycling DVDs are now available online at our store.  They’re also being sold through Amazon and eBay, so if you head to one of those places you’ll be able to pick them up simply by searching for the company name.

So, you’ve been hearing about, reading about, and watching tons of videos about these Global Ride virtual cycling dvds. We’ve been making some big claims - that they will redefine the world of indoor cycling and become the next big thing - that they can combine the worlds of indoor and outdoor cyclists - that they are just plain awesome cycling DVDs. But, you may be wondering, what are they really all about? How can they really benefit the indoor cycling experience? Well, your answers are here.

The official website for Global Ride Video Productions has gone online, and can be found at www.globalride.net. All the information you could need about Global Ride and our virtual cycling DVDs, coaches, cross training for cyclists, audio, and more.

Our temporary online store is still the place to purchase the DVDs. There are a billion and three links to it on the above mentioned site, but in case you want a direct link, click here. A new, bigger, better, and permanent store is coming your way very soon.

Get on the bike, pal.

For 2009, let’s all resolve to stop making promises we can’t keep, and let’s just find someone that is willing to tell us to stop whining and give us one swift kick in the pants. We need to just get our lives back.

[caption id="attachment_211" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Gene taking his life back!"][/caption]

We have become a nation of excuse makers. Instead of admitting we are lazy, we say we are busy. Instead of being honest about our eating, we claim we just “can’t seem to do anything to lose weight”. Instead of being disciplined with our time, we complain that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. We have become overweight, out of shape, and worst of all, we feel justified because everyone else tells us that it’s “OK”.

Since when did it become politically correct to make your friends and family feel good about becoming a health risk and flirting with heart disease, diabetes and worse. Somehow we’ve convinced ourselves that we really can’t do anything about the way we look, the way we feel, or even what we do, because life just gets in the way. We remind ourselves, and those in our circle of influence, that life today isn’t as simple as it once was, and that we barely have enough energy to just keep up. Jobs, kids, family obligations, commitments to friends, church or community involvement, all seem to come before our own selves. We rationalize that we are doing it for them, and thus, we are able to let our own health and well being take the proverbial back seat on the procrastination train to nowhere.

The obvious problem with this is that we are not as good an employee, a spouse, a parent or even church and community member if we are in poor health or depressed or both. We will be better at everything we do if we are healthier, happier, and confident that we can overcome the pressures of life.

I posit that the pace of life now requires a new outlook; one that does not feel defeated before we begin, one that understands that the proper response to a more complex life is a higher level of determination, not acquiescence to our circumstances. I say we need to stop co-miserating with friends who likewise have not found a way, and find someone who has; someone who can help us overcome our circumstances. Maybe this someone, will give us an old fashion kick in the pants to help us stop complaining, stop making excuses, and make the decision to take our lives back!

I say it’s time to set our minds on something extraordinary, something we never thought possible. It’s time to grab that dream we always thought was out of reach, or for elite athletes only, and think for at least a moment “What if I could actually do that?” It’s time to pick a goal so big, that once accomplished, we will never let the hurdles of life loom larger than we see our legs leaping.

With this, we will stop making excuses and start making plans. We will quit complaining and find all the reasons why instead of why not. Once and for all, we will decide to make our own circumstances and shape our own lives, as we want them to be.

For this end result, I would welcome one swift kick in the pants!

Because I care,

Gene Nacey

WOW, what a ride!   I’m glad to be home, but it has already been 5 days, and only now am I getting a chance to wind down.  After recording 3 LIVE classes, they had to be mixed into the final DVD masters and sent off for duplication ASAP.  While we won’t actually make the Christmas deadline, we will get them done hopefully before the New Years – just in time for starting off the year right.  It was more than crazy, but we pulled it off.

On a personal note, one of the best things about this GINORMOUS (gigantic-enormous for the literarily challenged) effort was how much I enjoyed Paul’s company.  God has blessed me with a son-in-law who is not only a good husband to my daughter and a good father to my grand kids, but he is turning out to be a good friend too.  He was indispensable, generous and as hard working as one could ever hope for in a “right hand man”.  This was a big risk – tight quarters, continual interaction for 12 stress filled days, but we actually had a good time (in an exhausting sort of way☺).

Here’s the link for our current press release so those who may come into this story late will get caught “up to speed” in one document/blog post or less.  Now all we need to make this a real sustainable business, is to sell about 5,000 DVDs ☺.

The last stop of the tour has come and passed. Don’t worry, there’s no reason to boo-hoo. Put down your handkerchief, good sir. Another tour will come again someday. In the meantime, buy yourself the DVDs and take your own virtual ride on your own bike, right in the comfort of your own home, in your Mr. Clean boxer shorts. No bike? Find a facility in your area that offers virtual ride classes and take a trip with the group.

Gene and Paul preceded this final event with a real meal at a real restaurant. No Subway or gelato as meal replacement today. They even stayed in a real hotel, in the heart of a real city - clearly going all out for their last stop of an oppressively long tour.

The last facility was (and still is) located in Minnesota. You know Minnesota - the birthplace of Judy Garland and Bob Dylan, the place where the pop-up toaster was invented, the place where the sweet tones of the state song “Someday the Vikings Will… Aw, Nevermind” can be heard throughout the great snowy hills. The facility was also the smallest they visited, but as long as diamonds remain a girl’s best friend, good things will continue to come in small packages. Outside it was a reportedly balmy 31 degrees, a near tropical heat wave in December for the fine residents of Minnesota.

Pedal Indoor Cycling Studio was a quaint little boutique style nook packed full of goodness. Indoor cycling is all they do, and wouldn’t you know, they already had four screens on their wall in front of the bikes. Having experienced with sub-par virtual ride cycling dvds in the past, they were excited to try our new product and see how it differed. On top of that, the lovely John MacGowan of Indoor Cycling Instructor Podcast stopped by to take the class and interview Gene in person about the project, the mission and whether or not he’d saved any more people’s lives lately. The above link will take you to John’s website, where you can find the interview magnificently captured in YouTube form.

So, back to business, Billy. The club (hereby known as Pedal) was in the process of soundproofing their facility, as they are located in the bottom of a residential building. They had acquired special permission to bust out the subwoofer and extra speakers for the event, allowing Gene to rattle the floorboards with his booming chants of enthusiastic motivation and effectively utilize the wonderful music that exists on the DVDs. There was a good turnout that included several instructors, and as usual, the crowd really got into the experience.

One of John’s friends from the DC area traveled to the Minneapolis area and attended the event. She is the one noted as the “leaner” in the YouTube video. Her previous experience with other virtual ride DVDs was negative, and she was interested in seeing how we are different. Long story short; she was pleased. As were the other attendees, who had a good time and provided us with great feedback after the class. Gene publicly thanked Paul for all his support and dedication in the most embarrassing way possible, as is Gene’s style, and thus concluded their voyage.

Having completed quite a journey, the fellows headed to the airport for the final flight back home to Pittsburgh. Arriving at the wrong terminal at the airport, they had a true Planes, Trains and Automobiles experience. Thankfully, after a Home Alone style hustle through the halls (TWO movie references in this paragraph, folks), a ride on the light rail and cardiac arrest, they made it and got back to the Steel City at around 1am.

Cue the pig, because that’s all, folks.

The fellows finally enjoyed their last bit of road driving on Day 10, as they traveled from the Los Angeles area down to San Diego. En route, they stopped at a shop full of hundreds of beach cruiser bikes and looked around. Gene’s brother and nephew, people who don’t particularly do indoor cycling, also joined them for the day and for the following demonstration.

There was a yoga class scheduled immediately before their demo, so the team had to set up and get things assembled a few hours prior, go get some food (probably Subways and gelato) and return. When they did, they found 30 anxious, hyper bikers waiting to get inside.

As you’ll notice in the video, the demonstration at Fitness West in San Diego was a unique night for the Global Ride team. Why, you say? Watch the video and you won’t ask such silly questions, that’s why! It was because the room was not full of typical health club-goers. These weren’t indoor cyclists who were treading an alternate path for their daily workout. In fact, they weren’t fitness club members at all. No, sir, the people at Fitness West were from the San Diego Bicycle Club. Many riding on trainers instead of Spin bikes, these were true outdoor cycling organization folks who came inside to give our new method of training a try.

The class was handled as a steady state heart rate environment. The purpose of such a thing is to maintain a consistent heart rate through the entire ride. This is impossible for people to do outside, as they have to deal with weather, terrain, traffic, and all the other start-and-stop problems that get in their face. However, it is super duper important and imperative for supreme cardiovascular development - and something that outdoor cyclists should do. Thus, the wisdom of Gene Edward Nacey was conveyed upon the masses through the majesty of indoor cycling, with a little help from his digital projector. Needless to say by now, all the cyclists enjoyed the ride more than they thought they would.

About 1/3 of the attendees were actually wearing heart monitors. This was surprising, as it is such a great tool for people to wear, and that number really ought to be higher. Doing a steady state heart rate ride (say that 10 times fast) did encourage a few people to go buy heart monitors, as you’ll see in the video. They saw the benefit and realized that they could have more efficiently trained during the class. It adds an essential level and control and, well, monitoring to the training. It helps you train smarter, not harder - and that’s always a good thing.