The sun was out. Jeanne’s Body Tech was deliciously positioned against the horizon. The Spinning room was not a unique entity, but an area of a larger gymnasium of athletic goodness. The lights were on. This was the first time doing a virtual ride in a room that wasn’t dark. It did make the presentation a bit more difficult, but it was no big deal. Everyone was still into it. Everyone had a great time and was very enthusiastic. And Mr. Gene Nacey learned some very valuable information…

1/3 of the attendees in the class had never done an endurance ride. Now, to many people, that might not be a heart-stopping figure of numerical insanity - but it is to someone like Gene. And for good reason, mind you. And here’s why:

Global Ride DVD series are designed to be more than just following a camera riding down a road. They were designed and filmed on the backs of solid cycling principles. As we’ve said before, the mission of the DVDs and the Cycling Fusion website are to bring together the two worlds of cycling - indoor and outdoor - through community and information. The DVDs follow cycling principles used by real outdoor cyclists, on the real road, in real situations, for specific purposes with accurate training and development. The fact that 1/3 of the attendees of this class had never done an endurance ride proves that this type of product and informative community is needed. And here’s why:

75% of cycling-based training should be endurance training. The video we showed at Jeanne’s Body Tech was an endurance ride. The people were BEAT, but loved it. A lot of clubs do not do endurance rides at all (big mistake). They are normally boring, long, and horribly challenging. But here, we were able to show people what an endurance ride really can be. And not only that, but that an endurance ride can be fun and enjoyable as well. All of this was one of our inspirations for getting into video in the first place - it gives people proper training and eliminates excuses for not doing the hard stuff. If you can make an endurance ride fun, you can do anything.

The club was fantastic and the people gave us excellent feedback. The owner was thrilled and very excited to start a video Spin class. Another success! A big thank you to everyone at JBT.

Next stop: Miami. Saturday’s Miami demonstration was scheduled for 9:00am. Thus, the boys drove all day, out of Georgia and into Florida as fast as they possibly could. And here’s why:

Paul stole a mug at Waffle House.

Wednesday night, Paul and Gene hit the Boston area - Wellesley, to be exact. The area is home to Spynergy Cycling Studio, the location of the night’s demonstration. I just got off the phone with Gene and have all the info on the night’s presentation, the Boston facility, and exceptionally expensive haircuts.

I should probably explain that last one… it seems the fellows were feeling a bit Jeremiah Johnson and decided they’d better find a place to get their hair cut before the night’s show. From what I was told, Paul is a barber man, and Gene is a salon man. Unfortunately, the barber was a cash-only facility (and perhaps a money laundering racket), so Paul was forced to man up and hit the salon with Gene. It was a nice place. So nice, in fact, that they left freshly trimmed, with smiles on their faces, and $200 lighter. Hopefully for that price they were given hair treatment that will prevent their hair from ever growing again.

And then there was the show. (Yeah, I know, you almost view this as the insignificant part of the story, huh?) Another full house of about 30 bikes, riding away in another facility that really scored with being properly equipped and well advertised. The ride went really well and lots of people came up to talk and comment about how refreshing the experience was. Perhaps one of the highlights of the evening is that Spynergy doesn’t typically hold a wednesday night Spin class - so a special session was created in promotion of this event. In my eyes, that says something to their interest and belief in the virtual ride DVDs being an awesome project.

The other highlight of the evening was that around 50% or more of the attendees identified themselves as outdoor cyclists. This is an unusually high number of outdoor people to find in an indoor setting, and spoke to the mission of Global Ride DVDs and Cycling Fusion. The session attracted these people to the event, taught them about joining the two cycling worlds, took them on a unique ride, and left them thinking. And that, my friends, is our goal with Cycling Fusion and the DVD product.

Tonight is Bethesda, MD - outside of Washington DC.

Take a look at the other YouTube videos if you haven’t so far, and check out Gene’s interview with John MacGowan in the previous post. We’re looking forward to getting more responses and feedback about out development, so please don’t hesitate to post a comment as well!

Adieu.

There is something about the proverbial “road trip”.  Is it the adventure of new places, new faces, or just that we can’t wait to get away from the same-old, same-old.  Is it memories of taking those family vacations, mom & dad driving all night, you playing games and annoying your big brother in the back seat, or does it instead conjure up more Chevy Chase’s “Vacation” memories than you’d like to think about.

Well I’m writing this blog post from the co-pilot’s seat in our rented mini-van/road show vehicle.  We will drive to N.Y. City for 3 Global Rides in Brooklyn over 2 days, then it will off to Boston, DC, Atlanta & Miami before we leave the car and fly for the remaining itinerary out west.

I’ve prepared my opening comments, and so I thought I’d share them here:

My name is Gene Nacey.  I am the founder of Global Ride Video Productions.   This has been a labor of love for me and my team for about 18 months now.  We believe that video in general will be the next big trend in Spinning® or Indoor Cycling studios across the country.  More specifically though, we believe the virtual ride will be what provides the catalyst to this movement.

While I know we are not first, and more companies are jumping into this space even as we launch our first series, we are not just targeting cyclists training at home, but these DVDs are also designed specifically for Indoor Cycling or Spinning classes as well.

This is because we are not just a video production company, but we also have a training center in PA as well.  We are a group of avid cyclists in both the indoor and outdoor environments, and we see these DVDs as much more than just selling discs.  We are on a mission to bring the world of Indoor Cycling or Spinning® together with the world of outdoor cycling of all types – road riding, mountain biking, even rail trail riding.  It’s our desire to see the indoor only crowd experience the freedom and adventure of the open air, and to show the outdoor cyclist how much fun training indoors can be, and how much stronger a rider they can become with good indoor training.  We think the addition of video can really be the bridge between these two groups.

When we finish the ride, I’ll tell you a little more about the DVDs and our new website Cycling Fusion where we are attempting to build an online community of those folks who have discovered the beauty and power of both worlds of cycling – indoors and out!

Starting tomorrow, we will let Jeff do our daily updates, and upload small YouTube videos of each location where we show the DVD.  You’ll like his writing style much more than my “get to the point” aproach.

I’ve started, stopped, contemplated, written, thrown away, yelled at, and lost more sleep over this first post more than even my sleep deprived lifestyle can handle.  Then I realized – just say it… they’ll get it.  People are always way smarter than you think.  So, I’ll cut to the chase.  Are you ready?  Here it is:

We need each other

That’s it.  In a nutshell, this is really why I am starting the internet community called Cycling Fusion.  Outdoor cyclists, and indoor “Spinners” (or as I like to refer to them as simply “riders”) need each other.  We need each other if we want our sport, our activity of choice to grow, to get better, to improve, to attract fresh ideas and new energy into an otherwise stagnating field.  Nothing will kill something quite so slowly and effectively as resistance to change.  We can combine forces, talents, interests, abilities, creative ideas and overall energy to insure that both indoor and outdoor cycling will never stagnate, but instead will surge with new enthusiasm and new venues for expression and experience.

What do you think?  Too serious right?  Maybe too vague too.  Alright let me try again.  Are you ready?  Here it is:

Try it, you’ll like it

That’s it.  Ignorance is the Berlin Wall of progress.  I have heard the most incredulous reasons why an avid outdoor cyclist doesn’t Spin or ride indoors, and why the indoor enthusiast “won’t ever ride outside”.  In 99.9% of every story or reason I hear, there is a root of ignorance; a lack of understanding, a misconception that is so big, that pure logic and reason often can not overcome it.  For example, if a dedicated outdoor cyclist says to me, “Spinning will mess you up man, it will ruin your cycling” – not only don’t I know where to begin, I have probably no chance to reason with a generalization so grand that it contradicts the performance of professionals and Olympians alike.  On the other hand, if an indoor Spinning addict (and believe me, they do exist) tells me “I’ll never ride outside, I have no interest, never have, never will”.  What do you do with that?  It’s like someone asking me to try a mayonnaise mustard sandwich – you can’t come up with the right combination of words and emotions to get that one passed my lips.  OK, these are the extreme ends of the spectrum, but there is just about every shade of gray between these to bookends of black.  Believe me, I’ve heard them.

What about that one?   Better?  A little dramatic you say… hmm…  I’ve got it – Are you ready?   Here it is:

God told me to tell you

That’s it… ☺.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist.  No, God didn’t tell me to tell you.  Not that He doesn’t exist, or that He doesn’t speak to people.  It’s just that, well, I have a hard enough time hearing from Him for myself, so to presume to tell someone else… uh oh, I’m getting off target.  OK, back on point… I’ve got it – are you ready?  Here it is:

It will make you sexy

That’s it… cycling indoors and outdoors will give you the year long continuity in calorie burning and muscle toning that will eventually give you the body you want.  Then, in absolute confidence, you finally have a legitimate excuse to wear snug, body hugging spandex to show off the new you!   Oops, I just realized this is one of the reasons people don’t ride outside – yikes!

Well, I’ve gone from the serious, to the rational, to the crazy voices in my head, to the silly.  I still don’t know where to start.  I guess I’m stuck with the original mission statement for Cycling Fusion, maybe it does describe the WHY, but the WHAT – that is totally up to you!

To expose the Indoor crowd to the joys of riding outside, and to show the Outdoor crowd that group cycling indoors is one of the best (and most fun) training environments possible.

Let’s start from here.  The next post I will attempt to explain (in a less circuitous fashion) why I just couldn’t “leave well enough alone”.