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.

I’ll say one thing straight up: this was Gene’s favorite demonstration so far. Not because it was in his favorite city, in his favorite club, or had his favorite equipment (not to say those weren’t true, but he didn’t say it). It was because of the atmosphere. This club, by a landslide, had the best and most energetic group of attendees to date. They were the loudest, the most involved, and the most excited - whooping and hollering more than a gaggle of apiphobic 9 year olds locked in a van full of hornets.

But first things first, Chuck. The boys stayed at Gene’s cousin’s house in the LA area, a coconut’s hair down the road from Sony Pictures. (A super-decorated picture of this abode is in the Flickr gallery to the right). The club of the evening, Pedal Spin Studio, was only about 50 miles from there. Living up to LA traffic’s reputation, they never traveled more than 30MPH and spent two full hours making the voyage. That should be enough motivation in itself to be pumped for the demonstration - at least it got them out of the car.

Pedal Spin is centered around Spinning, if the name Pedal Spin didn’t already fire a cannon of obviousness straight at your forehead. They offer indoor cycling and a yoga-Spin hybrid; a unique blend of the two fantastic fitness forces. The location in Rancho has only been open about 4 weeks, making it the youngest of all the stops hit on the Global Ride Tour. What they lacked in size they made up for in character - and lighting. They had an insane number of lights - every type you could imagine - to light the room in every possible way. Except normal light bulbs…

Once the show got started, people were into it right from the warmup. The event was very well promoted and the club reached out to outdoor cyclists to bring them in, which allowed Gene to demonstrate the product to a few outdoorsies who had never before come to an indoor class. If you check out the video, you’ll see how this went. The post-ride interviews are awesome, and completely reflect the mission of Global Ride and Cycling Fusion. One of their indoor instructors now wants to ride outside. (He’s the extremely vocal fellow you will hear in the background of the video. So much so that Gene referred to him as a co-coach.) There was an outdoor rider who talked about the effectiveness of the ride. The responses really speak volumes to the movement we’re trying to ignite… and Gene didn’t even have to pay any of them. Much.

Though there were only 18 bikes in the room, they were the most involved group. It didn’t even matter when Gene’s mic went dead halfway through the show thanks to the insane energy. Good work, everyone.

After things got wrapped up, they headed off into the California evening. Noticing that Gene’s ears were perking straight up, Paul discovered that his Italian sixth sense sniffed out the trail of a tiny authentic gelato shack in Culver City. The location was a cross between 50’s retro and supermodern decor, and thus gelato became their dinner. If only they sprinkled some Flintstone vitamins and minced garlic on top, it might have even had some nutritional value. Unfortunately, Flintstone vitamins aren’t an Italian seasoning, so Gene isn’t interested.

Join us tomorrow for another fireside chat as the fellows hit their second to last Tour Destination in the great city of San Diego. You stay classy.

Denver is a snowy place. Paul had to dig the automobile out from under half a foot that had fallen during the day they were there so that they could venture to the airport. But even before that, Gene made his mark on Denver by becoming a local hero to one man.

Being the crazypants that he is, Gene wakes up daily at around 4:00 am and begins to do work. On this lovely Denver morning, he was sitting almost alone in the hotel lobby, kept company by only one other lonely soul who happened to be awake at such an hour. The two were talking casually as they worked, probably conducting smalltalk about the usual subjects: the weather, their professions, nuclear fission, Celtic mythology. Suddenly, the fellow blacked out and fell to the ground. Gene responded by quickly putting on his cape, calling 911 and saving the day. The man eventually awoke not knowing what day it was, where he was, or the combination to his middle school locker.

Needless to say, it was a strange way to start the day.

When they did finally get to Sacramento, they hit the club after a stop off at America’s finest subterranean sandwich distributor: Subway.

It is important to note that the club, El Dorado Hills Sports Club, is the first club the tour has visited that has computers on the bikes. No other club had any training tools on the bikes. When Gene first built Global Ride, he had toured all the other indoor cycling facilities in the Pittsburgh area to find that most of them did not have technology on the bikes. He made Global Ride unique in that respect, but this tour has proven that not only is Global Ride’s home facility unique on a local standpoint, it is unique nationally. Not enough facilities have these monitors. This only proves that facilities need to step up and get the technology, both to benefit the clients and benefit the training process.

El Dorado Hills Sports Club is a really pretty facility with a membership of around 4,000. The room where they performed the demonstration was very unique. It was a semicircle shape, and they projected the virtual ride onto a concave wall. You would think this would stretch or distort the picture, but it was surprisingly effective, creating an almost IMAX effect for the riders. They were only scheduled to do one demonstration, but ended up doing two as a result of demand - which gave Paul the opportunity to teach the second class. All this is captured in the above YouTube video filmed at the location.

This was another great ride where about 1/2 the attendees were outdoor cyclists - not terribly surprising considering the popularity of outdoor cycling in this part of the country. As usual, they were surprised by how much they enjoyed the experience and found the training effective.

The evening was capped by Sally Edwards inviting the fellas to spend the night at her house. She is the founder of Heart Zones and a contributing coach on Global Ride’s StrenDurance Hawaii DVD. They got to catch up, talk about the industry, and talk about the direction and mission of the Global Ride DVDs and Cycling Fusion. She has been very supportive of all that we’re doing and will continue to be involved with our future projects. In the morning she filled their tanks with breakfast and coffee, and sent them off down the California road.

Next up is Gene and Paul discovering just how long California really is.

A day and a half of rest over the weekend was much-needed, and the tour continued on week two with a stop at Denver’s Pura Vida Fitness & Spa.

This joint was so swanky it’d make Hilary Swank look like Hilary Clinton. To be honest, as an east coaster who has been to Colorado but not to Denver, I wasn’t even aware Denver had such a thing as a posh neighborhood. But after getting Gene’s report and seeing his YouTube video, I have been supremely enlightened. This place had the works, is a mere toddler of a studio at the ripe age of 8 months, and is already a shining beacon of fitness in the mile high city. Very modern, lots of metal and sharp edges that look sexy, a fireplace in the lobby, and just an attitude that constantly spews a cloud of success and awesomeness. Much of the club’s exterior is glass, which provides a brilliant overlook of the city streets below (the swanky streets, you’ll recall).

Upstairs was aerobic heaven, and enough technology to make Gene’s unbelievably low heart rate spike to levels of cardiac arrest. Why, you may wonder? What could possibly be so exciting and adventurous that it would rattle the roots of Gene Nacey’s rock solid foundation? Every piece of machinery in the facility comes equipped with an LCD screen for video viewing during exercise - that’s what. I must admit, it does look pretty rad. This was avidly captured in the video, so give it a peek.

The spin room was equally super, with screens already on the walls. They have yet to really use these screens for anything, so Gene and Paul came to the rescue with Global Ride DVDs, skipping and galloping with giant grins on their faces, heaving discs into the arms of the club owners like a plastic-faced pageant queen tossing Tootsie Rolls to children in the street from a 4th of July float.

The only unfortunate bit about the room was the podium command center that manages all the technology in the room. (If that sentence makes no sense, watch the video. Actually, watch the video anyway.) The sound wasn’t able to get very loud at all thanks to limitations put on the device, and they had to settle with a relatively quiet soundtrack playing behind them. A bit of a bummer - but as with all the setbacks they have faced, it worked out fine in the end.

The local media came to cover the event (I believe he said it was the Denver CBS station) and Paul briefly captured the interview (also in the above video) as it was beginning. I’m sure there is a written or video report available from the station, and I’ll post it as soon as I find out where to get it. This was great exposure for our cycling dvds and beneficial for Pura Vida as well, and we had been hoping for this sort of media coverage from the beginning. Mad props to the news station for checking us out.

The class itself was made of about 65% outdoor cyclists, a fantastic number, and about 1/3 of the attendees were other instructors. And about 3% of the class was extremely pregnant. What those first two figures mean to Gene is “YAY” - these outdoor cyclist and instructor groups are big factors related to our mission for the product and the Cycling Fusion site. Gene ran the class as a race, which worked out well with the majority being outdoor cyclists who enjoy that sort of thing, and the response was wonderful. The verdict remains that with proper instruction, a specific workout program, a knowledgeable coach and the interest of video, everyone can get proper training.

Here’s some cake. You can eat it, too.

Here is the overdue video from the Bethesda club. Enjoy!

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.

We’re having problems with our video from Bethesda. Actually, it’s having problems with us, as YouTube keeps claiming it’s a duplicate of another video every time we attempt to upload it. We’ll get it on here as soon as we’re done punching YouTube in the ear and making fun of its sissy thigh-cut shorts it wears to play tennis.

However, despite YouTube’s attempts to thwart our video fun, you shall still receive the chronicling of the day’s antics. Do you feel lucky? Do ya?

Well, Gene and Paul felt lucky (notice the insane effectiveness of that segue) when Gene remembered he knew some people in the Boston area who had formerly joined him on a cycling voyage. This gracious pair of people put the two Global Riders up for the night before traveling to Bethesda, providing them comfort, espresso, and clean shorts. They were quite grateful for the hospitality, and a picture of the folks with the Global Ride dream team is available in our Flickr gallery to the right.

The next few days would offer a lot of driving. When they finally arrived in Bethesda, they felt tiny entering the mammoth mouth of what Gene described as a “little city” of fitness; Bethesda Sport & Health. Swimming, racquetball, indoor sports, outdoor sports, everything one human being could possibly desire all under one very sizable roof. Upon locating the indoor cycling room, another surprise was to be had: an all children Spin class was in session! This was a pretty cool sight, as it was something that Gene had formerly attempted to hold at Global Ride, but neither Gene nor Paul had ever seen a children’s class with so many attendees. It turns out Sport & Health has a regular childrens’ Spin club, which is really a fantastic idea.

The performance went extremely well. The energy was high and the crowd was a wonderful mixture of people - all ages, indoor cyclists and outdoor cyclists. The audio recording from the session will likely become a selectable audio track on the DVDs, serving as a fourth selection to the already present Italian, American and Australian accent coaches. Hopefully we can get the video up soon and you’ll be able to take a look at this great location and fantastic class.

Concluding the demonstration on a high note, the fellows had an insanely delicious and hellishly spicy tex mex dinner. Gene ended his evening painfully removing his contacts thanks to cayenne sweat.

Olé!

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.

Hello! This is Jeff writing to you on this glorious day. As Gene mentioned a few posts ago, I’ll be handling the bulk of the authoring while he and Paul are on tour. Every day Gene gives me a phone call with all the details of the night’s performance, and I’ll be happy to relay them to you. I’ll do my best to not fake a first-person narrative, but instead do my best to recreate the tales of Gulliver, I mean Gene, and his travels.

The best part about the Tuesday night show in Brooklyn is that no travel was required. Coming from Manhattan the night before, it was just a quick hop over the East River to the lovely Harbor Fitness facility. The day was able to be enjoyed without worry or travel. Starbucks got a visit, some work got done, a few new cables were purchased (as a safety net for the future - to avoid any repeated situations like the first night). With four hours to spare before showtime, desperately overcompensating for setup this time around, there was really hardly any setup that needed done.

Harbor Fitness has been doing some video cycling for about a year. Their studio was equipped with an awesome 20′ projection screen, projector, sound setup, and getting the demonstration ready was easy as could be. There were large posters advertising the event all over the club, there was a waiting list for signups, and in general very good promotion on the club’s end. We thank them very much for the dedicated support. It did pay off, because the full house crowd had a great ride. Very into the exercise, around a half dozen of the attendees came to compliment Paul and Gene on the uniqueness and quality of the experience.

Realistically, the event was everything that could be hoped for. The promotion was solid, the setup was easy, the room was filled, and the riders enjoyed the ride. A win win… win win. Of equal importance is how excited and impressed the other instructors at the facility were with the product. A number of them were in attendance and were psyched about the demonstration - and everyone at the facility is eager to get their hands on the DVDs so they can hold regular virtual ride classes.

So if you’re a member of Harbor Fitness who missed out on this opportunity or didn’t get a bike in time, you aren’t out of luck. Harbor will have them soon. And hey, you could always buy your own…

With New York under our belts, it’s off to the Boston area - Wellesley, Massachusetts to be exact. See you then.

Here is a video of our first stop at Club H Fitness in New York. We didn’t have the time to do the interview/publicity video we had planned, but this will give you a taste of the facility and personnel we worked with for the evening.

Our Brooklyn performance also went exceptionally well. More on it soon!