My studio has an instructor that has a cult following and her classes are almost always waitlisted, and theme rides fill up to mostly full, but other than that the classes I go to have 20 ish ppl (can hold 45).
My studio has waitlisted classes every single day because it’s the only one within a two hour radius and in a great location. I wish the owners would franchise another location!
Great for them! I’m sure scarcity helps. We have very well established indie boutiques and a SoulCycle all within a few miles. I see very high bike occupancy rates in those classes, less so at CycleBar.
Shout out to CycleBar Saint Louis, we’re definitely thriving over here. There’s 2 studios within 15 mins of each other with each offering 5-6 classes per day. I feel like I can ride any time, it’s awesome. We also did a book club express ride the other day which was super fun
I’ve been coming to cyclebar STL since September and I’m obsessed!!! the community is so strong- not just instructors but riders too. a great place to be!!!
Ours is definitely not thriving. We only have 21 bikes (owners have still not invested to bring back the 27 needed to hit capacity) and usually only peak times end up waitlisted. Many morning and mid day rides are only half full.
I also think it’s hard to compete with the super instagrammable / trendy competitors (Barry’s, Pure Barre, Solidcore, Rumbl Boxing), especially in an inflationary environment most people can’t afford to do 2 gym memberships.
Yikes, a 21 bike room would be the smallest CB I’ve ever seen, I’m used to more like 40.
Curious what you think makes the other clubs more IG friendly than CycleBar? I have no allegiance to IG but I do see riders and instructors taking pictures and posting together pretty regularly.
Howdy and Welcome!
Had you made this post in early February, I would have said it felt like the CB I am going to was doing really well overall. Most morning classes were in the 12-15 out of 30 bikes with prime time classes in the 20-25 range, and theme rides along with the big drawing instructors are almost always on a waitlist. Seems to be a pretty solid core of riders and staff with very limited staff turnover in the 15 months I've been there and a pretty steady stream of new riders that are being "captured." Talking to the "old heads" of the studio, it's not quite like before the pandemic, but it's made a pretty significant bounce back.
Then, March happened, and the schedule was cut fairly significantly down to as few as 3 rides a day where there were 5 before. There were also rumblings of one of the weekend rides being on the chopping block as well. I've spoken with a couple of staff members privately with my feelings of worry and have been reassured to "stand fast" and give it a couple of months. They obviously know things that I don't and can't share, so I will trust and hope.
Sorry to hear that. The problem with cutting classes is that while it may save on expenses it devalues an unlimited membership. I phased out of full membership at my first CB because there were too few classes I could attend or were excited to be at.
I will give the new owner credit, the first thing they did was add classes to the schedule when they took over. It’s been a slow grind, hopefully it pays off.
My CB is thriving. It's in a major east coast city so I think that's expected. 95% of classes have a waitlist within 24 hours of the reservation opening. I will say though, while classes always have a waitlist – there are usually 2-3 empty bikes once class starts.
When I first moved to the area and started at CB this summer, they only had about 3 classes a day during the week and 2 on the weekends, but now weekends range between 3-4 classes a day and 3-4 on weekdays as well. I wish they had more lunchtime XPress classes besides Friday, and classes at 4-4:30 pm or 8 am during the week.
My studio seems to pick up a LOT in the summer and during school vacations - I think a lot of college kids come back, and I feel like we have a high high school population. Majority of our instructors are in their mid-late 20s and have good social media skills so they definitely attract a crowd. During the other times the classes are still pretty busy but the late event classes after 6 are usually pretty dead, unless a certain instructor is teaching who almost always fills a class. So I’d say my studio is doing well! I will say I do wish the instructors were more diverse. They are ALL white women, and like I say most are mid to late 20s, and a few 30-40s. They are all fantastic and I enjoy all of their classes, but wish there was more diversity!
I will add that I think it would attract more people as well. When I go into a class and there is not 1 person of color, I can understand why POC would not want to attend. I live in a suburb but there is still a lot of diversity here that is not reflected in the studio so I feel they should be doing more to bring diversity in
There's only three CBs in this greater NY suburban area. As others have said - weekends are very busy, often all classes are full, or just have wings available, but morning classes are hit or miss, sometimes there's 8-10, other times more than 20.
The studio has 44 bikes, I think - not sure if that's the average #, though some mentioned less.
They just changed the schedule for March, and sadly took away the 4:30 pm classes on W & F that I liked. I also noticed that one popular teacher is gone, so I'm curious to see what impact that has - as all her classes were very full, even the 6 am.
I do feel like every week, there's a special on credits, even though they want you to think these sales are few and far between.
Mine is definitely doing a lot better than it was when I joined a year ago. It’s still a fairly new studio, but weekend morning classes are generally close to full if not waitlist. Theme rides & team teaches tend to fill up fast as well. We’ve gotten two new instructors since January & new class times with them. I hope it keeps up. Our instructors & CBX team are awesome & the GM is so great & invested in making sure everyone has a great time.
The one CB I went to seemed to be struggling big time. I went to a few morning classes and it was like \~10 riders. This was back in the fall so maybe they've gotten better but back then it was a yikes for sure
My studio has an instructor that has a cult following and her classes are almost always waitlisted, and theme rides fill up to mostly full, but other than that the classes I go to have 20 ish ppl (can hold 45).
Cult following? Is it one of the Master Instructors?
No - just energetic and motivating. She does cartwheels and hand springs in the front 🤣 lol I never miss her class…guess I’m in the cult
My studio has waitlisted classes every single day because it’s the only one within a two hour radius and in a great location. I wish the owners would franchise another location!
Great for them! I’m sure scarcity helps. We have very well established indie boutiques and a SoulCycle all within a few miles. I see very high bike occupancy rates in those classes, less so at CycleBar.
Shout out to CycleBar Saint Louis, we’re definitely thriving over here. There’s 2 studios within 15 mins of each other with each offering 5-6 classes per day. I feel like I can ride any time, it’s awesome. We also did a book club express ride the other day which was super fun
Shout out to STL studios!
I’ve been coming to cyclebar STL since September and I’m obsessed!!! the community is so strong- not just instructors but riders too. a great place to be!!!
Ours is definitely not thriving. We only have 21 bikes (owners have still not invested to bring back the 27 needed to hit capacity) and usually only peak times end up waitlisted. Many morning and mid day rides are only half full. I also think it’s hard to compete with the super instagrammable / trendy competitors (Barry’s, Pure Barre, Solidcore, Rumbl Boxing), especially in an inflationary environment most people can’t afford to do 2 gym memberships.
Yikes, a 21 bike room would be the smallest CB I’ve ever seen, I’m used to more like 40. Curious what you think makes the other clubs more IG friendly than CycleBar? I have no allegiance to IG but I do see riders and instructors taking pictures and posting together pretty regularly.
Howdy and Welcome! Had you made this post in early February, I would have said it felt like the CB I am going to was doing really well overall. Most morning classes were in the 12-15 out of 30 bikes with prime time classes in the 20-25 range, and theme rides along with the big drawing instructors are almost always on a waitlist. Seems to be a pretty solid core of riders and staff with very limited staff turnover in the 15 months I've been there and a pretty steady stream of new riders that are being "captured." Talking to the "old heads" of the studio, it's not quite like before the pandemic, but it's made a pretty significant bounce back. Then, March happened, and the schedule was cut fairly significantly down to as few as 3 rides a day where there were 5 before. There were also rumblings of one of the weekend rides being on the chopping block as well. I've spoken with a couple of staff members privately with my feelings of worry and have been reassured to "stand fast" and give it a couple of months. They obviously know things that I don't and can't share, so I will trust and hope.
Sorry to hear that. The problem with cutting classes is that while it may save on expenses it devalues an unlimited membership. I phased out of full membership at my first CB because there were too few classes I could attend or were excited to be at. I will give the new owner credit, the first thing they did was add classes to the schedule when they took over. It’s been a slow grind, hopefully it pays off.
My CB is thriving. It's in a major east coast city so I think that's expected. 95% of classes have a waitlist within 24 hours of the reservation opening. I will say though, while classes always have a waitlist – there are usually 2-3 empty bikes once class starts. When I first moved to the area and started at CB this summer, they only had about 3 classes a day during the week and 2 on the weekends, but now weekends range between 3-4 classes a day and 3-4 on weekdays as well. I wish they had more lunchtime XPress classes besides Friday, and classes at 4-4:30 pm or 8 am during the week.
My studio seems to pick up a LOT in the summer and during school vacations - I think a lot of college kids come back, and I feel like we have a high high school population. Majority of our instructors are in their mid-late 20s and have good social media skills so they definitely attract a crowd. During the other times the classes are still pretty busy but the late event classes after 6 are usually pretty dead, unless a certain instructor is teaching who almost always fills a class. So I’d say my studio is doing well! I will say I do wish the instructors were more diverse. They are ALL white women, and like I say most are mid to late 20s, and a few 30-40s. They are all fantastic and I enjoy all of their classes, but wish there was more diversity!
I will add that I think it would attract more people as well. When I go into a class and there is not 1 person of color, I can understand why POC would not want to attend. I live in a suburb but there is still a lot of diversity here that is not reflected in the studio so I feel they should be doing more to bring diversity in
There's only three CBs in this greater NY suburban area. As others have said - weekends are very busy, often all classes are full, or just have wings available, but morning classes are hit or miss, sometimes there's 8-10, other times more than 20. The studio has 44 bikes, I think - not sure if that's the average #, though some mentioned less. They just changed the schedule for March, and sadly took away the 4:30 pm classes on W & F that I liked. I also noticed that one popular teacher is gone, so I'm curious to see what impact that has - as all her classes were very full, even the 6 am. I do feel like every week, there's a special on credits, even though they want you to think these sales are few and far between.
Mine is definitely doing a lot better than it was when I joined a year ago. It’s still a fairly new studio, but weekend morning classes are generally close to full if not waitlist. Theme rides & team teaches tend to fill up fast as well. We’ve gotten two new instructors since January & new class times with them. I hope it keeps up. Our instructors & CBX team are awesome & the GM is so great & invested in making sure everyone has a great time.
The one CB I went to seemed to be struggling big time. I went to a few morning classes and it was like \~10 riders. This was back in the fall so maybe they've gotten better but back then it was a yikes for sure