What can I say about this? Where do I start? Companies need to sell product to stay in business, we all know that. You go to Starbucks to get a cup of coffee and you can buy music and fancy $20 coffee mugs. People go to Kmart to buy many different things, so why not indoor bikes? Generally speaking, no one at Kmart or Sears or Costco will tell you why putting the bike together yourself is not the best idea. If you’ve watched any of my YouTube content, you will hear a tag line I use “Building a bike like a table from IKEA”.

Experience the StudioCycles difference

This is what sets us apart from virtually EVERY body else. We don’t drop ship our bikes. We never have. Every new bike we sell is un-boxed, and it most cases , we tear it open and go through the internals, minimizing or eliminating most potential future mechanical issues, then the bikes are tuned to perfection and we do our over packaging to get your bike to you in one piece. If you are within driving distance to our brick and mortar stores, come see us and experience the StudioCycles difference in person. How cool would it be to stand in an indoor cycling SPECIFIC store, with ALL of the top main stream bikes, built and tuned to perfection, side by side, under one roof? Going to Kmart and buying a $200 knockoff bike or a $1500 commercial indoor bike, in my opinion is a REALLY bad idea unless you have A LOT of time on your hands and your patience cup is overflowing.

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2011 was our best year EVER at StudioCycles. We sold more bikes, did more service and installs and shattered our projected numbers with most of our vendors. After hiring a new SEO company and rebuilding our website, we really have begun to find our groove. We owe a lot to our website/SEO maestro Paul at ArcadiaSEO.com He’s solely responsible for rubbing the paddles together and yelling; CLEAR!

We offer better builds and the best cycling warranty

Now the work we have been doing and the performance reflected in that work hasn’t really changed, what has changed is that more people are finding us!  The fact is, no one competes with StudioCycles in terms of what we deliver to the end user. We offer better builds, the best cycling warranty and we stand behind what we sell. This is after all, the way things used to be with MANY companies. So to that end, StudioCycles has gone into expansion mode with a new warehouse triple in size from our current warehouse. We will offer better and faster packaging, more indoor cycling products, but we will be VERY careful to keep our current model of quality control! This is the very BIG difference between us and them! Our new facility will be completed and fully operational by March 1rst of 2012.

Thank you to our valued clients for your business and support.

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We are excited to bring in the full line of 2012 Spinner® models. From the exciting new top of the line Spinner Blade® and Spinner NXT, all the way to the full complement of the new home version line of Spinner® home version units, we should have them all up on our site by the middle of January 2012.

Mad Dogg Athletics

With all of the knockoff bikes flooding the market, Mad Dogg Athletics, the creators of the original Spinning ® program decided it was time to take it to the next level with the creation of the Spinner Edge®, Spinner Sprint® and Spinner Pace®. As with ALL of our bikes we sell, we will pull them out of the box and perform our QuietTune® build process, followed by our legendary bombproof shipping! We are excited to expand our line, and doing with the company that created the Spinning program is a no-brainer! Stay tuned for more on this and be sure to watch our free cycling videos or YouTube channel to learn more!

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When I go online to buy something significant, if I’m not well informed or in the know on the item or product I’m looking to buy, I search around for online reviews. It’s a great way to get some insight before making a decision. In the indoor cycling arena, conventional wisdom tells us to do the same thing. The problem lies in the fact that most new indoor bikes come out of the box, far less than optimal. This means that you could buy a bike, get it shipped to your home or office, bolt it together and the bike may feel disappointing. All because the bike wasn’t optimized, it was simply bolted together.

Bikes get unfair reviews

I read cycling reviews all the time and its clear to me the person writing the review had bike an issue that could have been easily corrected with a little information. Or the bike may have felt completely different with some simple adjusting, aligning, tuning; perhaps some drive-train lubrication. Bikes get unfair reviews; often the reviewer has a very narrow field of experience, sometime based on no comparative analysis at all. Amazon is one of the guilty parties, but hey you go to Amazon to save money and that’s about all you get there when you buy an indoor bike.  Bottom line, most commercial bikes do NOT come out of the box 100% optimized and ready to ride, which is one of the big reasons why StudioCycles is in business.

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StudioCycles was commissioned by Star Trac to attend the Club Industry trade show in Chicago, last week, October 10th through the 15th. Studiocycles owner Jeff Wimmer was brought in to supervise the build team and provide performance optimization on the new 2012 Spinner® Blade and 2012 Spinner® NXT for the official Star Trac Spinner launch at Club Industry.

It was an awesome show

Also in attendance was Jeff Dilts Star Trac Spinner project manager, Mike Morgan Star Trac Spinner Project engineer, Kevin Korbalis Star Trac Spinner project manger and Michael Bruno owner of LandAmerica (the parent company of both Star Trac and Schwinn). It was an awesome show with Josh Taylor doing classes at the Club Industry Spinning Studio, sponsored by Star Trac. “I was definitely in my element”, said Jeff Wimmer.

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We are doing 4-5 installs in the next week to 2 weeks and we will be pulling out Star Trac Spinner NXT’s. These bikes will be refurbished to the exacting standards found ONLY at StudioCycles and the unparalleled warranty we provide is reflected in appearance, ride and performance! Some of the NXT’s will be sent out and bead blasted, then powder coated. Some of the newer generation models won’t need paint, just a complete; down to the bare frame tear down and rebuild.

QuietTune Adjustment Process

We replace flywheel bearings, bottom bracket bearings, chains, resistance pads and we top it off with our QuietTune® adjustment process to deliver you an often times, better than new ride and feel. And of course, all of these units will include a $50 copy of our “The Ultimate Tech Manual” volume 6, which is the bible for Star Trac Spinner NXT models! Finally, these bikes will include brand new $95 SPD/Basket combo pedals! Call Jeff direct to get on the waiting list for 1 bike or a group of bikes! 1-888-909-BIKE.

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The tilt function was very odd. I’ve ridden AND owned hundreds of some of the finest bicycles ever manufactured, having spent the better part of 20 years in the bicycles industry. So I have a pretty good bead on what constitutes bicycle “feel”.

Furthermore, I’ve built, tuned, refurbished, installed and ridden an estimated 100,000 + indoor group cycles. Again I feel I’m qualified to report on indoor group cycles. So with all of that being said, the PF TDF is something I would not even consider owning. I believe they went to market WAY to fast.

To me the bike felt “cheap”, not at all consistent with bikes in the $1000 plus range. The thin crank arms felt “flexi”, the console was directly in the middle of the aero bar “center lane”, and the tilt function was a novelty at best. I now understand why the rider in the PF TDF YouTube video is wearing a helmet. I thought I was going to slide off the front of the bike at full “Pitch”. I think this one can be stabled with Trixter and the Real Ryder.

Not like millionaire successful, but reputation  and integrity successful. Because we do things different. Some days I truly feel like chef Ramsey on Hells Kitchen.When I see my team make simple mistakes, I take it personally. and my team KNOWS what I expect. I go on Craigslist, and there are the same snake oil salesmen, copying pictures of giant warehouses they slither around, picking over bikes that still look good, even though they’ve been in play for years and years in clubs. Using terminology like “Cleaned and serviced”, selling the bikes without in-depth refurbishing and representing them to unsuspecting consumers as the deal of the century. That kind of crap has always pissed me off.

I’ve NEVER done anything other than optimize the exercise bikes I sell, whether they are new and out of tune, or used, beat up and crying out for a healthy, REAL refurbishing. We do it RIGHT. We get the same used bikes the big boys get, after the 4 year lease is up, and no matter how good they look, we TEAR THEM apart and go through them in good faith and good conscience. Because people have always deserved to get their monies worth.

Its why we offer a REAL measurable warranty, because we work hard on our product, we deliver the best, and our bikes DESERVE to have a REAL warranty. On the other hand, the snakes that post online representing themselves as above board, with a solid product, they don’t offer a warranty because they in all likelihood, not capable of delivering a  solid ” We stand behind it” type of product. StudioCycles has grown EVERY year for the last 10 years,our customer base increases, and we gain more respect from the BIG companies, to the point that we are the go to guys when the engineers  need outside help, they call StudioCycles. We have always done one thing, worked in one arena, and excelled, for our valued clients, one bike at a time.

I expected more from the show. The big companies had small representation, insofar as actual booth space on the floor, and Laurel Mylin from Foundation Fitness pointed out to me that this is more of a show for instructors, not big ticket buyers. I sometimes get that confused. Caught with Johnny G and the whole G unit at the Kranking Booth. I’m supplying bikes to Johnny for his master instructor camp in Santa Barbara later this year, in September.

If I were an owner of a hip ,hardcore studio; Kranking would be in my house for sure.I recently added a Krankcycle to my home arsenal, and its an ass-kicker for sure. There was also a bunch of Zumba copycats at IDEA, but hey, it seems really popular, and if its cutting edge, they will stand in line to knock it off. We built the bikes for Schwinn for this show and I stopped by the Star Trac/Spinning booth and dialed in the new Spinner Blade for them. Rela Ryder had my buddy Adam at the helm, if you’ve never taken a class with Adam, give it a try, he’s a great guy and really loves his job. Cammy, Eric and the newly married Michelle (Mrs. Mills : ) were TCB at the FreeMotion booth, they had a great representation as well.

Out with the NXT’s and in with FreeMotion 11.9′s. Heres a little 411 on Foundation Fitness: This company is going places, FAST. If your not familiar with Foundation Fitness. its a fairly new company, but its STACKED with talent. The Liggett brothers started Foundation Fitness almost 2 years ago and they went right to the BIG companies to hire their talent pool.

Start off with the man who designed and engineered the first Spinner(R) for Schwinn with the insight of Johnny G. That right, Johnny G, THE creator of Spinning went to Schwinn with his original Spinner bike design and Pat Warner was the brain that cleaned up and streamlined the bike for the masses. Pat was also the guy who put together the Triple Link pedal design, although Paul Swift aka Swifty, will debate that fact into the wee hours on any night or day. Soooooo, Pat Warner was later contracted as one of the key people behind the newest bike designs out of the Schwinn/Stairmaster stables, the AC series bikes. The AC series bikes have elevated Schwinn to new heights with the magnetic resistance, for-aft bars and sweeping new aesthetics.

The Liggett brothers hired Pat Warner to migrate over to the newly formed Foundation Fitness for yet another new bike design. Pat went to work with Doug Crawford, another brainiac hired by the Liggetts, to bring what would become the FreeMotion bikes to fruition. The FreeMotion bikes share some strong characteristics of the Schwinn AC bikes, some might say an even cleaner, more streamlined set of dynamics. One thing is for sure, everyone in the commercial indoor cycling arena is in for a new competitor and its safe to say the Freemotion bikes and Foundation Fitness will not be ignored.

The talent pool goes beyond the bikes design team. The Liggetts have also hired Eric Jaworsky to head up the global sales team and he was ripped away from the suits at Stairmaster, Eric moved ALOT of product for Stairmaster and his skill set runs deep, plus they acquired Michelle Crumm, formerly of Les Mills AND Nautilus to assist Eric and run the West coast region.Other notables added to the FF camp are Alicia Howard and Laurel Mylin, both SUPER talented, top of their game, Nautilus veterans who are no doubt a valuable addition to the FF infrastructure. These guys are strapped with Talent and they are already kicking some serious ass and driving the numbers. By the way, Foundation Fitness also carries and reps the Johnny G KrankCycles, the Livstrong indoor bikes as well as ALL of the other hardcore Freemotion gear found inside  pretty much EVERY top fitness club on the planet!