The corks will be popping for Newton Abbot’s renowned indoor cycle spinning studio, Venning Ride, when it celebrates its 20th anniversary on May 5, 1998.
Over the past 20 years, when I started with just 11 stationary bikes which I took from studio to studio, in a mobile cycling concept, my enthusiastic customers have pedalled far enough to have circumnavigated the world 75 times. With each person pedalling something like 12 miles on average per class – it adds up to an incredibly long way!” And we still have a handful of riders who have been with us from the very first year, including one couple who came to the very first class! They’re incredible, so I’m not sure if they should be thanked or locked up!
Our furthest travelled indoor cyclist was someone who came from the States and took part in a class during his holidays. Our current studio, Venning Ride, which has been based at The Courtenay Centre, Newton Abbot, since 1998, brings riders from all around the area, with the furthest regular liking it enough to make the round trip of 55 + miles from Plymouth every week.
The secret of keeping an ostensibly static concept fresh, I believe, is to constantly look for ways of being progressive, keep improving presentation of classes, embrace new ideas and adopt new technology.
“It’s about having people who love what they do – there are a really great bunch of people in my team who are passionate about cycling and fitness, and know how to motivate people, whether they have never sat on an exercise bike before or whether they’ve been there and done it, and are looking for a fresh approach.
I’ve also tried to take an individual approach to each person, even though they may be in a class of 20 or 30 people. With our latest generation of bikes, every individual, whatever their level of fitness, can opt to do a simple initial test to see where their level of fitness is, then with every class they do subsequently, they can download data from their ride and measure their progression as they see their ‘numbers’ improve. They can also see which colour zone they are pedalling in – which equates to how hard they’re working. In the meantime the more competitive types can compare themselves with others by doing special challenges linked by computer software programmes or apps.
It’s fascinating and the tech can be quite addictive! – but if you prefer you can just look at the colours and pedal to the music.
There always comes a point where after so many classes, people want something different, so we will always be working hard to deliver more.
