Altair 4

So my daughter works part-time at our YMCA. She's been nagging me to try a spin class and I met the instructor last night. I'm going to give it a try next week.

Looking for advice. I guess wear my padded bike shorts and my 5 10 stiff soled shoes. Most of my trail rides are 15 to 20 miles. Not sure what this whole spin thing is going to be like. They apparently have a big screen monitor with a video of roads from somewhere. I dunno. I'm pretty laid back when I ride - I like to ride solo and do whatever I want while on the bike. If I see a vista I want to look at or photo, I do it. I'm concerned I'm going to look bad.

My primary reason for doing it is because I told my kid "I'll do it if you will." I think the exercise will help her ADHD and get her moving. I'll post more afterward.

Iride01 

Most of the people doing spin class aren't laid back that I've seen. They go at it to exhaustion. Take a water bottle with you.

delbiker1 

I have never done a spin class, but what I have seen is far from laid back. Of course, one does not have to go at it like all the others. Kudos to you for wanting to help your child. Does she already ride a bike? If not, not so sure this would be a good introduction. I believe spin class, in general, takes pretty good focus on the pedaling. Maybe not a whole lot of distraction, though. I hope you both do it, and report back. I am interested in how it goes. I would definitely dress in what you like to normally ride in.

rsbob 

Take a water bottle and a towel. My wife and I have both taken spin classes and they are anything but laid back. On the contrary they are high intensity, high cardio level workouts usually for 45 minutes. Dress is light clothing and maybe take a change of clothes because when you are done you will be drenched in sweat. These are not social rides, they are real workouts.

I really enjoyed them, but then I enjoy working hard and getting my heart rate way up. You may want to query YouTube and watch a couple of spin classes before you go to see what they are about.

MoAlpha

Did a few classes with some roadie friends many winters ago in the pre-smart trainer era, for indoor training and a change of scenery. The intensity was insane and the scenery pleasant.

Eric F

This was my experience, too. Be prepared to suffer.

I will echo previous advice....Take water (more than you think you need), a towel, and a change of clothes. Also, if you can set up a pair of shoes that clip into whatever pedals are on the bike, you're better off.

ClydeClydeson

Spin classes, in my experience, are great to motivate you to push harder and improve fitness, compared to riding casually which can easily 'degrade' into easy cruising and limit fitness gains. The difference is that - to me at least- riding outside, even easy cruising, is almost always fun.

Also, I have run up against some real POSs in spin classes who don't know how to share or exist in a shared fitness space. I imagine most group fitness activities are like this.

blacknbluebikes 

It doesn't have to be a sufferfest. The challenge is to go in there the first time and "moderate" your effort. Just because the instructor is yelling, "hill coming up, third position, increase resistance" doesn't mean you have to start killing it - do your pace; no one in the room is actually looking at you anyway. What is essential is to get there a bit early and figure out how to adjust the bike to a fit you like. I've found that most spin-people don't really think much about fit, at least the way folks around here do. So get the seat height and the reach right before the crowd settles in.

Polaris OBark

It will help you to build very useful and important skills, like jumping up and down on the bike.

DiabloScott

Spin classes are fun because it's kind of like riding a trainer but with a lot more enthusiasm and comradery.
Some people wear cleated shoes and chamois bibshorts... seems kind of dumb to me.
They do a bunch of non-cycling stuff like in and out of the saddle, sometime even use dumbbells.
The instructors will frequently say ridiculous stuff like "OK now we're going up this long climb so put it in a big gear to mimic climbing (lasts 15 seconds).
So you will probably have fun, get a good workout, and impress all the non-cyclists with your smooth spin.
The music and videos are a fun element if available too.

Tomm Willians

I did a small number of classes during a hot spell as I couldn’t ride. I was amazed at how poorly I performed knowing I’m a fairly strong rider. I could not complete any of their classes without slowing down at times.
I have ridden with a number of the people in these classes and know full well that on real bikes they wouldn’t keep up with me for an hour but on spin bikes I was useless. Go figure?

_ForceD_

I’ve done a couple spin classes with a friend at her request. In the 45:00-60:00 minute classes it was pretty intense. A couple of times I had to relax before a particular intense “sprint” or “climb” was finished. But like others in this thread In the end I thought “Those people are good for an hour. They were completely exhausted at the end.” I don’t think they could hang with me on ride of 2, 3, 4 hours or more. I was tired…but I could have kept going in a real road situation. Maybe it comes down to pacing I guess. The thing I didn’t like was the ‘booming’ music, and the instructor yelling stuff. I like the serenity of my surroundings, and being outside…regardless of the weather conditions.

Dan

masi61

If you have SPD mountain biking shoes, those might be preferable since (in my experience) a lot of spin classes include pretty demanding climbing out of the saddle. Don't be concerned with looking bad, in fact I have found that many people seem to be self conscious so they gravitate to the rear of the spin room leaving many bikes available in the front row. I don't care what others think so I go right to the front row and get a better airflow from the fans up there anyway. If you are good at visualization and "active relaxation" then you will do fine. While it is quite possible to get caught up in all the mayhem and drive your heart rate into the tachy red zone, the flip-side is that it is also quite attainable that you can self manage your efforts and get some excellent cardio in the timeframe alotted and have a great time too!

Altair 4

Thanks for all tips and encouragement. I've got my water bottle, towel and change of clothes ready. I don't have SPD shoes to clip in - the 5.10's are gonna have to do. I'm keeping an open mind about it to see how it goes. The instructor seems like a fun guy.

I told my daughter last night she can't chicken out since I'm her ride home. She does ride and is a stronger, faster rider than I am (40 plus years advantage to her!). True story - I took her to Presque Island State Park in Erie to ride the trail around the park a couple of summers ago. I'd guess it's maybe 14 miles around. We rode it once and stopped at Sara's (famous for burgers and ice cream) for lunch. She said, "wanna go again?" I say, "sure, let's go." So we're half way around, me following my daughter. I guy shoots past me without so much as an "on you left." My immediate thought was, "she's not going to let him pass her." The other rider started pulling on her and she just took off, turning it into a race.

Six or seven miles later, I see the guy, on the bike, at a slower pace. Another mile or two later, I see my kiddo. I had two questions - Did he try to pass you? Yes. Did he pass you? The answer was, "please, that just wasn't going to happen." Another milk shake, and we headed home.

Daniel4

You mean you're going the DRIVE to the gym? And when you get there, ride a bike to go nowhere?

delbiker1 

Total agreement on the statement regarding the "booming music" and the instructor yelling. Also the serene surroundings and outside. Kudos to those that do spin class, I give a hard pass.

gobicycling

It makes no sense to me to turn the music volume up to max and then have to yell over the loudspeaker. I hate that. Additionally, our spin bikes are monitored with a display available to the instructor. In my 80's, I do not need to be monitored any more. I was monitored when I worked. No more of that for me. I sometimes set my own speeds and goals to match my fitness/energy of the day. Best result for me was to quit the spin class when I can't get out. and ride a spin bike on my own

DaveLeeNC

On a spin bike how do you know how your riding compares to someone else? All you have is that resistance knob that you cannot typically see on other bikes (plus cadence, of course). How do you make that judgement?

dave

Tomm Willians

Perhaps I wasn’t clear. I’ve done actual road rides with these same folks who kill me in spin class. I can’t keep up with them in spin, they can’t keep up with me on the road.

Jumpski

I am sure you will have a fun, and great spin class with your daughter. I would usually do three spin classes a week during the winter months when I was stateside. I really enjoyed it. Have fun!

DonkeyShow

Spin class seems like a bunch of lames trying too hard aka the worst kind of people to do activities with.

Have fun hope you enjoy the time with your daughter!

Machka 

Spin classes can be good. They can be motivational.
But if you're uncomfortable with a pace or activity, don't do it. It's OK if you want to do your own thing.

Carbonfiberboy 

Oh yeah! Absolutely do that spin class. It doesn't matter in the slightest who's doing what in spin class. The only thing that matters is what are you doing? Are you gonna take it to the max when that's what's happening? I thought spin classes were really fun. My wife and I'd do spin class for an hour, then hit the weight room for an hour. This was in our early 60s. We mostly did spin class in the winter, rode outside in the warm, lower rain months. I'd make sure I was back from lift skiing by 4:00 to make our spin class at 5:00. We were in pretty decent shape by spring. Get some cheapo SPD shoes. You'll only have them on for an hour.

The only real downside to spin class is that those bikes are fixies (sorry, fixed riders). That means that OOS the pedals don't go 'round like they do on your road bike and you can have a really f'd pedal stroke and do just fine. Eventually, my wife got a nice trainer and we switched to indoor riding at home where we could do our usual winter periodized training on our road bikes.

Bald Paul

Choose a bike near the back of the room. Draft.

rsbob 

Can’t really fairly compare sprinters (spin class) to endurance road riders. Besides, most of them are there for an aerobic workout and not to improve their cycling stamina - at least from the spin classes I took.

And have to agree that the people who were really into spin class were absolute animals. I had years of cycling experience - endurance rides - and they would kill me every time. Just accepted it.