Review: Cyclebeat boutique cycling studio

The newest indoor cycling studio in London town has a leader board for in-class racing, proper good bikes and a whole load of whooping. (Chap on the far right’s a bit scary huh?)

What: Cyclebeat www.cyclebeat.co.uk

Where: Lombard Court, City of London

Duration: Most classes last 45 minutes

Cost: Introductory offer, £20 for 14 days or £15 if you book our exclusive Summer of Sweat offer. You’re welcome!

Cyclebeat studioHot yoga, Crossfit, reformer Pilates and now indoor cycling, boutique studios are all the rage these days. Big in the States, the idea is that they offer a more dedicated experience than the gym with exercise-specific facilities and specialised instructors with in-depth knowledge. The newest of the boutique crop in London is Cyclebeat, a 50-bike studio, which opened earlier this month in a renovated pub in the city. Pub you say? OK, we’re sold.

Right, I warn you now, this review is going to be gushing. This was one of those exercise experiences where you get a two-hour buzz afterwards, talk about it to anyone who will listen and walk around with a stupid grin on your face all day. Therefore, in the interest of balance, I’m going to start with the bad points.

Get it cheap

Like most exercise-specific stuMirror ball Cyclebeatdios, Cyclebeat is not that cheap. Pay as you ride classes are £15. You are, however, paying for quality – state-of-the art bikes, top instructors, stadium-style studio – and, as it’s smack bang near Bank station, you’re also paying for the City location. Like most studios though, it has a stonking deal to reel in new members, £20 for 14 days or, book our exclusive Summer of Sweat offer and it’s just £15 for 14 days. making it just over a quid a day. Take advantage!

Right, that’s the negatives out of the way, now can I tell you just how fab this was please? Yes? Ta.

F* me this was a good class! And because I love a list, I’ll tell you exactly why in succinct bullet points.

Note the Beatboard

Note the Beatboard

The studio – Flashing lights, disco balls, tiered stadium seating so every bike has a good view of the instructor and a massive sign saying ‘Hey Ho Let’s Go’ on the back wall. Yes.

The bikes – Each of the Keiser M3+ bikes has it’s own computer showing the usual – rpm, calorie count, time etc – but also your resistance level. I haven’t seen this on spin bikes before and it’s really useful for gauging how hard you should be working. The instructor Delvin (more about him later) told us what gear he was pushing and the sort of range we should be in – one or two gears above or below – much easier to follow than ‘quarter turn on’. You can also book your favourite bike on the website before you attend so no more scrapping over the one by the air con unit.

The Beatboard – Cyclebeat’s USP, the Beatboard is an electronic leader board at the front of the studio live streaming how hard everyone is working. Sounds scary, huh? It’s not, it’s brilliant! It’s done by bike number so it’s anonymous, well kind of, obviously you can work it out if you want to. Having your details displayed on the Beatboard is entirely optional, but for the purposes of the class I attended there was no opting out. I’d been planning on taking it easy as I wanted to save my legs for a hard run that evening but add the Beatboard into the mix and suddenly you come over all competitive. It definitely pushes you to work harder, there’s no way I was being beaten by the blokes next to me. Number three caught me with minutes to go but bike four was OWNED!

The instructor – Definitely the best indoor cycling instructor I have had. Ever. The class we attended was full of members of press so obviously the top guys are going to be

Devlin - fab!

Delvin Clarke

wheeled out but if the others are half as good as Delvin, then you’re in for a wicked ride. A master instructor (he trains others across the country) with 20 years experience in the industry, Delvin’s class involved sweating, singing, uplifting music, hard work, whooping, cheering, groaning, shouting and a damn fine party atmosphere. I’m not usually a fan of forced whooping but this was involuntary, the body’s reaction to a bloomin’ good class. As for the music, you can check out each instructor’s Spotify playlists on the website beforehand and pick one you like the sound of.

The end – At the end of the session my mind said 45 minutes was simply not long enough. My quads, however, disagreed.

 

www.cyclebeat.co.uk

 

We are holding an exclusive women-only pop-up Cycle to the Beat class with Delvin on 10 September as part of the Summer of Sweat. Tickets are just £10, there are goody bags and it will be awesome. Book your place here

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