(Wow, I'm really spamming the board today...ah well).
My local gym offers spin classes and has nice spin bikes with SPD pedals that work well with my cleats. That's nifty, but they lock the spin room when they're not giving a class! It's rainy outside, and rather than shelling out money for a good fluid trainer and taking allen wrenches to my bike I'd rather drive the 2 miles to my gym and use their trainers.

Does your gym lock the spin area? If so, why?? It shouldn't be an injury issue; I signed the "getting off your arse is dangerous" waiver, and the pencil-necked geek in the back room attempting to squat an aircraft carrier seems more risky than a dude on a halfbike. Theft? It's not like I'm gonna wrench off a dura-ace rear derailleur from this thing.

No the spin room is open. I have never seen anyone workout there alone, but i might do that someday. It's kind of a lot of expensove equipment lying around. Many gyms have one spin bike out by their bicycle cardio machines, you might suggest that.

I think gyms have a liability factor with the spin room. A lot of gyms don't want to be responsible for what might happen to a member if they're spinning on their own in the room and something happens with the bike. Other gyms don't want a member to accidentally damage a bike, so they would lock the doors to prevent such accidents from happening. Theft is not a big factor in a gym... it's about the liability.

My gyms keep the doors open, even the gyms where I pay money to work out. But they let me use the rooms, it's because they know I'm an instructor, and generally, they know instructors will either be practicing to teach a class or use the bikes to stay in shape, etc., so they let us use the bikes without giving us hassles. That's part of the reason why I got certified.

Koffee

Hmm thats a good question. I'm gonna have to check out ours too. I didn't ever think to see if the doors were unlocked. I just always see them shut. Good question.

My gym doesn't lock the door, but they won't let you use the bikes outside of class. The manager said it was because of insurance liability. Didn't make a lot of sense to me, either.

My gym won't let anyone use the bikes outside of class due to insurance stuff they said.

Meh. And I wanted to do the 6am spin class this morning, but if you don't sign up by 5:30 apparently you don't get a slot. These people are crazy.

Were there empty bikes in the class??

spin room is open. the stereo is open for me as well.

Same here Koffee,

Instructors can use.

Member, NO way, But I do give few exceptions to cyclist that know the dangers of a spinning.

40 pound steel wheel that keeps spinning NO WAY!

yeah pretty scary stuff. The car ride to get to the gym was probably 100 times more dangerous.

What is different about a spinning bike that is different from a normal excercise bike that would make it dangerous? Never have really looked at one to see the difference.

There's nothing dangerous about it at all.
They are expensive though...They're worried about what could happen to the bikes, or maybe even just in an unsupervised room in general.

It most likely has nothing to do with liability. Some clubs do not own the spin equipment in their facility and are under contract with the owners to only allow the equipment to be used during classes which are often run by the owners of the bikes.

This allows clubs to get the equipment into the facility at little cost and they get a kickback from the classes. I know of one spin bike company that provides equipment this way.

At the school fitness center I used the Spin Bikes like 2x before someone other than a work study student noticed. They were not happy at all to say the least. I was told that they are dangerous because you can't stop pedaling and I could get hurt. Which was ironic because the bike I rode to the fitness center with also does not allow me to stop pedaling; they didn't care.

On a side note, I suggested to a girl I work with who loves Spin classes that she should get a bike and she thinks it would too boring. I find Spin Class boring, its no windtrainer boring but its no open road.

Our spin room is 100% open at the gym I go to. No doors on it, but it's kind of "back in the back" of the gym. It's pretty secluded. Has a climbing wall all around the room too, so you can spider-man around the room while spin classes are going on. Pretty fun stuff.

My gym owner doesn't mind if we use the spinning bikes, he just drops by and checks on us every now and then.

There's a about 12-15 members he'll let do *anything*, and the rest just kind of go about their business. Luckily, I've built a very strong, well-to-do relationship with the owner, and he'll let me try / use anything I want to (within reason of course). Everytime I walk through the gym doors, he even changes it to the rock station for me.

-Matt

my town rec center locks the seats in the stereo cabinet.

a court club i go to in vail that is a much swankier place (not sure if that matters) has their room open ...stereo too.

I see a dilema with mechanical problems that go unreported. the class shows up to use 15 bikes and only 13 are operating. that's a bummer.

I could see the gyms not wanting people to use the bikes. After all, a lot of them pay good money for the bikes themselves. The tri-pedals alone are 99 bucks a pair, and the newest Johnny G bikes are 1700 bucks. Revmasters are about 1200 bucks, StarTracs are about 1400- 1600 bucks, and Schwinn bikes are about 1200 bucks. That's a lot of money they plunk down for the bikes.

Also, gyms have maintenance contracts with the companies they purchase bikes from. Some bikes have strict warranties, and if the company found out that the gym violated their contracts, the warranties would become voided, and then the gyms would have to pay for their maintenance. That could cost some bucks. The alternative solution is just lock the doors when the classes are not in session and don't let anyone in to use them.

Koffee

our gym does not lock the spinning area , we can access the bikes anytime
never heard of an accident in the spinning room. just lucky i guess

Ours keeps the spinning room open. They also use it for yoga classes. If no class is going on, like Friday nights, it's all mine! I see other cyclists in there, too, usually training for AIDS rides (like me). I choose the "Ride!" mix on my iPod and off I go!

Didn't you see Bridget Jone's Diary? In America, after she fell off the bike she'd sue!