HOTSEAT HILARY GILBERT
American Hilary Gilbert started indoor cycling to help stay trim for a career in modelling. A decade on, her frustration with existing indoor cycling offerings in the UK has driven her to set up Boom! Cycle in London’s Shoreditch. She talks to Rhianon Howells
What’s your professional background? I grew up in Kentucky, middle America, and started modelling when I was 15, doing small-time advertising cam- paigns and catalogue work. It wasn’t until after I graduated from col- lege in 2001 – I studied biology at Northern Kentucky University – that I was scouted by a New York model- ling agency. So I moved up there, and that’s where it all started.
How did you enjoy modelling? It was awesome and scary and fun and everything you imagine it would be. I lived and worked in all the big markets: New York, London, Paris and LA. But coming from middle America, having to be sample size [a UK 8-10] was always going to be a challenge… you know what American portion sizes are like! So that’s when I became really serious about fi t- ness. I’d played sports from a young age, but I didn’t have three hours spare to play sports anymore, and I needed something more effi cient.
ABOUT BOOM! CYCLE
The fi rst Boom! Cycle site in Shoreditch, London, includes a studio with 39 bikes plus an instructor bike; male and female showers, changing rooms and lockers; and a reception area. A one-off class costs £14 (or £7 for the fi rst class); a package of fi ve sessions is £55 (£11 per class); a package of 10 is £100 (£10 per class); and a package of 20 is £180 (£9 per class). Around 60 per cent of users are women and 40 per cent men and the age range is 20-65.
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Classes include the 30 minute Express Lunch class, Hip Hop Cycle, Latin Cycle and the Two Hour Ride
What was your first experience of indoor cycling?
It was 2001, the year I moved to New York. I went to the Reebok Gym on the Upper East Side, saw this class and decided to check it out. I wasn’t very good my fi rst time, I didn’t have the right shoes, but I felt like I was danc- ing on a bike; like I was in a nightclub! I had a lot of fun and the time passed very quickly. I also loved how effi cient it was… I needed to be fi t and this was the easiest way to get it done.
When and where did you get the inspiration for Boom! Cycle? When I fi rst came to London for work in 2004. At that time there were only a few gyms offering indoor cycling, and the classes on offer weren’t like the ones I was used to in the States; to begin with, the bikes didn’t have any clips on their pedals. And the couple of good classes I did manage to fi nd
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weren’t convenient to get to. I remem- ber thinking, ‘This is crazy – I should start my own indoor cycling gym.’ But at the time I was so busy with modelling there was no way I could stay in one place long enough to start a business.
What made you change your mind?
Love! I decided to stay in the UK per- manently when I met my boyfriend [the entrepreneur Robert Rowland, who is also Gilbert’s business partner]. After making that decision I was like, ‘OK, now I really might be able to sink my teeth into something’. So that’s when I started looking into visas and gather- ing information for a business plan.
How would you sum up the Boom! Cycle off er? It’s a very effective and entertain- ing indoor cycling workout, which we offer at great value for money with the
ISSUE 3 2012 © cybertrek 2012
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