Gym Horror Story: The Naked Cyclist

The following is a short story that’s a part of our “Gym Horror Stories” series to celebrate Halloween. Each day this week, visit ClubSolutionsMagazine.com for a new tale from the gym.

It was a cold and stormy night…

No, it really wasn’t. It was a beautiful summer day, but the nude cycling enthusiast made us feel like we were living in a horror story, or at least a flashback to the streaking craze of the 1970s.

As is the case with many health clubs, after touring the club and being presented the pricing and information on membership, this prospect asked to use the club on a pass.

After completing the waiver and liability form, the guest went off to change in the locker room.

The indoor cycling studio at this particular downtown club had three walls of floor-to-ceiling glass, so that members exercising on the fitness floor can see and feel the energy during a cycling class.

This studio was your typical “glass bowl” in the center of the fitness floor.

It was a member who reported a “naked man” on a cycling bike to the front desk (who then alerted management) that something terribly strange was taking place in the studio: the prospective member — the man who had only minutes before shared keen interest in joining the club — was now on a cycling bike completely nude, save for headphones and an iPod resting on the bike. Cycling at full speed and not a care in the world, the man had placed a backpack at the base of the bike, which we were to find out later had his street clothes inside.

Management quickly entered the studio and asked the man what he was doing, to which he responded that he had forgotten his gym clothes. The silence after this statement was thick as fog. It is times like this that ordinary and rational thought simply evaporates into, “What the [heck].”

The man was asked to dress immediately and to leave the club. He was escorted out by management and asked not to return.

“Housekeeping: clean up on bike No. 3.”

— Keith Moore, Pura Vida