10/11/2026
5.5 years ago I was the manager at MorGainz Fitness in Richland and a personal trainer at the gym asked me if I could help them start a spin studio. They had experience spinning at other spin studios in the area and decided they wanted to do something on their own. At the time, I was preparing for a big move to Pittsburgh, so I told them to get their own thing started and we were going to meet back up in 10 years and open up a gym + spin studio.
That’s when Carly opened up Gearforce Elite Cycle in the West End. She started building her own thing and really got something special off the ground. She was the pioneer of a more premium experience and really got the local spin industry moving in a new direction. She came up with pedals & praise, brought barre to fitness studios, and started pushing the boundaries of what premium group fitness was at the time.
My family had an opportunity to move back home from Pittsburgh earlier than we had anticipated, so we moved back to Johnstown.
Carly made a decision to shut Gearforce Elite Cycle down and I said, “I’ll buy everything, get us into a lease, and run the business if you can just keep being an awesome coach.” I took $30,000 cash from my savings and took a chance. We had no lights, one portable speaker, one portable mic (that was total junk), two coaches, and a lot of heart.
Now we have three locations, fifteen awesome coaches, spin, barre, boxing, Pilates, face melting audio (this is a good thing), awesome lighting, and we’ve just earned the title of Johnstown’s Best Spin Studio. This took a lot of work from our team, but without Carly having the initial vision, none of this would have happened. Carly has gone to many booth opportunities for us, spoken at multiple large events, brought Cyclethon to Johnstown, created lots of innovative events and ideas, connected us with so many people, onboarded all of our coaches, and has been a sounding board for all of my ideas too.
Carly’s made some big decisions recently and is making a massive pivot in her life. Carly’s in the police academy all evening and soon to be weekends, and to pay for school she has also picked up a full time job during the day. Carly and I have been in communication throughout this transition and we wanted to see how everything was going at the academy before any decisions were made.
Carly is going to be temporarily stepping away to focus on building her career and her future, which is something myself and the rest of the team stand behind. I’m very grateful for everything she has done for us and I’m incredibly proud of her for taking this step in life. I encourage everyone to give her warm congratulations and wish her the best!
~ Phoenix
