Are you ready to let those muscles suffer?

Text: Silje Strømmen
Photos: Mari Oshaug

Are you ready to let those muscles suffer? In the winter of 2015/2016, Oslo Suffer Club – an indoor interactive arena for winter training for cyclists, is wishing everyone who are tired of spending time biking alone in a spinning room at the gym or who realizes that two/three months without biking is not an option, welcome to Myrens in Oslo.

- We have tried to create a place for cycle enthusiasts, regardless of level. Oslo Suffer Club is basically a place where people who want to cycle during the winter can meet up, go for a ride and hang out, says Anders Odin.

Together with Ole Martin Kristiansen, Mats André Kristiansen and Christopher Einarsrud he has re-built what used to be an office space with difficult angles and transformed it into a sleek, cool and modern “gym” (it’s not really a gym though – the definition is being worked out as we speak).

- We wanted to create a space where we would like to hang out as well, and this is the result, Ole Martin Kristiansen says and looks around.

The bicycle room has 10 bikes, a projector and a black wall. The magic is in the bikes and the software. The first person to book a slot gets to choose what exercise the slot is going to be used for, and since Suffer Club is developing all the software themselves you can for example book rides like the iconic (at least among the locals) “Grensenkollen”.

- The thought is that when summer finally arrives the person who has spent the last few months at Oslo Suffer Club will definitely be the one who is in the best shape – and when he recognizes someone else who has spent time at Suffer Club they will be friendly, say hello and maybe even have a secret handshake, laughs Anders Odin.