CycleBar Franchise Cost & Review

CycleBar is an indoor-cycling franchise selling a class-based "theater" experience: a darkened room, performance bikes, and instructor-led rides. It was built inside Xponential Fitness — the franchisor family behind Club Pilates, StretchLab, Pure Barre, and YogaSix — and was sold, together with Rumble, to Extraordinary Brands in August 2025. New ownership can change support, development priorities, and eventually terms; ask directly what has changed since the acquisition.

Figures below come from CycleBar's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, filed under Xponential ownership. Brands refile every year; the document the franchisor hands you is the one that governs, not this page. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or compensated by CycleBar. See our disclosure policy.

What it costs

The terms will look familiar if you have read our other Xponential reviews: the fee stack is essentially identical to YogaSix's, and close to Club Pilates' and StretchLab's. What differs is the build. A CycleBar theater needs a large open room, tiered or staged bike placement, sound treatment, and a fleet of commercial bikes — which is why the Item 7 range tops $1.1 million while a StretchLab fits in a fraction of the space.

What studios earn

The sample is credible — 183 studios reporting a full year — and the average is honest about what it contains. The Item 19 also reports operating metrics we rarely see disclosed: median monthly active membership of 239, and median monthly attrition of 7.5%. That attrition figure deserves your attention. A studio losing about 7.5% of members a month must replace roughly 90% of its membership base every year just to stand still.

The spread is the story

Divide the top quartile by the bottom and you get 3.69x — the widest quartile spread of any brand we have reviewed, ahead of Pure Barre's 3.05x and far from Club Pilates' 1.90x. The disclosed full range runs from $29,307 to $1,282,643.

A spread like that means the brand, by itself, is not carrying the outcome. The top-quartile studio averaging $709,117 and the bottom-quartile studio averaging $192,302 signed the same agreement and pay the same fees. Market selection, class scheduling, instructor quality, and local marketing execution are doing most of the work — read our site selection guide before you fall in love with a territory.

The capital efficiency picture

Against an investment midpoint of about $760,501, average revenue of $424,125 is a revenue-to-investment ratio of roughly 0.56x — in the same weak territory as SWTHZ and below every other Xponential brand we cover. YogaSix, with a nearly identical fee stack, discloses 0.72x; Club Pilates discloses 1.61x.

Boutique cycling is a capacity business: revenue is bounded by bikes times classes times fill rate, and a big theater build raises the denominator without raising the ceiling. The bottom quartile's $192,302 average against a build that starts at $410,809 is the risk case, stated plainly.

What the fee load actually costs

At average revenue of $424,125, the 7% royalty is about $29,700 and the 2% brand fund about $8,500 a year. Local advertising at 2% would be about $8,500 — under the $18,000 annual floor — so the floor applies. Combined, a typical studio sends roughly $56,200 a year, about 13% of gross, to the franchisor and required local spend.

At the bottom-quartile average of $192,302, the same obligations total about $35,300 — over 18% of gross, because the $1,500 monthly floor does not scale down. As with SWTHZ, the floor is regressive: it costs the weakest studios the largest share of revenue.

Is CycleBar worth it?

On disclosed figures, CycleBar is a bet on execution in a format with real headwinds. The sample is large and the disclosure unusually rich — that is to the brand's credit — but 0.56x capital efficiency, a 3.69x spread, and 7.5% median monthly attrition describe a business where the median outcome is modest and the downside is real. Boutique cycling also competes directly with connected-bike home fitness in a way assisted stretching and Pilates do not.

Worth it if you have a proven operator playbook, a market you know cold, and the capital to build without straining — the $709,117 top quartile shows the format works when run well. Not worth it as a passive or first-time bet at the midpoint build cost; on the same capital, Club Pilates discloses nearly three times the efficiency. Head-to-heads are linked below.

Who this fits

CycleBar fits an owner-operator with fitness industry experience, comfort recruiting and retaining star instructors, and a dense urban or affluent suburban market that can sustain premium class pricing. The rich operating disclosure makes it one of the easier FDDs to model honestly.

It fits poorly for a buyer counting on brand strength to carry an average site, or one whose financing needs the $424,125 average to hold — the bottom quartile is less than half that.

Before you sign

Ask franchisees in your validation calls about attrition and fill rates by class time, not just revenue. Model the year at the bottom-quartile average with the full fee load, and run the payback math in the ROI and payback calculator. Work the due diligence checklist, and read Item 19 yourself — CycleBar's is more detailed than most, and the detail is where the decision lives.

Sources

• Franchise Chatter — CycleBar franchise review 2025
• SharpSheets — CycleBar franchise FDD, profits & costs

Frequently asked questions

How much does a CycleBar franchise cost?

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The 2025 FDD discloses a total initial investment of $410,809 to $1,110,193, including a $60,000 initial franchise fee. The wide range reflects real estate and build-out variance — a premium theater build in a high-cost market sits at the top of it.

How much revenue does a CycleBar studio generate?

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The Item 19 reports average gross revenue of $424,125 and a median of $406,514 across 183 studios that were franchisee-owned and operated for the entire 2024 calendar year. The top quartile averaged $709,117; the bottom quartile averaged $192,302.

What are CycleBar's ongoing fees?

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A 7% royalty, a 2% brand development fund, and local advertising of the greater of $1,500 per month or 2% of prior-month gross sales — the standard Xponential Fitness fee stack. At the disclosed average, combined obligations run roughly 13% of gross.

Is CycleBar owned by Xponential Fitness?

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Not anymore. Xponential Fitness, which built CycleBar's franchise system, sold it along with Rumble to Extraordinary Brands in August 2025. The figures on this page come from the 2025 FDD filed under Xponential ownership; confirm current terms in the document Extraordinary Brands hands you.