A Conversation With Burn Cycling

On any given evening in Inglewood, the sound of rubber tires spinning against the smooth whisper of resistance wheels can almost mimic music, a rhythmic friction humming beneath playlists that refuse to be anything other than alive. It's a kind of sanctuary hidden not in quiet, but in sweat and shared breaths, in the bass-heavy pulse of Afrobeat or the nostalgia woven into R&B mashups. We’ve just walked into Burn Cycling, and it seems right to say that what co-owners Julie Adams and her daughter, Iman Europe, have created isn't just a cycling studio, but a heartbeat in the community.

For Julie, fitness is a part of her pathos. She once ran an aerobics spot when Taebo dominated the airwaves, a space called Slim Goodies, a memory Iman carried into adulthood. Now together, they've fashioned Burn Cycling not only as a refuge for physical exertion but as a kickstand for wellness, mental health and communal care. Their studio pulses with the spirit of a neighborhood that knows the intimacy of resilience, a space where spinning wheels can sometimes feel like religion, where stepping into classes isn't just a workout but an act of communion.

But there’s a tenderness behind the strength. Julie speaks openly of persistence, a word she offers quietly, with reverence, as though it holds both her struggle and her salvation. Iman counters gently with the word surrender — less resignation than wisdom, a recognition of the duality of limits and possibilities. Together, their dualism creates a tension necessary for a space that both pushes and pulls in its community.

Burn Cycling thrives not only by sculpting bodies but by shaping a sense of belonging, hosting events that pour back into a community that pours into them. Food drives, mental health activations, and donation efforts aren’t afterthoughts; they are core rituals as essential to their purpose as the chains that keep the wheels spinning on their bikes.

What Julie and Iman have built is a reminder of how a business can serve as an extension of home, how pedaling through resistance can be akin to surviving everything else, how community isn't just who shows up, but who stays. It is a space rooted in the radical belief that caring for your body and caring for your neighbor might just be the same sacred act.

And with everything that Julie and Iman have done for the community, the future of Burn Cycling is still a burning question the pair are trying to answer. After forging their way through the COVID-19 pandemic and recovering their base, Burn Cycling is still trying to survive the business they lost due to the wildfires that devastated swathes of Los Angeles County. If Julie and Iman are to continue to serve their Inglewood community by providing a unique, Black-Owned cycling studio that consistently gives back, they’re going to need help from that very community to stay afloat.

So before diving into Part 1 of SSLA’s conversation with Burn Cycling, consider donating to their GoFundMe to give them the fortitude to push it to a new era for their business. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

SSLA

All right, so we can start with you two just telling our readers who you are and what you do. 

Julie

I'm Julie Adams and I am the general manager and owner here at Burn Cycling.

Iman

And I'm Iman Europe. I am a co-owner and partnerships manager here at Burn Cycling.

SSLA 

For those who aren’t clear, can you explain what Burn Cycling is?

Julie

Burn cycling is a place where people come for exercise, predominantly known for spinning, but we also offer extreme hip hop step classes and we also offer strength training classes.

We're also like a place where people come to fellowship and and a space where we can hold community events. We’re known for being here to do positive things in the community.

Iman

I think outside of being a place for the, for exercise, we're mainly like a hub for community around different forms of wellness. Think physical wellness, we also hold bi-monthly activations that are targeted to mental wellness. We also do kind of give back, pro bono give back events.

In January, we did a donation drive for the people who lost their houses out in Pasadena and the Altadena fires. And we do buy monthly give-backs.

We've done the women's ride or the men's ride, we’ve done Thanksgiving food drives, toy drives, stuff like that. So outside of like how we operate, you know, there's how we operate as a business, but then also how we operate in our community – and I think both of those are equally important to us.

SSLA

With Burn Cycling, what led to you turning the studio into a space that also offered all these other services?

Julie

I think that for me it was when I actually went to a cycling class and I was so into it that I was like, oh, this is something that, you know, I would want to bring to the community. And so, yeah, it just kind of happened from there. I just got involved.

SSLA

And how did you get involved in the fitness world? Did you always have a passion for cycling that led to this? 

Julie

I've always been into fitness, so I'm always looking for whatever that next thing is, you know?

I was at a point of looking for something new and active to get into. I was invited to a cycling class by my cousin because he knew I was like looking for something to get into.

At the same time I was also looking to go into business, and I needed something I loved – and that’s what this was. Once I took that class, I was like, oh, this is it.

Iman

I think another really important thing to include is that this is not my mom's first fitness business.

She had one in 1999-2005, Slim Goodies. And that was like aerobics when Taebo was popular.

And, you know, I was able to see just as a kid that this can be a business that, you know, really sustains.

SSLA

Ah, the Billy Blanks years. 

Iman

[Laughs] Exactly. But yeah, it was something that brought a lot of happiness to her too. So when she said she wanted to do another business, I was like, okay, great, let's do it, you know? I think what I noticed is that although she has always been a very fitness-forward person, she really likes specific sports or activities.

So she played tennis in high school, she likes bowling and she likes these boutique kind of ideas. And so there was aerobics and then I think cycling was the next thing that she fell in love with and she just ran with it.

SSLA

You know, speaking of boutiques, in these smaller places, I haven't seen a lot of Black-Owned boutique fitness studios. Can you talk a little bit about your place in the community and having something like this that's black owned and operated?

Julie

I think that when you talk about fitness and having a boutique gym in a black neighborhood, and because we're in Inglewood and it is considered historically black, you get a mixture of the types of people who come in.

Some people who are into it and some people who really want to be consistent with it. And you get a lot of people who are not consistent with it and a lot of people who don't put it first, or at least make it one of their priorities.

For us, it makes it running something so unique kind of like a kind of up and down ride. Sometimes it can be doing really well and then, you know, any little thing and people will just fall off and stop being consistent about it. I can see why you there aren’t a lot of spaces like this because it does take a lot. But we also recognize that it’s important for these places to exist.

Iman

But I would say that because it's a boutique, it creates more of a community because these people all like to do this and they create relationships with each other based on this hobby or love that they have. Versus like a big box gym where everybody is just working out, lifting alone.

It's hard to come outside of just fitness itself. It's hard to have like a common ground. And I think that the community aspect is stronger. With just a few focuses here relationships and friendships have gotten built because we exist, and that’s the upside to a boutique like Burn Cycling.

SSLA

The other side of what you guys are saying to do is the community outreach stuff. Can you talk a little bit about how you decided to implement doing some of that and why it's important for you two to continue to do so?

Iman

From my time as a kid, my mom used to always instill in me, we gotta give back. We started going on Thanksgiving to cook for the women in an all-women’s shelter when I was young. So that was already something that was kind of programmed in me. I think that having a space allowed us to give in a more like, systematic way. But that's something that she always kind of valued.

Julie

For me, it’s just because our community needs it, you know? And I really believe in each one teach one and, you know, for us, by us. With the way that the world is going right now, we have to take care of each other. No one else is going to take care of us the way that we're going to take care of us. And we've even seen that in the way that the community has come and supported us through our rough patches.

And because we have such a strong community that pours into us, we pour back. It's just like a continuous thing, we pour and they pour. And however it works, like, I think it's just important to do that and just kind of keep the cycle going.

SSLA

For the community actually in the studio, I know you said there's sometimes an ebb and flow of some come and leave, but for those who are consistent, what do you feel like they're getting out of Curn Cycling?

Julie

I can see some of their bodies changing. Some of them are getting in shape for the consistency of coming.  And that makes me feel good when I say that, too. It makes me feel like all of this is not for nothing.

Iman

It works.

Julie

Yeah. So it's good to see people who are actually getting in shape. And also when we're doing any type of community outreach, like with breast cancer awareness or whatever it is,  just for people to come and learn something that they didn't know about.

A lot of women just don't know where we are as far as black women when it comes to breast cancer awareness and how we're at the top of the list of fatalities because of it, but we're at the bottom of the list of those who take preventative or proactive measures to get checked out. It's just because the information is not there. They're not getting the information. And so to see people come in and actually get the information, that's a good feeling for me to know that, okay, now that they know, they’re going to take that information to their circles. The spread of this information is so important to us.

Iman

I love seeing people's personalities come out because they come in. It’s even happened for me.

When I first started taking classes, I was really nervous and really didn’t want to.I didn’t know how to break that wall, to talk to the person next to me or even the instructor. Coming out of the pandemic where we didn't have a lot of social socialization, my socialization skills were off – and they still are. 

With this space, you can see the way that people's personality starts to come alive and they walk in like, hey, hey! I love that. We get to watch as confidence grows while staying dedicated to their craft. The confidence factor is really cool to me.

Julie

I love that.

Part 2 of the interview with Julie and Iman of Burn Cycling will be released on Friday, May 24. In Part 2, Julie and Iman talk about owning a business as a Mother/Daughter duo, they address some of the challenges that they’ve faced running Burn Cycling and how they’ve been able to be resilient throught it all.

While you wait for Part 2, please, again, consider donating to their GoFundMe and sharing the campaign with your loved ones.

-SSLA