After an 11-Year Journey to Open Heights Cycle, Megan Wenstrup Is Selling Out Community Events
Megan Wenstrup had a pretty simple wish.
“I just want to open a little indoor cycling studio and serve the community,” she said.
It really did seem simple enough.
But then it took 11 years.
“I tried three different times to buy studios one way or another,” she said, echoing a similar sentiment to a recent Southland Development Authority (SDA) feature on Daniel Stidham. The Grove Coffee owner himself tried more than a dozen times to secure a place before landing in Oak Lawn.
Apparently, you have to just keep at it.
Wenstrup first began thinking seriously about owning a studio in 2011. She had been taking a SoulCycle class in New York. A class she walked away from knowing she wanted to bring a similar experience back to the Chicago area.
“I was like, this is what I want to do,” she recalled.
The Heights Cycle team gathers outside the Palos Heights studio. Owner Megan Wenstrup spent 11 years pursuing her dream of opening an indoor cycling business before purchasing and rebranding an existing studio in February 2022. Photo courtesy of Heights Cycle.
What followed was more than a decade of teaching classes, training instructors, writing a business plan and repeatedly trying to turn the idea into a business.
One attempt involved buying into a fitness franchise. Then the rights to the geographic area got sold elsewhere. Two more attempts to buy a studio where she worked also fell through.
Then came the pandemic.
By that point, Wenstrup had spent years working in boutique fitness after previously working in technology sales. It had also been about a decade at home raising her three children. She eventually stopped teaching and began experimenting with another idea. Organizing fitness fundraisers.
That detour unexpectedly brought her full circle. Back to the business she had been trying to build all along.
Through the fundraising venture, Wenstrup met someone who knew of an existing cycling studio for sale.
“I was like, well, this is like bringing crack to the addict,” Wenstrup joked. “I’ve tried like three times and each time it didn’t work.”
This time, it did.
In February 2022, Wenstrup purchased the existing studio in Palos Heights and rebranded it as Heights Cycle.
But buying the business was only the beginning.
Heights Cycle team members and supporters celebrate their fitness community. That community has expanded beyond the studio through events such as Palos Goes Pink. The annual fundraiser supports metastatic breast cancer research at Rush University Medical Center. Photo courtesy of Heights Cycle.
Wenstrup lives in La Grange and knew she was entering a tight-knit community with existing members who had remained loyal to the previous studio. Instead of immediately rebuilding the business around her own vision, she deliberately moved slowly.
“I was very conscious of understanding that I was sort of an outsider coming in to an existing community of people who had been riding here,” Wenstrup said.
Some changes came quickly, including new paint, speakers and microphones. Others came gradually as Wenstrup learned the community and earned the trust of existing members.
One of the largest changes was shifting the studio away from primarily selling individual class packages and toward recurring monthly memberships. Wenstrup also refreshed the space, standardized class formats and established new systems for attracting and retaining members.
Over the past four and a half years, Heights Cycle has also become increasingly connected to the surrounding business community.
Wenstrup connected with the SDA through Relationship Manager Jamie Makuch, who had taken classes at the studio and continued bringing Wenstrup opportunities to promote and grow the business.
That relationship led to speaking opportunities, including serving as a panelist at the SDA's ACHIEVE Summit. And a grant-supported marketing campaign that Wenstrup said was successful for Heights Cycle.
It has also helped connect the business with new promotional opportunities throughout the Southland.
Today, Wenstrup's ambitions extend beyond the small cycling studio. That dream she envisioned more than a decade ago.
Recently, Heights Cycle helped organize the fourth annual Palos Goes Pink at Lake Katherine Nature Center. It brought together five local fitness businesses for a circuit-style workout benefiting metastatic breast cancer research at Rush University Medical Center.
Participants take part in an outdoor cycling session during the fourth annual Palos Goes Pink fundraiser at Lake Katherine Nature Center in Palos Heights in early October 2026. Photo courtesy of Heights Cycle.
The event sold out. And it slightly exceeded its planned capacity. Wenstrup said organizers raised $20,000 last year and set a $25,000 goal this year. The final 2026 total was still being calculated.
But with that cycle complete, Wenstrup is looking ahead to what is next. She said Heights Cycle could eventually add another fitness modality or even expand to another location.
She did not stop trying to open the place for eleven years.
Now she expects to spend the next several months deciding which direction to take the business for its next cycle.
About the Southland Development Authority
The Southland Development Authority, a not-for-profit economic development organization, is committed to driving equitable and sustainable economic growth in the South Suburbs of Chicago. Through innovative programs, strategic partnerships, and impactful direct investments, the SDA is building a vibrant, inclusive economy that drives wealth growth for individuals, businesses, and municipalities. Combined with the benefits of the South Suburban Land Bank and the Monarch Fund, the SDA serves as a model for regional development.
