The end of the road.
Interesting development.
If the Magic Roads would have worked well, i.e., easierâŚI might have stayed. But when I tried it a bunch of âpost-processingâ was required to make it rideable.
Too bad.
1 Like
Bad for consumers, Iâd say. Competition is good; competition is what we need to prevent stagnation and drive innovation.
But the competitors need to compete.
In my experience and opinion, RGT failed on this front. It didnât offer anything compelling or different enough from Zwift. The avatars looked awkward, the maps were wastelands. I gather they had a die hard cohort of racers, but I only vaguely care much about racing. I dabble, but Zwift is good enough (although yes it could be better).
If Zwift take what theyâve done with Climb Portal as a starting point, maybe they could come up with their own magic roads implementation. If they did that, I think it would be very hard for someone else to come in and eat their lunch; at least for the foreseeable future.
4 Likes
Iâve no doubt that further down the road thereâll be more casualties whether it be IndieVelo or MyWhoosh.
1 Like
A Zwift implementation of magic roads with some way for user imported roads to be available to all would be extremely impressive.
I could potentially import an entire Haute Route Alps stage with multiple HC climbs on it. Then hopefully be able to spend time to correct it with appropriate trees and other details from what already exists.
I would love to do that.
You could then ride all the way from Megeve to the real Alpe dâhuez.
4 Likes
That would be incredible. I did some Q4 mapping etc. back in the day, and spent hours getting things right. I feel like plenty of people would dedicate time and effort to make some really high quality third-party routes. Iâve played community TF2 maps that were every bit as polished as the Valve in-house ones.
Of course, it all needs moderation, quality control etc. but actually downloading the map itself is a relatively trivial task Iâd expect.
On the other hand, itâs not using Hammer or some other well known 3D mapping engine, and it might take some effort to produce something that could go into the hands of community creators.
Nice to dream though!
1 Like
Zwift have got a complete stranglehold on this industry.
Id be surprised if theres any other platforms left within a couple of years.
When your name has become the verb for indoor cycling, the rest of the competition is pretty done for tbh
2 Likes
âhey friends, who wants to go MyWooshing tonightâ doesnât have a good ring to it 
2 Likes
If they have enough money they can use that to get ahead.
Not fair but thatâs how things work.
Zwift was once a bit player too.
I donât think there was much for racers there - at least every race I tried seemed to be entirely bots other than me.
The big key for racers is someone to race. There was no one there.
I found the community there to be pretty antagonistic if you ever spoke a good word about Zwift or criticized RGT at all when I tried it. I think the community may have doomed it. They kept insisting âThis isnât Zwift, if you like Zwift then go awayâ when the proper marketing would have been âWeâre just like Zwift, we also have x, y & zâ and minimized the differences between the platform that people already like.
2 Likes
I never felt the need to even try RGT, even for free - so I am not surprised they have not succeeded. On the other hand I am interested in trying IV, but they donât support iPad, and I wonder how long it will be until they do. MyWoosh does not seem to be all that great from the videos Iâve seen, but I guess weâll see how the UCI events go. They seem to have people willing to dump money into it, but letâs see if that translates into a better overall experience.
Thatâs the same everywhere. This community here has some pretty aggressive folk too, just mention pace dynamics, get some popcorn ready and watch the fireworks.
I also made a comment about IndieVelo here and got yelled at by the IndieVelo defenders. 
So I just uninstalled it and wonât look at it again thanks to their efforts.
I primarily use Zwift but do use other cycling trainer apps where they fit the need.
Enforced steering doomed it, particularly with a cr*p hardware/software steering implementation (maybe thereâs a lesson there for others).
2 Likes
It was dead before steering was a thing on RGT, I think. At least I wasnât seeing anyone in any races I tried, other than one pilot race that our Zwift club did.
2 Likes
Thatâs what I found, I even tried a 3rd party âmethodâ, I spent a few hours trying to get a route working, far long that the route would have taking to ride. As you say, itâs a shame
Let me start by stating Iâm a Zwift fan-boy.
But I have the fear that one of the next platforms who will vanish is Zwift.
Yes they had the momentum and they have (for now) the biggest user-base.
But you see more and more complaints about basic UI stuff that other platforms do right.
And Zwift is changing (sometimes not even improve) their UI very slowly.
It is that Iâm a fanboy and I know what the platform has to offer, but sometimes even I have to search 5 minutes for a certain aspect before Iâm able to find it.
Their core service (digital cycling) is spot on, but the convenience isnât and now some consumers will dripple to other platforms, until they have the critical mass.
By the slow adapting change of Zwift I fear Zwift will be the new Kodak
2 years ago, my Strava only showed IRL rides and Zwift rides. Today I see more often mywoosh, trainerroad and other virtual rides
1 Like
Zwift is far from perfect but its also pretty outstanding platformâŚthe competetion isnt even in the same league as Zwift.
People will always gravitate to wherever other people are and at the moment, thats Zwift.
From what iâve heard, all other platforms are absolutely barron of users.
Peak Zwift in middle of northern hemisphere winter, youâre over 40k user online at once, its pretty amazing to see so many ridersâŚits almost too busy.
Even Mywoosh being free, its still not enough to entice me to go over.
Zwift is my home and it will always beâŚno matter how good other platforms are
1 Like
I think Pelotonâs 6 million paid up subscribers probably goes against that.
1 Like
Today they are the best and have the most users. That is my point.
But with the current development rate, will they still be in the future? (Kodak)
Today 1 will go to the competitor, tomorrow 2, next week 10, and in one (or 5) they could have a critical mass.
In the past, Facebook (3years ago?) was the number one social media platform because everyone was on Facebook. I would argue if this is still the case for today
1 Like
The big question for Zwift is not whether someone else will take their crown as the most popular indoor platform for outdoor cyclists ( I canât see that happening with the number of casual riders that know of nothing else), itâs whether things stack up financially. I have no idea if they are making money or not, and no idea what sort of numbers they have to hit in the future, but things are stagnating, competition is increasing, and VC backers want a return. I expect a price hike pretty soon as a starter.