I used to use Fulgaz. Great program that the owner worked to make better. Problem I had is a bunch of the rides went through towns with stoplights and the rides would stop/restart…very ugly sequencing. Try the Lake Como route…beautiful scenery in town ruined by Stoplight Stuttering.
Zwift is cheap/inexpensive for what it provides.
I was not aware there was separate bike insurance.
I rode on Fulgaz a few times. One was a video of a nice English countryside, where the person recording the ride was following a car.
The driver of the car tapped their brakes and I for sure grabbed a handful of my brakes. Quite immersive.
Indeed but compared to other indoor cycling apps zwift isn’t even the most expensive one and actually offers quite a lot. Eg trainerroad is 22/month vs zwift 20. Both give you mediocre training programs but trainerroad only gives you a boring line to stare at whereas zwift has a fun virtual world and a whole community with events, races etc
Of course, everyone decides for themselves how much something is worth. Personally, Zwift is worth the money, in my opinion. MyWhoosh may be free, but for various reasons, it doesn’t appeal to me. As the Americans say, “no such thing as a free lunch.” I’ve never worked for free in my career, and I don’t expect anyone else to. What I do expect is maintained quality and the necessary innovation. I’ve almost never experienced any problems with Zwift. There are indeed other programs that score slightly higher graphically, and yet I don’t have the same feeling about them. Therefore, you’ll often find me somewhere in the virtual Watopia.
You can get both that, but mine is from my home insurance. Cycling specific insurance is worth checking out.
If you are racing then check out specific options for that, in case something does go wrong and your bike is damaged, or worse you are seriously hurt.
I’m happy you’re happy with it, and you appear to be a lucky one as far as problems go. You just need to look on this forum to see that. I used to enjoy it for the racing but that light dimmed pretty quickly when you see the way others will game the system in an effort to win, pretty sad really given you win nothing tangible. I’m pretty sure the people who put together & run MyWhoosh are paid handsomely & they still don’t charge for anything, I can only assume you have a problem with it & that’s your choice.
I just prefer proper roads, singular rides & no chat whatsoever, lovely.
Any particular reason for not liking Rouvy? They still run FulGaz as a separate entity if you go online to look at it.
I never found that a problem tbh, and at least they stop at the lights most of the time, I found myself getting a little annoyed when they didn’t.
I don’t like the look of it.
That’s fair enough.
The way Zwift has the avatar animation is top notch, IMHO.
Everything from the hip rotation to the elbow flex on each pedal stroke.
Most other cycling apps I’ve looked at are just leg motion.
Totally agree. Avatar movement in all other games is horrible. It’s one of the things Zwift did very well.
Two things I’ve never even noticed, or even looked for in any app I’ve tried, and tbh the avatar isn’t something I take much notice of, until there’s a problem.
Any app can use real video footage, or an incredible game engine to render scenery. And there are some really good looking apps out there.
But if the cycling avatars look like a 5 year old child drew them, or the animation of the avatar is completely stiff, I’m out.
Fulgaz at least didn’t bother with avatars, but it did have some really well done courses that were extremely accurate. They didn’t have mystery 25%+ gradients in places where they shouldn’t be for instance.
I lost interest in Fulgaz when I was not riding at the speed the video was recorded in, resulting in either too slow cadence or ridiculously fast cadence for other riders around the cyclist recording.
Oh, it’s not something that’s a headliner that people realize is a problem - but I could never get into RGT because the avatar movement felt so disconnected.
Bkool, now also part of the Rouvy empire, used to speed up or slow down video framerates to match your speed relative to the recording. I don’t remember it adding avatars but that’s possibly just me using first person view. You could add your own rides for a virtual GPX plot without video, or use others’ rides the same just using a virtual environment. It was never heavily populated and didn’t have the social activity or ride duration possible on Zwift. Synergies with the other apps in the stable are clear. Horses for courses though - depends what sort of riding you do and how often. I got less benefit from the Strava sub, so put my money from that towards Zwift. It would have been nice to get a BF discount on membership though.
I could do without them altogether, much prefer just looking down at the progress display. As you might have gathered I’m not a social rider, never been in a club, or even ridden with other people apart from a couple of Cyclone rides, held around Northumberland area. Didn’t like them at all.
Of course, I know that MyWhoosh employees are paid. But if the user doesn’t pay for it, who does? Everything points to MyWhoosh being heavily subsidized by government money and not a billionaire’s hobby. In principle, I’m not in favor of that. There are even more countries that offer products below production cost in the hope of crushing Western companies (which generally have to play by different rules). They consider copyright the right to copy. And yes, free is possible if you’re constantly bombarded with ads. But I prefer to pay a modest fee to remain ad-free. Your dissatisfaction stems more from fair play in Zwift. Or am I mistaken? It’s true that Zwift isn’t foolproof in this regard. Such a thing is also difficult to achieve. For me, it’s a great training platform for staying fit, social, and brightens up gloomy winter days. Even a ride in the sunny desert of Watopia has that effect. However strange that last point may sound. Hopefully you can find a better alternative.