I only ever hear about Rouvy or Zwift. Seems like the whole market is consolidating.

I used it a couple of years ago. It was okay, the videos were nice, but the UX was painful. Consolidation in this market reveals that there's a demand for "network effects," i.e., some amount of socializing. I think that Zwift appeals to many because of that social effect, and they were smart to limit the number of worlds and routes so that there's (almost) always someone else to chase (or, in my case, to avoid being caught by) even if you don't race. But I do find the constant "Ride Ons" to be annoying. In Zwift, I know you can give a thumbs up even at Level 1. I often wonder what level one must attain to give a finger.

i agree, the videos i thought were better than rouvy's only because of the "filmed from bike" aspect. did not like the UI. recently some of the rides i've been doing on rouvy appear to be from a bike, people walk normally, cars pass at a correct rate. maybe these were some videos taken from fulgaz? anyway, looking forward to the fulgaz routes in rouvy now.

Can you give a finger in zwift? Wouldn't mind it for the runners that pass me at the top of the radio climb.

Echoing everyone else, I preferred the FulGaz videos. But their Windows app was far, far buggier than all other apps I trialed so I ended up on Rouvy after getting bored with Zwift back in 2020. My partner didn't care for Zwift's fake roads either. We could ride together on Rouvy's AR routes and they had a family plan before FulGaz did, making it an easy choice.

I don't do tri so the addition/return of the IM routes doesn't mean a thing to me. Other than the nicer videos, I don't know if there's any other potential benefit as a Rouvy user. I hope Rouvy didn't put themselves in a hole paying for FulGaz in the hopes that it'll lead to future growth.

For those who prefer POV outdoor videos to riding in video games, you might want to try the seldom-mentioned BigRingVR. "Amazing HD video quality," as the site says, and over 400 videos. 30-day free trial, and $10/month, and less for yearly subscriptions.

I used BigRingVR years ago and have gone through a number of other subscription services since. I now use MyWhoosh. But BigRingVR looked great and worked well.

I’ve us3d FulGaz for 4 years and love it. It has a zillion routes all over the world filmed from the seat of a bike so they look realistic. A lot of ROUVY are filmed from a car and the mechanics can be odd. FG has no cartoons or cartoonish avatars or cartoon pacers. I prefer FG.

That is why I set the camera view setting to ME .

Yup, and both other real and ghost riders can be toggled in the settings. I prefer having the option to see them because it gives a less sterile and isolating experience. If we're criticizing an app for only its default settings, then FulGaz was barely more than a glorified video player (that would freeze and lose my activity, at that) since its default setting didn't even use actual rider power to control the video speed.

I guess I can delete my 730Gb of cached Fulgaz rides now.

Barry

have not tried BigRingVR but the thing about "Amazing HD video quality" is that they need to be filmed from a bike, not a car. all the rouvy rides i've done are 2k minimum. nice to see the 4k as well but i consider the quality still poor due to the slow motion effect of everything. i just did another ride in Oman yesterday and it appeard to be done from a bike, movement of passing cars and pedrestrians was more normal.

looking forward to FG quality vidoes in rouvy.

I tried FulGaz a couple of years ago and found the UI a bit painful, but nice video quality. So it looks like Rouvy is winning the battle of the video style cycling Apps, which I think is probably a good thing. I quite like their augmented reality to mix with other riders in groups and races.

But I keep going back to Zwift, especially now the graphics and rendering is pretty slick. For me it still beats 2D video for a sense of speed and 3D space. Also can’t beat the variety of event rides in Zwift. I’m currently doing the Tour of Watopia series.

I pay for both but I haven’t done a ROUVY ride in a year and don’t remember the last route that I rode but it looks interesting so I’m going to ride it again today.

The BigRingVR videos (or at least some of them) appear to be filmed from a bike or a motor scooter. Some of the videos include gravel and single-track trails.

You can take a look at some short clips from ride videos on the BigRingVR YouTube channel.

I set POV to ME and got rid of the cartoon pacers and the ride was pretty decent. It bodes well for when ROUVY imports all of the FG (if ever). Anyway, had a pleasant experience, no regerts.

I would hope that Rouvy uses the videos (if they can). It sounds like it was a messy situation.

the email from rouvy i read stated that they are porting over the top 100 fulgaz vids. hopefully more, i do prefer those from bike compared to from car.

I've never tried FulGaz.
Tried the old CycleOps Power training which eventually became Rouvy. It was pretty good. Trialed Rouvy. Very nice, I just never stuck with it.

I really enjoyed The Sufferfest before Wahoo purchased them, jacked up the pricing, and rolled everything into one gigantic app that is in my opinion, just too much jack of all trades and master of only one of them..The Sufferfest part. It's a lot of stuff that I never have time to use and really have no interest in anyway , Yoga, running, casual cycling videos, Strength Training. Well okay their Strength work is cool. Sufferfest training plans, if you do one of the fitness tests first are very well custom tailored to your ability. Even the exercise intensities of each workouts intervals will be customized for you in a plan.

Also check out IC Trainer. Great video quality. Great workouts and training programs truly based on your own ability that actually make sense. The price is one of if not the best of all. In my opinion, for actually training and making measurable gains in reasonable increments, nobody competes. Not even close ... for only $29.99USD/year.

Rouvy user but I'm looking forward to the new FulGaz routes and hoping the triathlon courses will bring more variety in duration and profile. My 8-year-old computer just died over the weekend and the 1050 Ti video card was only good for 720p. Thinking about picking up a new computer with an RTX 4060 this weekend so I'm looking forward to running Full HD soon. No 2k until I upgrade my TV. Running on my phone bits.