I'll just say that the main reason to zwift is to race. The races are clearly better than any other platform.

If you are just riding alone, rouvy looks nicer. But then, why wouldn't you just ride the rollers and watch a movie.

If you are following a training plan, trainerroad is better. By far.

Andy

I downloaded, rode & raced on Rouvy this past week. I'm a level 50 Zwifter.

My initial experience with Rouvy was "ok, this is neat" which quickly faded, and turned to "I really miss Zwift".

I found Rouvy to be a very lonely, boring experience:

1. I found myself wanting to chat, send Ride Ons to fellow riders. I Zwift because inclusive group rides, the community feel or riding with friends that I've met on Zwift keep me riding wayyyy longer than I even would solo (6+ hour rides, most weekends).

No chat on Rouvy. No community feel. This was the deal-breaker for me.

2. Weird "augmented reality" graphics were just ugly and stood out terribly against the video. The segments didn't seem to have any reason to be there either: not at the top of a hill or anything (although, to think about it, the sprint segments in Zwift are random too, I guess I'm just used to them).

3. Bumpy ride. As much as Rouvy has tried to stabilize their video, it still wobbles up and down and made me nauseous if I focused on the video too much. I ended switching to the map screen after a bit, it got too much.

4. Can I customize my Rouvy bike? Ride a different Rouvy bike? Wheels? Components? I love this IRL, and adore this on Zwift.


After 40k of racing, I wanted off Rouvy. I'll Rouvy when I have to, but Zwift can have my $.

I tried Rouvy about 4 weeks ago now. I ended up keeping both. Started with Zwift as a beta tester, and level 47 now. I think.
For structured training, e.g. 4x10min FTP etc. I typically use Zwift, and put my head down and use ERG.
For anything that will be somewhat long, I use Rouvy because I really enjoy being able to ride on actual courses.
I've done Roth (Saturday actually, and it was very similar feel to when I raced it, although it was funny to see an empty
Solar Berg), Kraichgau, Boulder 5150 and 70.3, as well as some of the major climbs in France that I had done already.
If you want to push, you get intermediate splits in race mode, which is a neat feature.

I really don't care for the ride ons, I don't care for the chatting on Zwift either.

I'll likely continue with both options. But I'm leaning towards using Rouvy more.

Disclaimer: I've never been a fan of video games, so the virtual stuff really doesn't do it for me. Bears rolling on the ground,
dinosaurs etc. whatever

i dont care for ride ons and chats too. but i do like group rides with drafting, working to stay in a pack and what not.

That's a new feature available in Rouvy actually. I haven't tried it so can't comment on how good or not it is.

Anyone have experience with the free version of Rouvy after the trial ends? It says it limits the rides to 1hr. Doesn't seem like much of an issue unless you want to tackle a longer route. Get booted out after 1hr, go have a snack, fill bottles, load up another route and go out for another hour or am I missing something?

I believe the RouvyAR app is still in Beta, and as such does not currently require a subscription to use. Works for me on both Mac and iOS.

Just did another session... the ironman super seal sprint bike course. I live near there, and have ridden it myself many times. On rouvy it seemed much harder,as if a hilly zwift ride like nyc. They over exaggerate the elevation changes - its a pretty dead flat course! Every 180* the video got so choppy. I think rouvy is the future but still needs work. Perhaps my laptop cannot support the graphics either

I use both.

I think a lot will depend on your mentality. I like the solitude of biking alone so Rouvy is just fine with me. I don’t really follow updates but I feel that over the last few months Rouvy has gotten better with giving me credit for momentum over small little rises like bridges and things. I’ve done a lot of the French climbs on Rouvy and it is at least as difficult as real life as most of my times are faster in real life, which I prefer because I use it as training for trips to the mountains. I am sure glad I climbed something like Croix de Fer online before I did in real life. That said, it is certainly more useful if you have a smart trainer.

The downside for me with Rouvy is that there are tons of cheaters and they don’t seem to get removed from the leaderboards. It becomes especially annoying when you hit a split.

I spend equal time riding Zwift and I feel my speed to be relatively accurate to real life. I’ve been on it far longer than Rouvy , from 2017 early, I think, so riding there feels very familiar at this point. In a way it feels more like real life because I’m not stuck doing a single course and I can spin off on another direction if I want. The Racing, group rides, and training are nice as well.

If I had to choose, I’d pick Zwift as it offers me more, but I’d miss Rouvy for sure.

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Dan Mayberry
Amateur a lot of things, professional a few things.

I rode Zwift for about 5-6 months. Tried Rouvy for the free period and went back to Zwift for about a month. I didn't get along with all the ride ons and chatting. The graphics were ok but got old after awhile. I've since changed to FulGaz. I've ridden FulGaz since January. Its fantastic. The RLV are perfect. 100s of different rides. Feels like you are there every time you ride. The realism is second to none. I connect a laptop to a 58" TV and ride all over the world while listening to Spotify at the same time through the TV. They have the full IM Hawaii course in real life video.

I recently signed up to Rouvy to do the IMVR Championship races. It's cool to ride real courses and have a more realistic experience, but I'm not a fan of downloading the videos and the fairly un-refined user interface.

Zwift has its issues too but I prefer it for the social element - seeing other people of other nationalities, riding in groups, riding with friends, more achievements and badges to earn. It's more gamified which I like.

I'll probably drop Rouvy after the IMVR races are over, but maybe not. It's cheap and it's really cool to ride races or courses you may plan on visiting.

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101Ironman Hacks & Newsletter: http://ironmanhacks.com/newsletter/

YouTube interviews with legends like Mark Allen, Dave Scott, many more: https://www.youtube.com/...s?sub_confirmation=1

update.... today I tried the rouvy 'workout' app.

Now this definitely beats zwift imho....

the trainer load feels correct, i love the insync music for the interval efforts, which you can easily adjust in workout. (great GUI).

I don't think either is better than the other. The question is which fits your personality and training style better. Zwift animation turned me off from the inception and I've been on Rouvy for 3 yrs now ... since before it was Rouvy! I typically watch a movie if I'm running the workout app on my phone. If I'm racing or riding a route I'll run it off my laptop with music in the background. I've trained solo for decades so it is a perfect fit for me. I love the program, the challenges and working up the career ladder each year.

I like to make a correction. The workout I did was rouvy guide. THe other workouts, just has you follow a graph, no music. doomsday boring. Rouvy needs to capitalize on their guided workouts, this can easily take on the peloton bike brand crowd

There are something like over 4000 workouts, very few with the guided video. But my movie, documentary and TV show watchlist is endless so I match those up except for races and actual routes.

I wanted to like rouvy, but I hated it.

The graphics were gross, the video shaky, I felt nauseous, it looked like a cartoon overlaid onto motion blurred shaky video.

I stick to zwift for social stuff, and trainer road for my structured workouts, when I'm not outside.

I started riding trainerroad via a kickr in 2014. I made the switch this April to Rouvy, and it has been an amazing transformation. It used to be a real mental struggle to even ride for 1.5 hours, even while watching the best show/movie. Now i can count numerous times I have "accidentally" been on Rouvy for 3 hours. I love the courses, as I have done some IRL, so it is cool to revisit, and I enjoy the "career achievement" aspect. I have done a few races, and it has been crazy hard but a great challenge. While it isn't social, I love seeing folks out on the courses, and sometimes you can find yourself in a good cat/mouse battle.

For my setup I mirror my iphone to an old apple tv, and then i pipe in either podcasts or pandora via a google home. I am endlessly entertained. Maybe I am just a sick idiot, but indoor cycling will never be the same for me.

And today I did a rouvy race. quite the most awful experience . The camera was shaky like in the movie Blair Witch Project (i choose the lowest quality video, so definitely not a graphics problems) - to the point I was just looking at the animation graphics to pace. I did not see any of the racers on course again, this was more like a solo TT. The only positive was that they had another graphic which made hills more predictable, better than zwift. overall the racing experience, its more pleasurable to be dropped to dead last in a zwift race than doing this. I finished second overall, yet somehow I ended up on the dnf list of the website.

i tried rouvy specifically for Ironman VR. Ive been a loyal zwift user for riding and running for a while now. I hated rouvy. Thought it was awful. Hated the interface, the movement was robotic. Back to zwift. Just my opinion tho.

Hah wait till you try Zwift.

Dinosaurs. /endthread

Yeah i have ridden Zwift a few times, as recently as late last fall. I was not a fan. My wife will ride/race on occasion, so I see why people like it, but doesn't really interest me. Like I said, I may just be sick in that I enjoy riding up +9% for an hour straight.

I've tried Zwift and found it SO boring. The graphics dont inspire me, The ride-on's/ power ups etc are just gimmicks and the last thing I want to do is to type while i'm training. I get why it's popular, but to me its nothing more than a computer game that happens to keep you fit.

Rouvy does have its faults, but I much prefer it. The workouts are good and easy to build in to a plan. I actually quite like the cartoon avatar overlaid on to real video - especially when racing. If you use the AR version download the courses before you ride them, they are much better. The main thing I like about Rouvy is the ability to pre-ride actual courses as part of my training. My racing team set up regular races every Saturday AM at the start of lock-down which were brilliant fun we'd usually get around 10 people...but trying to break away from the group half way up Mt Ventoux failed badly and nearly killed me - just like it always does.!

so then you have not done the racing in zwift. There are many real bike/run/tri races that advertise the spectacular views of their course but I dont recall seeing those. Too busy focusing on the competitors on course. No time to have a picnic by the road and enjoy the views

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you were using subpar hardware (CPU/monitor) for Zwift. Possibly a small iphone? Or an computer with no video card so it's struggling with the graphics? I could be wrong, but that's my guess as to your subpar Zwift experience. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!