I’ve been riding Rouvy, which I like for the realism of the scenery, for 4 years and things have changed a lot; some for the good: new features, routes… Some for the not so good, races are now few and far between for evenings in eastern US. I’m wondering if anyone who was a Rouvy rider has switched to Zwift and not looked back after the decision. I used to have choices for races at the times I’m riding and it seems like people have jumped ship, likely to Zwift. I usually do a 6 mo subscription for winter riding. Most of the time I end up finding a route and adding racers, but I’ve heard there are races/rides all day/night long on zwift. I’m not looking for any social aspect of an app, just riding/racing. Is it worth dealing with the simulated graphics for more rides or if you made a switch did you go back to Rouvy.
Tonight after 7pm there are only two races until 2am, each with one current registrant. Both of those are smart trainer only. I’m riding rollers with power pedals, so half smart and not eligible.
I tried Rouvy, after Zwift for a year or so. I wanted to like it so much but it couldn’t get out of its own way. The whole point is the outdoor scenery, then all the stupid AR stuff was being added that was somehow cheezier than the fake scenery in Zwift.
The deal breaker was even highly rated videos not having the terrain match the timing of the video, and them not playing nice with Mac products for me to make a route/video. I rode a couple highly rated routes where clearly I was going downhill on video, but trainer resistance was uphill. For that, Zwift is perfect.
So, I’m back into fake Z-land until something else is worth a shot.
Opposite, went zwift to rouvy. Could not take the same animated graphics anymore. Rouvy does have virtual riders you can add. I don’t know how they work, but they seem to stay with you and sometimes surge to mimic racing. You can do it in time trial mode to not get absurd draft benefit like zwift does
I tried Rouvy last year after 3 winters on Zwift, and have gone back to Zwift for this year. I really wanted to like Rouvy, and initially tried it for the replication of the Staffs 70.3 course, but for some reason I prefer the unreality of Zwift.
The club I’m training with now also does its group rides on Zwift, so I can’t see myself switching anywhere else.
There’s the ghost rider option and virtual rider option. Ghost riders will surge and fall back the whole time, but they don’t get too far away. What I usually do is pick virtual riders, which are actual riders that have completed the course previously. I select them based on their completed time on a course and race against them. This is my favorite way to “create a race” for myself. This way I know their finish time and I can select a few riders that are faster than me and a few slower ones to keep me motivated. So there may be some surges at different times based on how they rode the course. There is also a new feature when you go to select ride mode – just ride or time trial. If you’ve completed a route before, you can choose to race against your course pr. So there are some nice features that keep me coming back.
Opposite, went zwift to rouvy. Could not take the same animated graphics anymore. Rouvy does have virtual riders you can add. I don’t know how they work, but they seem to stay with you and sometimes surge to mimic racing. You can do it in time trial mode to not get absurd draft benefit like zwift does
There’s the ghost rider option and virtual rider option. Ghost riders will surge and fall back the whole time, but they don’t get too far away. What I usually do is pick virtual riders, which are actual riders that have completed the course previously. I select them based on their completed time on a course and race against them. This is my favorite way to “create a race” for myself. This way I know their finish time and I can select a few riders that are faster than me and a few slower ones to keep me motivated. So there may be some surges at different times based on how they rode the course. There is also a new feature when you go to select ride mode – just ride or time trial. If you’ve completed a route before, you can choose to race against your course pr. So there are some nice features that keep me coming back.
Opposite, went zwift to rouvy. Could not take the same animated graphics anymore. Rouvy does have virtual riders you can add. I don’t know how they work, but they seem to stay with you and sometimes surge to mimic racing. You can do it in time trial mode to not get absurd draft benefit like zwift does
That’s what I do. Once I rode a course once, I can pick ten riders in my range and ride with them. Today, I rode the Col de Formentor course in Mallorca, and put 5 virtual riders who were all ME. It was kind of funny racing against 5 of my other riders. I got beaten by one (kind of surprised). I have a few courses that I have ridden 5-10 times where I can grab several of my previous rides and people around me, and then I am good to go.
The most demoralizing is being smacked by yourself though. Its not a problem getting trashed by other people, but when you get thrashed by yourself, you know you really suck at this moment. Conversely, when I kick my old rides it feels a bit superhero-ish.
I like curating my own group rides this way on Rouvy. You basically know the watts per kilo and finish times of the entire ride, so you’re never really going to be riding totally solo (be it dropped or off the front). The downside is no social interaction, but who am i fooling pedaling by myself in my pain friends…there are no friends there anyway, and my family thinks its a bit crazy, but they feel good that I won’t get hit by a bus or truck so there is an upside!!!
I’ve been on Zwift since the Beta days. I just recently tried Rouvy and RGT because I wanted to ride real local race routes. Rouvy kind of sucked. It’s just a map with a pin that follows the route. God it was so boring. RGT uses ‘magic’ roads so at least it looked like you were riding. I was hoping it was like iFit which uses Google Road, thus on the actual route. The Rouvy (and RGT) interface was clunky compared to Zwift. So I’m back at Zwift. Doesn’t really address your question, but I can see why people would stick with Zwift. I just wish Zwift would innovate.
I’ve been on Zwift since the Beta days. I just recently tried Rouvy and RGT because I wanted to ride real local race routes. Rouvy kind of sucked. It’s just a map with a pin that follows the route. God it was so boring. RGT uses ‘magic’ roads so at least it looked like you were riding. I was hoping it was like iFit which uses Google Road, thus on the actual route. The Rouvy (and RGT) interface was clunky compared to Zwift. So I’m back at Zwift. Doesn’t really address your question, but I can see why people would stick with Zwift. I just wish Zwift would innovate.
Don’t forget the ultimate oneupmanship…the Grand Theft Auto hack:
I’ve been on Zwift since the Beta days. I just recently tried Rouvy and RGT because I wanted to ride real local race routes. Rouvy kind of sucked. It’s just a map with a pin that follows the route. God it was so boring. RGT uses ‘magic’ roads so at least it looked like you were riding. I was hoping it was like iFit which uses Google Road, thus on the actual route. The Rouvy (and RGT) interface was clunky compared to Zwift. So I’m back at Zwift. Doesn’t really address your question, but I can see why people would stick with Zwift. I just wish Zwift would innovate.
That’s because either video was not available for route,or you set the ride to map only mode. All the popular routes have course videos.
I have heard from more than one they dislike Zwift’s animation, but I have tried Rouvy, RGT, and Fulgaz…and in the end, for me, Zwift every time. It is just better to ride online with others…even when I’m just doing my own workout mode.
The original poster mentioned racing…Zwift wins of that hands down as long as you don’t get too fussy about the credibility of some of the power numbers you routinely see in Zwift that make world tour riders looks like chumps.
