Originally Posted by
alpharalpha
That's a a great idea; to be able to ride while seeing streetview would be awesome. But paying a monthly service for it not so much. This is new idea to me so don't have much to add right now, but I use a pc--htpc in living room where I will be cycling--do you use windows, or are looking for android/ios etc? Maybe can find program that will do it. Anyone know of one for pc? In meantime I will do a bit of searching, see what I can find.
I have two older windows 7 laptops one of which I just upgraded to win 10 as Dell has come up with various required upgraded drivers. Some programs need windows 10. I actually have been watching ridealong youtube videos which do the trick of sufficiently engaging me in the ride to lose track of time and last ~2hours. I have totally given up on buying a smart trainer as I don't care about power metrics I'm just interested in distance and heart rate data. I find it perfectly natural to match my effort level to what's on screen i.e. speed up/slow down for up/down hills simply by shifting. I am able to get to my max heart rate on my roller.
Since I upgraded to Windows 10 I wanted to try full gaz but I believe it requires a trainer in addition to Win10. I am now exploring Rouvy which looks like it allows only speed/cadence sensors but it requires BT 4 so I'm looking at getting a USB dongle for either BT or ant+. I'm not sure why but it doesn't recognize my H10 hrm even through I can connect it to my laptop where it shows as connected in Win10. I think it needs BT 4 for the low power.
Golden Cheetah has google maps listed someone mentioned it but now that I installed it, it also requires a smart trainer and I can't see how google maps is used.
If you have a trainer you will have more options. I might spring for a BT 4 dongle just to try Rouvy and other apps that allow only speed/cadence sensors.