spelger

Trying FulGaz again. have not used it in maybe 2 years. i do not see one thing that is different, a bit disappointed really. i had been using Rouvy for the last two years but thought i'd nibble on the free trial Fulgaz keeps emailing me about. I did notice that Rouvy has made some changes though but so far only eye candy like changes as far as i can tell.

PeteHski

Last time I tried Fulgaz (about 2 years ago) it refused to pair with my Polar HRM over BT, even though it could pair with my trainer. No problems pairing with Zwift or Rouvy.

Barry2 

I used FulGaz for a few years using an AppleTV.
Only issue was with downloading rides in real-time. Rides would stutter a freeze at times, a problem which support always blamed on peoples home network/internet. (I'm not buying it).

Solution was to pre-download rides to my PC & stream from the PC to my AppleTV. Worked great & I never had to download a ride twice.
I wound up with many gigs of rides I had completed.
( I used IIS to host the rides on the PC )

Barry

Ella Per

I feel like Rouvy is trying hard to attract a wider audience and slowly but steadily they are moving ahead. Even though the changes may seem small to you, or just "cosmetic", I think in the long-term they are doing a good job with the app. They are promising more to be coming in 2024, including returning back to a similar feature as magic roads on RGT was, so lets see. I am still optimistic and honestly never wanting to come back to Zwift hah. But it is sad if Fulgaz did not move ahead, it has its potential and audience too.

spelger

so far the only thing i like about FG is the quality of their videos. most, if not, all that i have tried are very good. Rouvy really needs to get videos shot from a bike rather than a car. due to this the video is jittery due to the vidoe needing to be slowed way down from car speed to match bike speed.

been doing workouts in FG lately, i like them. they are pushing me hard but i really would like to see my heart rate in the graph. 2 years later and this is still not there.

Polaris OBark

One (local) ride I did recently was shot from the handlebars of a bike, and it had its own set of problems, including a very annoying side to side panning as the rider climbed a steep hill. (I do the same thing on that same hill in meatspace.)

spelger

i'm sure i sway from side to side too. this would be a good use case for an e-bike.

PeteHski

Yeah I hate that kind of video. Makes me feel sick when viewed on a large screen!

I hadn’t really given it any thought, but it could be one of the reasons I’ve gone back to Zwift for all my indoor riding. The graphics on my Mac are super smooth and detailed with recent updates. Video rides always seem a bit hit and miss for quality (at least on Rouvy).

Polaris OBark

Some are their official videos, but many are user-uploaded, which can be all over the place.

himespau 

I need to see if there's a way to turn off the "camera vibration" on Zwift. Whenever I ride on cobbles or wooden bridges, the camera bounces up and down and drives me batty.

williaty

Is fulgaz still the only one avoiding all the cartoony social crap? When I first looked for software to go with my first smart trainer, Zwift was just a cartoon focused on making you deal with other people, Rouvy was at least real video but still insisted in drawing in catroons of other users or virtual-me, and only Fulgaz just let me go for a ride by myself with real video.

Is that still the case?

Barry2 

The only thing with Fulgaz, if you see a rider in the distance, you can't catch them unless the original photographer did.
I personally liked the rides without other riders.

Barry

Trakhak

I don't know about fulgaz, but to address the broader topic of avoidance of the cartoony social crap:

BKool does have Zwift-like routes where you ride with other avatars, but it also has a "Workouts" POV category without avatars where you watch videos shot from a bike traveling along roads or trails. In workout mode, you pick any of a large number of pre-programmed sets of steady-state efforts or intervals, choosing according to the intensity level or duration you have in mind. All I ever do on BKool are those workouts.

Two others that focus on solo workouts rather than social riding: Trainer Road and Xert. Trainer Road is strictly business, without videos or social rides: only workouts of the sort that coaches design for their clients.

Xert does have some sort of social riding available, but it, too, mostly concentrates on targeted workouts.

Both Trainer Road and Xert now use AI to monitor your power, cadence, and heart rate and tailor your workouts accordingly. I haven't used Trainer Road in about 5 years, so I'm not sure what the experience is now. But Xert (which I used last winter and the winter before) makes the workouts easier (or recommends a rest day) when the data show that you're fatigued and harder when you're fresh.

One other difference: Xert is optimized to work with your phone controlling the workout, so you can watch TV or videos on another screen if you like. Don't know about Trainer Road. It was strictly computer controlled when I used it last.

One other thing about Xert: it's designed for and best suited to use by racers. If you're just looking for something to keep you from being bored while you put in time on the trainer in winter, you might find it requires too much of a commitment.

Not that it's necessarily too physically demanding: you specify your goal of, e.g., improving your climbing strength or sprinting speed (etc.), to be achieved by a target date, e.g., six weeks out, but you can also chose a "Maintenance" goal, or even "Off Season."

But every time you open Xert, you see a meter that shows the inexorable ebbing of your state of fitness since the last ride. After two winters of that, I got tired of the nagging, which is why I switched to BKool for this winter.

Polaris OBark

Within Rouvy, you can get rid of 90% of the cartoonish crap, including the avatar on the fake bike (by changing the camera perspective). The only thing I haven't managed to get rid of is the inflatable pylons at the end or sometimes along the way. The only other riders I see are real ones that got filmed.

tempocyclist

Yes.

And 99% of the ride videos are filmed from a bike, making them very realistic (the Ironman courses are filmed from a car or motorbike).