Fulgaz

bianchimoon

Very impressive. Did Formentor last night and checked virtual time against my 'real' time in May this year on the first climb to viewpoint, just 4 secs difference, mind did have a virtual puncture as screen saver came on and had to get off for a few seconds to disable it

bianchimoon

and yes there were flybys from what looks like people on the route at the same time

bianchimoon

Ahh i see on strava theres a tick box in flybys to see all riders on the route or just virtual riders

dabber

bianchimoon wrote:

Ahh i see on strava theres a tick box in flybys to see all riders on the route or just virtual riders

You learn something new everyday. I'd never spotted that tickbox.

47p2

Been using Fulgaz since the beginning of the year, also BigRingVR, Rouvy, Road Grand Tours, Zwift, Bkool and possibly one or two others.

Road Grand Tours have a way to go yet, but looks promising.

Zwift is chaotic, trying to keep up with the faster riders leaves me completely drained. Once you've done all the routes (there were 3 when I was last on it) the scenery never changes and it becomes a tad boring to watch

Bkool was too animated, too clunky, and the speed never reflected my usual speeds for me

Rouvy is interesting but my free subscription ran out too soon to fully explore it

BigRingVR has amazing videos, the quality second to none, but they're mostly all going up very steep climbs. They're now starting to post up some easier routes now so I might actually be able to complete some of them in a reasonable time.

FulGaz is my go-to, there's a good mix of difficult to easy routes of varying lengths ridden on real roads by real cyclists. Speeds match almost perfectly to what I would expect if I were riding the routes What's not to like

bianchimoon

47p2 wrote:

Been using Fulgaz since the beginning of the year, also BigRingVR, Rouvy, Road Grand Tours, Zwift, Bkool and possibly one or two others.

Road Grand Tours have a way to go yet, but looks promising.

Zwift is chaotic, trying to keep up with the faster riders leaves me completely drained. Once you've done all the routes (there were 3 when I was last on it) the scenery never changes and it becomes a tad boring to watch

Bkool was too animated, too clunky, and the speed never reflected my usual speeds for me

Rouvy is interesting but my free subscription ran out too soon to fully explore it

BigRingVR has amazing videos, the quality second to none, but they're mostly all going up very steep climbs. They're now starting to post up some easier routes now so I might actually be able to complete some of them in a reasonable time.

FulGaz is my go-to, there's a good mix of difficult to easy routes of varying lengths ridden on real roads by real cyclists. Speeds match almost perfectly to what I would expect if I were riding the routes What's not to like

Good informative post 47p, appreciated

bendertherobot

Did Alp D'Huez yesterday and, I'd echo that real world speed view. Whoever does it does it at an acceptable pace.

Checked my results after and I was within 1-2 minutes of my riding buddies on the Marmotte. Of course, they'd done 3 mountains at that point. But I'd expect to be in the ballpark of them.

It was fairly brutal mind.

LiamW

Going to have a go at this. Tried BigRing but the fact that it's a car based instead of a bike puts me off tbh.

I've ordered a HDMI/DVI adaptor to run from my ipad air to my TV so that I can get on a bigger screen.

Looking forward to it.

bendertherobot

I'd avoid the London Triathlon route, there are tunnels which affect the GPS, so you end up going a million miles an hour through the tunnel and no matter what effort you put in the frame rate drops to 0.1 as you exit and it gets monumentally hard. I assume this is to 'correct the overspeed.' Shame it's good fun otherwise.

Ventoux for me next.

LiamW

Going to start with the Mallorca runs 1st, I'm heading there in April so I may see what I'm letting myself in for.

bianchimoon

It's a shame that there isn't a better way of aligning the gradients correctly to the climbs, on the ones I've tried that are 'User' sent in video's I presume Fulgaz have used the data sent with the vid i.e. the garmin fit file, spoils it a tad when the road goes downhill but you're still climbing, quiet noticeable on the Tour de yorkshire cote de lofthouse ride. I'm guessing that Fulgaz's own videos are aligned better

bendertherobot

bianchimoon wrote:

It's a shame that there isn't a better way of aligning the gradients correctly to the climbs, on the ones I've tried that are 'User' sent in video's I presume Fulgaz have used the data sent with the vid i.e. the garmin fit file, spoils it a tad when the road goes downhill but you're still climbing, quiet noticeable on the Tour de yorkshire cote de lofthouse ride. I'm guessing that Fulgaz's own videos are aligned better

I think that's how it works. I've not noticed it too much, but I've not done that one. The Chilterns one seemed ok. The long climbs seem to work well but I noticed a slight lag, I believe, on the switchbacks of the Alps, where I think it elongated the easy section by say 1-2 seconds.

Otherwise I've found them pretty ok, aside from that London one.

bendertherobot

LiamW wrote:

Going to start with the Mallorca runs 1st, I'm heading there in April so I may see what I'm letting myself in for.

I found Sa Calobra harder than Alp D'Huez in some ways.

bianchimoon

been having a bit of trouble with the subscription on Fulgaz, paid once, 5 days later just kept getting the free trial expired message so logged onto iTunes again, it said you have already purchased it will be restored for free, but apple still charged me twice, Linda at Fulgaz had already tried to sort this once! PIA when you're already to start a ride! will see how it's resolved, but the app forgetting i've registered seems to be an ongoing issue

bendertherobot

bianchimoon wrote:

been having a bit of trouble with the subscription on Fulgaz, paid once, 5 days later just kept getting the free trial expired message so logged onto iTunes again, it said you have already purchased it will be restored for free, but apple still charged me twice, Linda at Fulgaz had already tried to sort this once! PIA when you're already to start a ride! will see how it's resolved, but the app forgetting i've registered seems to be an ongoing issue

My mate had this too. I paid on the website using paypal, then refreshed the app. No issues with iTunes that way.

bianchimoon

Just thought I'd resurrect this as more people seem to be using Fulgaz, And nothing worse than starting a ride getting 3 miles in a realising this aint going to get any better. I know the vast majority are great VR experiences, so if you have any recommended Fulgaz rides and some to steer clear of be interesting to hear.
Here's what i've done so far and marks out of 10 to take account of the whole user experience, scenery, vid quality, gradient accuracy
Formentor 10/10 (hilly)
Beach Road 8/10 (flat)
Tan Hill 4/10 (hilly)
Sa Colabra 9/10 (hilly)
Hever Castle 7/10 (flat)
Tour of Britain stage seven 7/10 (hilly)
Albert Park 8/10 (flat)
Col d'honor 7/10 (hilly)
Bangor to Groomsport (8/10 (flat)
Lake District Pooley Bridge (7/10) hilly
Movistar ride 8/10 (flat)
Andractx to Soller 7/10 (Hilly)
Kentish Cruise 5/10 (flat)
Tour de Yorkshire 2017 6/10 (hilly)
Ride the heart of the New Forest (7/10) flat
Tour of Flanders (8/10)

bendertherobot

I can confirm that the Telegraphe and ADH are 10/10 (there's a summer version of the latter coming).

Agree on the Majorca marks, great rides. You can feel the heat.

Mikey23

Quite a few of the above. All good and not yet found a duff one. Brilliant resource and a nice antidote to zwift. I tend to use it when there is no good group ride going on or we are in london or richmond both of which i am fed up with. And I cant get out...

bianchimoon

Mike at Fulgaz has fixed tan hill toughie and the London Tri course. Also there is an updated version on the app store : version 2.4.2. Quoting Mike@fulGaz "In general you'll find the gradient changes kick in more responsively on all the rides now as well"

fat daddy

Mt Edith Cavall with Ryder Hesjedal - awesome quality, but a dull dull ride, there are about 2 bends in the entire hours ride

Just thought I would mention it as its the first ride I have done where the rider gets off the bike to pushhis bike through the snow

... other than that though its a dull ride - only do it if you love 1080p quality goodness or looking at other mens arses

bianchimoon

fat daddy wrote:

Mt Edith Cavall with Ryder Hesjedal - awesome quality, but a dull dull ride, there are about 2 bends in the entire hours ride

Just thought I would mention it as its the first ride I have done where the rider gets off the bike to pushhis bike through the snow

... other than that though its a dull ride - only do it if you love 1080p quality goodness or looking at other mens arses

Thanks, will maybe give that one a miss, did the 'most of' L'Etape du tour 2017 last night decent ride 8/10 (not really the point of Training I know so only do it if you like finishing at a lower altitude that you start. Good scenery:D

bendertherobot

Galibier, really enjoyed that. Great to do it on TDF day too.

MiddleRinger

Started my free trial of FulGaz to see what all the fuss was about. Going from Zwift it was a bit of a change, but more engaging than I thought it would be! The real-life video is excellent quality and once you accept the fact you'll never catch the guy in front no matter how hard you pedal it's all good. Not sure I'd totally replace Zwift with it as I like the group rides/races and the more interactive experience.

Only one ride so far, but I'll download a couple more and see how I get on!

bianchimoon

Did the Severn Stoke K46/10 Time Trial ride yesterday as I only had half an hour to spare, very enjoyable, a really good test of ongoing fitness as I guess the weather will always be the same every time I do it

fat daddy

MiddleRinger wrote:

once you accept the fact you'll never catch the guy in front no matter how hard you pedal !

I have never managed to get past this ... I also ease off when catching back up with the pack if the rider has dropped back to far ... I pedal harder one passing someone so they dont pass me back and I have a tendancy to suddenly freewheel if everyone in the group stops pedaling on a decent

I use Zwift for workouts and Fulgaz for easy days where I just want to ride at a comfortable pace for an hour or so

Mikey23

Nice antidote to zwift. I tend to use it for one serious climb a week, a nice flat one when i’m recovering and also when zwift is on richmond or london. Both of which i find very tedious. And a six month one off payment is only a few squid...

bendertherobot

Exactly as Mikey said. I now know what to expect on the Marmotte in terms of how each mountain is. Not strung together, of course.

MiddleRinger

fat daddy wrote:

MiddleRinger wrote:

once you accept the fact you'll never catch the guy in front no matter how hard you pedal !

I have never managed to get past this ... I also ease off when catching back up with the pack if the rider has dropped back to far ... I pedal harder one passing someone so they dont pass me back and I have a tendancy to suddenly freewheel if everyone in the group stops pedaling on a decent

I use Zwift for workouts and Fulgaz for easy days where I just want to ride at a comfortable pace for an hour or so

I'll probably resort to a similar plan. I like the chasing and racing side of Zwift. I only really gave FulGaz a go because I have no internet/wifi at my new place and may not for a while. A big plus with FulGaz is that you can use it totally offline (once you download the App and a couple of routes to your iOS device, which I did at work). Just wish I had a larger screen than my iPhone as it'd be much more engaging on a big screen TV!

the_rover

I tried fulgaz this morning but had a few issues using my iPad. It worked enough for me to be inrterested in a subscription but I’ve sent them an email with a few questions.

Silly question time. How do I find the rides I’ve downloaded? The FAQ suggests that the downloaded rides are the better option so that it doesn’t interfere with Apple TV which I’m using to mirror the screen onto a TV.

Cheers.

the_rover

For anyone thinking of going the same route as me....

Fulgaz replied quite quickly to an email. They’re having a few issues with bkool and the ant + so it doesn’t always adjust the gradient which is what I found yesterday. It did work for me so I could try a test ride so I’ll have another go later today on a different route. Somewhere nice and sunny. They say that it should be fixed shortly.

Also, the system knows to find the downloaded rides itself and they suggested marking them as favourites so it’s easier to find which I’d already done.