Scheduled
It’s not taken more than about a minute for RGT to build the course when joining a race on a magic road before for me. Might be down to extra demand at the moment I guess 
Could be. Even a minute is too long though when you’re watching the ticker and waiting for it to join you in.
Important point from @dcrainmaker here:
While some RGT fans love the empty worlds, the simple reality is that’s not exactly a selling point for a social riding app/platform. And to fix that, you need money. Lots of it.
I’ve mentioned before that Zwift’s competitive advantage is its user base. People stick with Zwift because there are thousands of people there to ride with and hundreds of “friends”.
Trying to peel that away is very difficult….you have some influencers who start to shift and then pull others until it grows into a groundswell of change. And it takes a LOT of money.
That said, when your primary competitive advantage is not proprietary, you are always vulnerable….especially when there are long-standing complaints and frustrations among your user base.
Will be interesting to see how this goes….I’m not interested in changing at this point, simply because SYSTM and RGT seems to a situation of “too many choices” at this point. I don’t want to have to think that much about what I am gonna do that day…which workout type, etc. between TR and Zwift, I know what is scheduled / want to do and I just get on and ride.
But we’ll see what happens….the MR aspect is definitely interesting, especially if they can simplify the process.
They have continued to add Sufferfest videos in the old style. Not a ton but The Model was a great one that came out in the last couple months. High production values, recent top level race footage and synced seamlessly with music. Might be the best one yet. Hopefully their layoffs didn’t include the amazing individuals who put those (and the new ProRace workouts) together.
Its actually got smoother, for a while it had to be scheduled a long time in advance and during the period when premium was free to all they had to disable magic roads IIRC.
Hopefully for me RGT continues in its current form but if it merges into the Wahoo SYSTM (or whatever vowels they have lost), I’ll likely cancel, as I prefer TR and outdoors. RGT is just a useful distraction for me on some workouts and very seldomly used alone.
- I’ve been waiting to mention this, but with the new “Wahoo X” name for the combined service, they have apparently declared war on all letters, not just vowels. Minimalist to the XTRM
I use the stock plans from your coach for my own training and several of the SYSTM workouts are great subs for the plan when the weather or timing require me to ride inside.
- I am not an active user, but from what I can tell and hear from other users is that the original videos from The Sufferfest are still available. Most (all?) are part of the workout play they added so you have options for ERG and general integration of the video power targets and such. They have even added to that video collection over time, so it seems very alive and well from all I see.
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As far as features and functions compared to TR, SYSTM offers a range of workouts, videos, and training plans & calendar for cycling and multi-sport. No idea how truly comparable SYSTM is, but I’ve seen pro’s/con’s listed for it with respect to TR.
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So on the basic “training app” level, I think it is at least parallel in concept. It also offers a range of things that are set for use with the training like strength, yoga and even mental training. I don’t know the level of integration with their plans, but the features are there for use at the very least, as part of the service.
For reference, here are a few reviews on SYSTM with better info than I have to offer directly.
- Hands-On With Wahoo’s New SYSTM Training Platform | DC Rainmaker
- https://youtu.be/j9DadLkfTz0
- Review: Wahoo SYSTM training app | road.cc
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Not sure why you’d think this? They bought it specifically to add as a broad feature to their existing package. It may change over time and perhaps that’s your concern?
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But I only see Wahoo as set to build upon the initial base that RGT is at present. It’s not hard to envision their goal to build this to meet and beat Zwift in similar and different ways. They are clearly aware of the issues and growing discontent at Z from many users. I doubt Wahoo would have bought RGT without the goal of making it better vs nuking it.
I’ve used the TrainingPeaks to RGT sync a few times in December when it was raining, works well. Downloaded Systm yesterday and forgot to look and see if the TP-to-RGT sync was also working with Systm. Btw my coach (Isaiah) works for Frank.
- Anything is possible. Xert got mentioned more than once in the Z+TR merger topic here, partly because Eric Min was seen using it at times.
@dcrainmaker has mentioned that RGT should try limiting the available routes each day to help force a little more activity on each route as opposed to spread out across all routes
That was employed at Zwift for a looong time and lead to a fair bit of frustration along the way. Critical mass and all that with a delicate balance of people feeling like they are riding with people vs all alone. Some want that “group” aspect more than others though, with many liking the more sparse options when possible. Never a single solution that is right for all.
Yeah. My favorite thing about RGT is that it doesn’t feel like riding in a shopping mall. I CANT STAND riding in NYC on Zwift.
As I’ve said before though, I recognize this puts me in the minority, and it’s not the right way to build a business unless they can somehow give us a “ride solo” radio button.
I use GPS Prune first then look/resolve bend and vertical problems in GPXmagic before using the one-click fix to add in the blanks.
Did my first magic road ride today. Other than a hiccup with starting on time, which meant there were some bots a few km ahead of me by the time i started, it was pretty cool. I did a 63 mile course simulation and was able to practice the rollers and steep sections, chase down or draft off bots, etc., but still be in a sparse environment without a million other riders on course. Thumbs up from me.
Thinking of powertap. It seemed to me that Wahoo have a very cozy relationship with Zwift but I haven’t been on Zwift for the last four years. Be cool if they somehow merged Sufferfest videos with RGT. Love to see more work on the calendar.
- In that case, you are probably talking about CycleOps (now Saris) and their split from the Virtual Training app (now Rouvy). They were closely linked back in the day (old names) but split around the time CycleOps, PowerTap & Saris started their restructuring.
The pending direction for Wahoo is an interesting one. Some people love one entertainment option or the other (vids / virtual) and I wonder if they will blend them like you say, or keep them separate?
Others with direct experience seem to say that SYSTM has some great foundation features, but the depth and usability falls short of some other options. They sure have lots of elements in the bag, so getting them to all connect into a more seamless experience seems at least part of the challenge.
That’s going to be a huge challenge IMO and hopefully they can pull it off. There is no doubt they will piss some users off no matter what. The current RGT cycling fb users group seems to have about 50% in the “this is awful. I don’t need systm” camp and 50% in the “this might be cool/ok” camp.
The comment along the lines of “I wish they just made me pay more for RGT vs adding all these features in…” was priceless.
- Let me pay more for the same thing vs more for more than I may or may not use.
- Logic is lacking while emotion is driving the bus with so many of these comments.