So I tried Rouvy. Did the 7 Days, did a bit of the 30 day trial I had after that, though didn’t use it nearly enough in that time, and during that time Zwift, my main riding platform, announced it purchased Rouvy.

My overall impression of Rouvy is fairly good. I just can’t afford it at this time, and afford Zwift, and for me, Zwift is the better value.

I love, that on Rouvy you ride real routes, using real video of said routes.

I love, repeat LOVE, that you can add pace partners to any ride. Not just the ones that the pacer bot is riding at the time. Of all of Rouvy’s features that I hope Zwift adopts for their side, this is number one on my list.

I like the idea that if I had the action camera I wanted, I could go out, and add real rides from my area, and import it into Rouvy, and then ride that ride with the full video. If I don’t have a video of it, then Rouvy can still import a ride, it just won’t have a video of it, and you’ll just see yourself on the overhead map, but still get the ride feel. I think this is something Pro Bike Run in North Park should do, start at the corner by their shop (at Walter Rd and Kummer Rd, but stay on Lake Shore), do an e-bike or something, and record the lake loop, and maybe some of the other loops in the area, the shop in Robinson could do some of their gravel rides… The North Park location has the advantage of being right there as you pass it, so somewhat advertising as you pass it as you turn off Ingomar and onto Walter to make the turn back onto Kummer. I’d probably record that loop twice, once turning onto Tennis Court Rd, and staying close to the Boathouse and all that, and avoiding one of the big hills, the other would turn onto Pearce Mill Rd from Walter, making you go up the hill that you skip if you go Tennis Court Rd… I know most of those makes no sense to anyone not in the North Park area, but anyhow, that’s what I’d do if I had the action camera. Biketerra, can also take any route, and let your ride it, and it’ll create it virtually, so you aren’t just riding an over head map.

What I don’t like is how the companion app doesn’t bride Bluetooth, so if like me, you mostly want to use it on the Apple TV, you can’t add all your devices, unless you have a trainer that can do that for you. Like come on, Zwift and MyWhoosh both let you bridge. I’d hope that’s something the Zwift team can help push to Rouvy.

There are no sounds, and while I don’t mind that on a ride, on workouts, I’d like sounds to indicate when I’m about to change zones. This same problem is in MyWhoosh. Not sure why they don’t have sounds at least for the workout notifications.

Also, right now, it isn’t as easy to import Trainer Road workouts into it as it is on Zwift, which just auto syncs them. Now, do to cost, I don’t have Trainer Road active, so somewhat moot, but that is something that I have to consider.

If I could afford two subscriptions, I’d keep it… well, I guess three, because two would be Trainer Road, then Rouvy. It is impressive, and I hear the mass start races are much better on Rouvy then races on Zwift, but for me, Zwift still is the best.

Oh, and one more thing, now that Zwift owns Rouvy, hopefully they add the ability for rides on Rouvy to count in Zwift and vica versa.