Wattbike – Zwift, Rouvy or Fulgaz ?

I have got the hang of most of the stuff on my Wattbike Atom now, having had it for a few weeks. I have been using the Wattbike hub so far.

I have free trial options on Zwift, Rouvy and Fulgaz, and will likely try them all, however I thought I would seek opinion on here first for what might work best for me.

I am mid 50’s not as light or as fit as I could be, with some heart issues which mean I need to keep tempo and avoid HR threshold, so full on racing unlikely to work for me. I will be using it on average 3 times a week, an hour at a time, with the goal of upping the bike and general fitness and shedding a few pounds too.

Outdoor riding is gravel, road and mtb, and I have regular and eMTB and road bikes and a gravel bike, I probably use them all about equal amounts.

I get the feeling that Zwift may be too much race effort for my ticker, but keen for views on that and the other apps.

With Rouvy there’s a non-race mode where you can go at whatever pace you like and enjoy the scenery. Or in race mode you can just ease off anyway, but probably best to avoid trying to keep up with others just for the draft effect. If you have a compatible HR monitor you can have it displayed on screen, so you’ll be in less danger of overdoing it.

Riding round the zwift world ticking the route badges off is pretty good. It has a sort of minecraft feel (imho) where it transcends the rudimentary graphics.

Fulgaz should be perfect for jra, big selection of real world filmed routes, and you can even add your own. I was too used to zwift, though, and couldn’t adjust to non-avatar riding when I trialled it.

Not tried Rouvy.

thanks, yes, have a paired HR chest strap so have that on screen during sessions

Have you tried RGT/Wahoo? Worth considering. There’s normally a free to ride ‘world’ so you can try before you buy.
Having said that, there’s so much going on in Zwift for tempo/light effort work, even riding around ticking off the routes is semi-enjoyable. Then there’s all the STW organised rides if that’s your thing.
Edit- I struggled with Rouvy on the Atom, wasn’t compatible a year ago.

I’ve not used the other 2 but zwift is rather addictive and has plenty of other things to do when just riding around – forget racing, it’s crazy hard. But stuff like riding with the pace partners is great, you’ll be with loads of other riders, at a nice set pace, getting ride ons left right and centre. Then there’s the unlocking of socks, and hats… 😲🤣

I prefer RGT to Zwift, not used the other two

The STW rides/races are the best thing about Zwift for me, as it genuinely feels you’re not just sitting on your own in your garage riding a stationary bike! (even though you are 😃)
The races are very full-on so probably a no-go, but there have been plenty of non-race meet-ups which are good fun and hopefully that will continue in the future.

Fulgaz is good for just a bit of a ride. I tended to just find a climb I could complete in an hour for a good workout, should work with your HR issues.

RGT is worst of all worlds for me, hardly anyone else on the courses to race or act as someone to chase down and the graphics are both basic and incredibly repetitive, there’s nothing to grab your attention. Only thing going for it is it has some free courses for when I can be bothered to dust off the turbo.

I’ve only used Zwift, but for two winters and I’ve never raced on there. There’s loads of just riding around, or riding with a pace partner, or organised group rides at a given pace (from relaxed pootle to racing snake speedfest), or preset routines at various effort levels (again, from incredibly easy to proper hard), so you can definitely use it in a variety of ways that will meet the HR level and limit that you want to keep to.

great ideas, appreciated

If you’ve got mates who use one platform (and you would like to ride around with them), that might sway it?

RGT doesnt make me feel sick when descending, that’s a win for me!

If you’ve got mates who use one platform (and you would like to ride around with them), that might sway it?

He’s got 2 mates that use Zwift. That may be why he’s asking about Rouvy and Fulgaz!

I’ve been on Zwift since May and don’t race. There’s tons of routes, graded pace partners for your ability and wee climb or sprint sections if you want to elevate your HR for a short time on a longer ride. It’s very easy to control your input, I’ve ridden Alpe du Zwift while keeping my HR below 130 throughout. It does require an element of self discipline due to the temptation to chase after people. If I do that, my HR rockets and I have to ease up or suffer the consequences. There’s also a setting that allows riders to sit together in a private group despite having vastly different abilities / power outputs. Dunno why but it just works.

Not tried the other two platforms.

He’s got 2 mates that use Zwift. That may be why he’s asking about Rouvy and Fulgaz!

rumbled… :)

Not 100% sure on how this would work but, in theory you could perform an FTP test on Zwift and stop when at the max heart rate you want to go to.

Then use this ftp setting to either choose a workout based on what you want to allow yourself to do, or create your own workout based on said FTP and then ride it over any of the Zwift courses.

Doing it like this means you only ever ride as hard as you want to, irrespective of the generated terrain, and it allows a +/- 10% effort adjustment on the fly if you’re having a good/bad session.

Ive recently tried

RGT
Rouvy
Fulgaz
Zwift

Ended up with Zwift, partly as theres just so much going on, and partly because it wasnt trying to be realistic, when quite clearly none of them are. For whatever reason I found the effect of trying to be more realistic, even less realistic and a little bit annoying.

After couple of seasons I got bored of Zwift and as there are so many options on the market i decided to change. I am now using Rouvy as I, most of all, wanted to escape the virtual world for some time and I really enjoy it. Especially that i can ride for example L’etape routes, or visit Death valley. Quite exciting for me and no need to push hard on yourself.

Ooooh, resurrection of my old thread 😁
I have been using it pretty much all on Zwift, either Z2 custom workouts, pace partner rides and a weekly midweek meetup with some friends.

very glad I got it, gets a decent amount of use, which will be increasing now as winter comes i and it’s dark in the evenings.

I was looking for some thoughts on the alternatives, and especially Fulgaz as many prefer it to Rouvy so found this thread useful even after some time :D
Anyway as you say, winter is coming and so are more frequent indoor rides. Already counting down the days for nice spring rides outside

Tried IndieVelo today, liked it and also like the fact it’s free!!

Don’t forget Wahoo/SystmX

Use the free trail ( I presume there is one) and try the “On location” rides. Lots of nice south of france, spain etc scenery with some training prompts and a little bit of commentary about the location/route (they are a bit cheesy but add a bit of “company”…. I found Fulgaz a bit lonely ??)

There are also lots of cycling documentaries on SystmX to watch as you do slower paced stuff.

Good luck

Have fun