Rouvy AR Indoor Cycling VS Real Life - Which is Better?

Nice comparison, Rouvy definitely improves one's climbing strength for outside gains. Looking forward to your next video!

thank you for this great comparison and analysis !

I ride Rouvy a lot, but train at 7000 feet so I have the opposite problem. I found it to be fairly close to real life for me. The differences I noticed in real life were: I can't always take a perfect line, sometimes weaving around potholes etc, rough road surfaces slow you down, and crazy winds all affect my real life ride as compared to Rouvy. I think if conditions were perfect it would be fairly close. That's not even accounting for the bike itself, Cda, etc. Another factor is my bike power meter and smart trainer power can vary by up to 15 watts average so I need to factor for that too. Real life always works my body, legs, and mind a lot harder, but Rouvy is a great alternative.

Good video. I’m from the UK and went up the Spring Mountains for a hike in summer- it was beautiful up there, up to a waterfall with some Chipmunks.

I don't like indoor training but it at least gets me on my bike when I can't actually get out there. I'm not sure Rouvy is accurate in feel but I do prefer the real life interface over a virtual one. It just seems more pleasurable than riding in a video game. I don't really care about the numbers anyway, I'm just glad I can get on the bike.

Kudos good job. I use an old Fuji aluminum frame road bike attached to a friction trainer for spinning indoors, prefer riding on the American River Parkway Trail near home in Sacramento, California.

That looked so cold😳

Very interesting idea to compare virtual app and real life... 😃🤗💝 You are lovely. ❤️🥰

Need to also take wind in consideration... You did well in your cadence. I have difficulty putting the same cadence out in real life than Rouvy. It is just much more higher on the indoor trainer.

Fair comparison! Despite the cold and altitude I reckon Rouvy is not that off. Your bpm is the same in both (40min effort). Interesting the heart should pump more oxygen...

Real is always better. But I love Rouvy... it is convinient. I live in Florida and weather is 102 degrees in Summer in ultra high humidity... Rouvy allows me to roll in Neveda in a comfy 77 degree room. Just cant beat it.

I expected, especially the time and speed, the results!

The big difference being the altitude. Similar altitude training on Rouvy should produce much similar results as your wattage displayed, only 9 watt delta. HR was basically the same.

As you get fitter and ride outside more you'll have to try that test again. My guess is those numbers will b much closer. Great jib! 👍

I moved from 1200 ft of elevation t 8500 ft and man is the difference hard. And it wasn't the air that makes it hard it's the hilliness of where I live in the mountains. It's so hard to find a flat road to run/ride. Been here a year and I still aren't used to it. I prefer my indoor bike trainer and treadmill most days.

Which route from Mount charlston did you do

I very much prefer indoor riding on Kinomap though. It allows me to get much closer to my wattage limit, because I'm not affected by the adversities of wind, forced stops. I can go close to the limit because I do not have to keep a reserve for going home. If it's too much, I'm in the shower in ten seconds. I can't hurt myself. I can do it any time, no preparation and travel required, 10s of thousands of tracks in the world. Many of which I have traveled at least by car. Sort of autobiographic video game be it Lake Geneva, Zurich, Rome, Vienna, Munich, Long Island. Best is keeping motivation throughout the training: I ride against myself as a ghostrider and always try to keep a few meters ahead of my last performance. And it is a cheap hobby. Never mind whether your ergometer is carbon or aluminium; never mind tires, breaks, or gears. It just has to measure power more or less consistently not even exact, so you can see your relative improvement. My ESX 500 was 250€, I had an ipad and an appleTV already, so this was no extra cost. Only useful extra is a powerful fan. I mostly train in front of a 85" TV to which I mirror the iPad so immersion is pretty good.

Interesting test. I did all of my training for Ironman New Zealand 2019 on a Computrainer and even with Rouvy cool videos felt that has a better appreciation for the the course. I wonder if the difference is due to the colder temps and the altitude? Is the van setup as a work van, passenger van, or a bike hauler or ??

How do you know what power you should use on rouvy if you have non interactive smart trainer?

Thanks for the comparison to real life. I've only trained with Zwift, about 170 races. it definitely does not translate into real world for me. I could do about 280w for an hour on Zwift, about 250w outside, even on a flat course and without temperature or elevation differences.. I'm sure it varies from person to person, but what I've noticed in training on Zwift, is I get better at Zwift, with not as much direct help for outdoors riding as I would have liked. Like many people I've been indoors for Covid, so my outdoors game has really suffered a lot.