The Glade 4.0

Bring your bike, your PC/Mac, your electronic home (computer controllable) bike trainer, and your friends.

Online MMO style cycling in a virtual world. No more excuses! Now you can play online games AND stay in shape

My beta request is in. Who wants to race? :p

An online preview/review
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/09/ultr ... ainer.html

The "about" page at zwift.com
http://zwift.com/what-is-it

Some screenshots from Ray Maker's blog

Signed up! Hopefully I can play in the beta

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Be sure to check the hardware requirements. You'll need either a Wahoo KICKR or a Computrainer to play. There may be others that work.

You'll also need an ANT+ dongle for your other sensors of you have them.

I have a KICKR and love it. I use it with trainerroad.com during the dark dreary winter.

Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

I have the ANT+ dongle, and it'll let me use my kinetic trainer with a simulated power curve thing.

Full Disclosure: I hate riding the trainer. Anything that will make it more tolerable is a good thing.

I'm in the beta. I'm loaded and ready to try it out tonight

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Excellent! I am in the beta, but haven't had a chance to register or set up the bike and trainer yet.

I'll try to get that done tonight.

FWIW I don't mind the trainer at all. I ride every morning at 6AM during the winter. A local bike shop has a training lab set up with Wahoo KICKR's and run PerfPro Studio and The Sufferfest videos. Most sessions are about an hour, which is fine for weekday mornings. I have a KICKR at home and use TrainerRoad.com when I can't make it to the lab.

With the days getting longer and warmer, the bike shop is shutting down the lab for the season (tomorrow is the last day), so Friday, I'll start my 'rain or shine' bike commuting a couple of days a week. It's a 35 mile round trip, but I usually extend the ride home with some hills when I can.

I broke my pelvis in a crash doing a cold weather century back in January, and am just getting some time back on the bike. I'm just about back up to the fitness level I was before I crashed.

I rode 4k miles last year (May to Dec). I hope to do 6k to 8k this year (if I can keep the bike under me).

I'll post here once I have my registration done. It may not be until the weekend though, depending on... things....

I got the bike and sensors set up last night and went for a brief spin.

I'm not sure how much or when I'll be riding this. If the weather is good, I'll almost certainly be outside riding. The fact that they export/upload your ride data to Strava is a big plus for me. That is where I'm logging all of my miles.

I had my last FTP test of the off-season this morning (285 - not bad considering i'm only 3 weeks removed from a fractured pelvis), so I'm kinda beat, and we are having one more indoor session tomorrow morning. It's going to be a full on indoor race using the Tour of California course data. I expect to finish third (again :p).

Hopefully I'll be online with Zwift over the weekend at some point - possibly on Friday evening.

Look for "J. Hansen" cruising around the course.

http://www.strava.com/activities/294517893

There's a new island or something here. I never got a chance to try the old one. That first hill is no joke.

Graphics are pretty, and its kinda fun to try to "close the gap" when one of the roboriders flits past you.

I need to get my butt back in shape

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

I got one ride in on the original island... 4 laps

Weather here has been too good to ride indoors

I did 60 miles and dragged my fat *** up and down 5k feet of elevation yesterday... Today is rest

Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

I'm just going to leave this here... It ends soon and looks like it's not going to muster the support it needs... but yes, please.

Widerun Kickstarter campaign

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I would pay a *lot* of money for a good VR cycling experience

I hate riding outside when it's cold, and I hate riding in traffic.

VR solves both problems

There are downsides though.

You don't get the same riding experience you get outside. Riding fast and hard with your bike tied to a trainer is just not the same as bombing down a fast descent on a sunny day

And there is the sweat problem. I sweat a lot. I'm talking puddles when I ride indoors. Outside isn't. a big deal. You cool better because of the air flowing over your skin, the sweat either dries quickly, or it ends up on the ground behind you as you ride.

VR helmets and glasses would have to be very well ventilated, or even actively cooled and you would have to provide some kind of cool airflow to keep the sweat under control while you ride.

Edit to add: Because of the multidimensional aspect of VR, you would have to find some way to make the bike steerable. Since the majority of the steering of a bike being ridden at speed is done by subtle weight transfer and shifting the hips and torso, you couldn't get away with just making the front wheel turnable.

This article about a Sony Morpheus demo at E3 this year made me think of your edit, Midgen...

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Bumpity

Zwift has been adding some really cool features, including group ride and race modules, structured workouts, and even running (treadmill vs. a smart trainer for your bike). You can see people in the game running long side the road with the cyclists. It's really cool.

Oh, and Kaffis, they have a VR module being prepared for release now. Definitely something I'll check out.

Is sweat an VR a good combination?

_________________
The Dude abides.

I would imagine some considerations in the hardware design would be helpful. Perhaps some active cooling and ventilation.

This technology is in its infancy. I'm pretty sure these kinds of challenges can be overcome.