In development for four years, RGT Cycling has debuted a unique indoor cycling app that looks a lot more like riding a bike outside. Not confined to simply training inside along set workouts or riding loops on preset course, RGT promises an environment that can grow & be customized. Build your own courses. Organize virtual group rides from your real local bike shop. Recreate real world racing, in cyberspace. And you can invite other cyclists without a paid subscription to ride together for FREE!
RGT Cycling, next level freemium indoor cycling & virtual training
OK, sure the graphics look pretty much on par with other virtual training environs, but the possibilities seem even more endless than ever.
From the start, RGT’s goal seems to have been to meet the demand of the growing virtual cycling movement with a more inclusive, more engaging environment. Not everyone wants a Sufferfest in their paincave with some race target in mind. Or just Rouvy riding some famous virtual road climb over & over. And at the same time, many indoor cyclists don’t find the anonymous Zwift landscape that exciting. So RGT does a bit of blending all those together as a place to “meet, train, ride & race together in a realistic and immersive virtual world.”
The key element there is together, as RGT allows custom events so any paid member, bike shop, or company can create their own rides, and then invite ANY other member to virtually ride together for FREE. Meant to finally be a virtual reality environment accessible to any cyclist. Only those that create rides or want more detailed training features need to pay up. The rest of us can just meet up online to ride together.
RGT Cycling – Tech details
With four years of back end development, RGT says their platform is the best in the virtual cycling sphere, with an unrivaled physics engine for realistic riding including drafting (something that surprisingly hasn’t made shown up in most virtual riding yet) & braking, plus “Real Roads” and a growing offering of curated events.
It may not have a catchy, made-up one-word name (maybe a good TLA will do) but RGT looks to have potential to reshape how we think about riding indoors.
RGT Cycling is a new virtual reality cycling simulator that works by downloading one app for your PC, Mac, Apple TV or iPad to act as your primary screen, then a second mobile app for Android or iOS that gives you on the bike control over your virtual ride. Pair your smart, power, or speed based indoor trainer and away you go – riding, racing & training “together in a virtual reality that recreates the captivating culture of real-world cycling.”
RGT Cycling interactive indoor cycling features
We haven’t tried it personally, but as the shortest day of the year just hit us yesterday, and cold & rain have us already pining for spring on the first official days of winter, it sounds like time for us to connect our indoor trainers to give RGT a go.
RGT includes four main ride features, available to premium paid members…
Real Training gives competitive riders everything they need to “get fitter, faster & stronger” working with top coaches around the world to create standard structured workouts, plus the trusted TrainingPeaks workout builder for more personalized training plans.
Real Roads is their (free) ever-expanding catalog of where to virtually ride on classic road rides out in meatspace. Tackle the iconic climbs up the Mt. Ventoux, the Flandrien cobbles of the Paterberg, or do circuit laps on the old Tempelhof airfield in Berlin where 8bar runs their popular crit.
Real Events & Races pretty simply let you take in e-racing together with friends and other enthusiastic indoor cyclists (for free). Whether group rides with your local (or virtual) bike shop or competitive online races, this is where the possibilities expand dramatically.
And lastly, Magic Roads lets any paid user ride any road they can find via social ride apps or online mapping, anytime, anywhere. All you have to do is upload a good .GPX file of a ride under 100km, and RGT will recreate a virtual ride based on the ride data.
RGT pricing
RGT Cycling has a two tier membership level – Freemium & Premium. The Free level won’t cost you a thing, and you can ride all of their real roads, join any event, and still upload your data to TrainingPeaks for analysis. The premium paid membership will cost you $15 / 15€ / £13 a month, and adds on the full Real Training features, the Magic Road riding, the ability to create new events on existing or Magic Roads & invite your friends to come ride for free, and more.
Try out Premium for free for two weeks, to see if the added features are worthwhile for you. And maybe make a New Year’s resolution to ride indoors to get ready for next season.
