While videos like The Sufferfest do a great job of keeping us entertained on the trainer, there’s no real way to know if you’re kicking your friend’s butt. Maybe they’re pushing it, maybe not, nobody can know. Until now.
Roller Racing is a a new online app that lets you race others in real time from the “comfort” of your own torture chamber. Sign up for a free account here, then download the Mac- or PC-friendly broadcast client and turn on a compatible browser, then set up your own race and invite others, or join someone elses. You’ll also need an ANT+ USB dongle for your computer, which will need to be synced to either a power meter or speed / speed+cadence sensor. You don’t actually need rollers, just a trainer…and there’s support for some ANT+ equipped trainers.
We just requested an account and don’t have screenshots yet, but the idea is cool and we’ve heard from one user that seems to dig it (Thanks Gregory!). Their website’s a bit limited, so here’s the direct link to sign up and the main website with some FAQS is here.
Tried it? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!
UPDATE: Comments from the creator posted below.
UPDATE 2: Video added above shows a race start, screenshot below…
Shortly after posting, we got this note from Justin Knotzke, the man behind Roller Racing, with a little background:
A quick word about who we are and where I come from..
We are a small startup in Montreal, Canada. I was one of the contributing developers to Golden Cheetah, which you may have heard of. I left over a year ago to work on Roller Racing.
The idea is using our small client installed on Windows or Mac and your browser, you can race anyone in realtime. No plugins required for the browser. We wrote it entirely using HTML5 and Canvas.
Roller Racing is obviously beta.. So stuff will break and possibly not work. So far though things seem to be fairly stable.
You need a USB2 ANT+ stick, a ANT+ power meter OR a speed sensor and one of the fluid trainers we support. You only need one of the four fluid trainers if you aren’t using a power meter. If you own a ANT+ power meter then you can ride any trainer you like.
We have support for USB1 sticks, but that code hasn’t been as well tested as for the USB2 keys. But it seems to be working with the people who have tried it. All the info is on our support page.
