Another Bike Ride in Germany

Today I took another virtual ride through Germany with my bicycle set up on my Wahoo Kickr Snap stationary trainer using the FulGaz app.  I suppose that as I use it more, it will become less novel and more familiar, but for now it is still a novelty for me, and I find the technology fascinating.

Today's ride was "Around the Wasserkuppe", about 15 miles through some hilly terrain near Fulda in the Rhön.  This is very close to my old defensive sector when I was assigned to the 23rd Engineer Battalion, 3d Armored Division, in the early 1980's.  I spent 4 years in Germany preparing for the Soviets to come rolling across the inter-German border through the Fulda Gap towards the Rhine.  Of course that never happened, but the threat was serious at the time, during the height of the Cold War.

I rode my bicycle all over Germany during my free time back then, and it's fun to do it in virtual mode now.  This ride was much more strenuous than the other rides I've taken on FulGaz.  I took some photos, and want to document the user interface here, as I think it's pretty neat.

This is the setup as viewed from my bicycle.  We decided to get a full-size TV for the lower level family room, which makes for quite a vivid and immersive riding experience.  

The FulGaz display is a GoPro movie of an actual ride, which has been processed with the GPS data to incorporate the elevation profile.  I ride in "reactive mode", which means that the ride gets easier when I go downhill, resistance increases when I go uphill, and the video speed slows down and speeds up in response to my pedaling.  I am constantly shifting gears to adjust to the terrain, exactly as I would if I were riding out on the road for real.

The FulGaz display, near the halfway point of my ride.

The data components of the display are pretty neat.  Clockwise from the lower left, they are:

(Left Side)
1.  Calories burned.  This is calculated from the stats I entered (height, weight, bike data, etc.)
2.  Speed  (I use English units, even though it's Germany).  Not sure what the smaller numbers are.
3.  RPM - this field must use a sensor that I don't have, because it just sits at zero.
4.  Elapsed riding time and time of day.
5.  Current output in watts of my pedaling effort.  Not sure what the lower number represents.

(Center)
6.  Elevation profile of the ride, with a dot indicating current position.
7.  Segment info, including elapsed time and miles remaining. Some rides have small segments identified, usually sprints or climbs.  This one is the climb to the Wasserkuppe.

(Right side)
8.   Current slope gradient.  This ride had short climbs of up to 15%, and long climbs in the 6-8% range.  The climb to my home from Lake Coeur d'Alene averages 7%, so this is good practice!
9.  Current elevation
10.  Distance travelled.  Lower (smaller) number is distance remaining.
11.  Beats per minute (?) - you can attach a heart monitor if you want, but I don't have one.
12.  Direction of travel (in the video).

I found the display to be very useful in pacing and motivating myself during the ride.  I found that I alternated between heads down pedaling (the floor is boring), watching the scenery in the video (which is fun and passes the time nicely), and watching the various stats on progress (which was both good and bad).  By the end of the ride I was whupped, and tried not to watch the distance remaining crawl down oh-so-slowly as I climbed the last hill.

The summit of the Wasserkuppe, with an information center, restaurants, etc.  Next time I  take this ride I will pause here for a rest.  Maybe I'll even have a virtual beer.  :) 

Before I came back to the USA in 1985 and got indoctrinated into wearing a helmet, I rode all over Europe with this BDU uniform cap as my cycling cap.  It was kind of fun to dig it out and wear it on my virtual rides.  I don't think I need a helmet indoors!

  

At the bottom of a very long downhill "glide", going into the long, slogging climb to the finish.  That last three mile section took me 30 more minutes to complete.

Although it is a very good simulation of an actual ride, there is one really big difference - there is *no* rest at all while riding.  On a real ride, you can stop pedaling and glide downhill, stretch your legs, etc., all without slowing your forward progress.  Here, however, gravity is not helping you, so even though the resistance is much lower and you go much faster on downhill stretches, you still have to pedal the entire time.  If your wheels slow down, the video slows down, and if you stop, it stops.  So that long downhill stretch from the Wasserkuppe to this point, although it was fast and exhilarating, did not provide much respite from the exercise of the ride.

I have to think there is some way to get a summary record of the ride from FulGaz, but my "Ride History" is empty - I all have is what gets uploaded to Strava.  Strava is a useful app for consolidating all my fitness activities (which consist of walking and cycling), but it doesn't have the detail that the FulGaz app provides.  I have a technical support ticket in to the company asking what I need to do to get the history so I can look back at the rides.

Around the Wasserkuppe - Strava Record

All in all I am very happy with this setup.  There were at least a dozen different apps that were listed as being compatible with the Wahoo Kickr Snap, including their own fitness/workout app, Zwift app I already wrote about, and many others.  But for my purposes, I think FulGaz is ideal.  I am looking forward to this summer when I get out and explore this area for real.  I plan to buy a GoPro camera and record some of the local rides in the hope that FulGaz will process them into virtual rides for general use. 

Mood:  Tired

Music:  Silence