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TECH NEWS
Turbo training 1Online turbo racing system looks for testers
A turbo training website, www.turbotraining.co.uk, has launched a beta test program for its map-based racing application that allows you to compete against other riders online using a turbo trainer.
www.turbotraining.co.uk is being developed from a simple turbo training website into one that allows you to integrate your performance data collected from sensors – power, heart rate, cadence – into your workouts in real time. Plus, you can ride with other users and race them virtually from your own home.
The system comes from Aaron Bird, who set up www.turbotraining.co.uk in 2008, and Rob Barrett, who in 2007 created a standalone ramp test and interval training application using ANT+ data for real-time training with power. They’ve now combined the two ideas to create online turbo trainer racing.
“Today we are launching a beta test program for our map-based racing application,” says Aaron. “This allows you to race on any route you choose to plot – create a lap or Richmond Park or an ascent of Box Hill. Battle it out with four other riders to be the first to the finish line.”
You can race via any web browser after downloading a small 2Mb app called Power+ that sits in the background within your system tray. The app listens for any ANT+ speed, power or cadence data and sends it to the www.turbotraining.co.uk servers.
“This data is then displayed via the web browser in a similar fashion to what you would see on a Garmin head unit,” says Aaron.
In a virtual race each rider has an avatar on the map which is controlled by their own data. All riders can see the performance data of everyone in the race.
You can race on a pre-made course or plot your own. You can also choose from pre-prepared workouts and training plans or design ones for yourself.
“The key advantage of group training and virtual racing is motivation, and that’s what turns turbo training into a sport and not a chore,” says Aaron.
The system allows you to race/train by power even if you don’t have a power meter on your bike. How? It uses what the designers call ‘Proxy Power’.
“Proxy Power relies on knowing the make/model of turbo trainer that a particular user is using,” says Aaron. “This can be selected in their profile. We have mapped the polynomial equation for a number of turbo trainers, so for a given speed we know the approximate power through manufacturer power: speed data, or through data we have collected ourselves.
A full list of trainers that have been mapped so far can be found here. http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/devices/index
“We currently offer a monthly subscription whereby users can choose to use our Power+ software,” says Aaron. “This is in production and runs on a user’s computer. It’s currently £5 a month which gives a user access to workouts and training plans as well as the interactive data. We also offer an option for those user who don't have any ANT+ equipment. This is free to try.
“The new features we are currently beta testing use a different architecture. Everything runs through a web browser which is why users can workout solo or in a group – either group turbo sessions or racing.”
If you’d like to be involved in the beta testing (PC only, a Mac version is planned for later in the year), go to the website and register your interest.
Last month, we told you about Zwift, another indoor cycling system that allows you to ride online against other users around the world. With Zwift you get videogame software and see yourself racing on virtual roads. It will charge a monthly fee when it launches fully early in 2015.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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23 comments
Urgh.
Just discovered Zwift. This looks old hat now. Shame. Hope they do good though but Zwift for me is leagues ahead in terms of the direction indoor cycling will go.
http://zwift.com/
This is in development and will go to beta testing after the PC version.
Terrain is accounted for. If you are going up or downhill it will adjust your speed accordingly.
Races are also handicapped to FTP - so it makes things fair. You can of course just choose to race without handicaps!
Yes, this will work well. Power will be taken from your Stages power meter. Could you email info [at] turbotraining.co.uk so we can resolve why you couldn't check your devices.
Thanks!
I have tried to check the compatibility of my turbo and power meter, but can only select device types, not Model or Manufacturer. Is this because of my Browser or other limitation. I have an Elite Qubo Fluid trainer with Stages Power Meter and Garmin Speed/Cadence sensor and the Garmin ANT+ USB dongle. Would this setup be compatible?
So... If I run this on a triple GTX 980 based system am I going to get Ryse quality graphics as I virtually tour the dolomites? Or will it be sub PS3 like the Zwift system?
Please guys get that Mac version out the door as soon as you can. This definitely needs as many users online as possible so it snowballs by word of mouth. I've seen too many multi-player games die an early death because of poor activity, and I really want your concept to take off.
Been thinking about interactive multi-player indoor training for years now and I honestly thought that maybe Sufferfest would have beaten everyone to the chase with a partnership with some gaming firm to innovate. Seems not. What you guys are doing is the first stage of what will hopefully be a full on gaming experience one day (like a car racing game) but with user effort on the bike, not a joypad, being the input.
Can't wait to see where this goes. Please don't let it die
We need the hard part done well too - hardware. Once that gets cracked in a one-size-fits-all bit of kit, at a consumer friendly price, then people will flock to it.
It'll be the new Zumba
Anything to gamify indoor training is great. This definitely seems the way forward, like mentioned Zwift and their software but also a host of trainer brands have their own online communities and races such as Real, Tacx, Bkool, CycleOps.
Does this allow for electromagnetic trainers to vary resistance automatically when going up inclines on the GPS routes, or does it assume everyone is at a standard resistance level all the time (i.e. a flat road) and the user just uses their gears to speed up?
Cheers, Neil
I suppose that would be the new FPC genre - First Person Cycling?
Anyone else think that making cycling into a virtual reality style game is really missing the point?
Hundreds of sweaty people, alone, watching little screens?
What a sad future...
Does seem sad at first glance, but I guess really it's no different to hundreds of sweaty people using their turbos alone, probably watching little screens anyway. This is just connecting them all up.
Anyway, it's not for me. I don't see the appeal of turbo trainers at all -- it's not difficult to keep riding through winter.
Can you describe the mental steps of how you've gone from the present day to an imaginary dystopia where all cycling as we know it has been replaced by use of an indoor training aid? Will skynet or the matrix be involved at all?
After the next general election when ukip win and ban cycling on roads and paths. We will all be sweating away in our garages on turbos as it will be the only place to ride.
Just need to make the system require an average power of say 200W to run and any extra power gets sold to The National Grid, get paid to train!
Hi Robert. The asynchronous / offline competition sounds perfectly feasible and that it could be quite fun but I reckon you might be best off creating some of your own high quality routes/tracks for people to compete on, rather than just relying on user generated tracks of variable quality.
Also, though it's not stated what kind of expertise your venture has. if you are serious about real time online competition then maybe consider trying to hire someone or partner with a company with experience of multiplayer gaming. I work in games development and we have teams dedicated just to online features, it's a very specialist field.
Something is missing, nothing to prevent wheelsucking, just a virtual road race, man up and face the world alone!
Yes you can do that with our solo sessions, either on the map, with a video, or with one of our workout sessions as part of one of our training plans.
On the surface this sounds like a great idea but I would fear that the numbers are against them making real-time online competition viable.
The service needs to have a sufficiently large pool of 'players' to guarantee that - even at peak times like evenings - you will be able to find enough people online, in your time zone ready to start or prepared to wait for a game, who want to play the same track as you - and committed enough to start and complete a game, not just give up midway through. Or lose connection, or have a mechanical, or cheat, or take a real time natural break...
You also have a number of high barriers to entry: - a bike, an expensive compatible turbo trainer, a set of approved sensors, a computer, the space to put your computer and trainer next to each other and the time available to participate.
Online gaming on identical compatible hardware is tricky enough to manage gracefully, this sounds like a recipe for a software development nightmare.
What could be more realistic is basically offline Strava on turbo trainers but with the ability to race virtual recorded players on screen. It would still be open to cheating and manipulation but you'd probably get a better user experience.
That last paragraph makes it look like you've been reading our roll-out plan. We've basically got that except we will be running our own leader boards and things. Users with power meters can't really cheat. We've got some technology behind the screens that normalises power when we are mapping turbo speed to ProxyPower, so we can effectively run handicap races based on peoples FTP. Lot's more to come over the coming weeks.
I used to use that website for building plans and sessions of my own but I can't do that anymore
I'm just wondering how you put a trike on a turbo
Although I have a different trike now, it is the same set up, chuck it on special rollers
Trainer and rack.jpg
This is just what I need, if I could find some sensors for my garmin to fit on my trike, speed on the rear, cadence on the front. So have to be separate
the new garmin speed and cadence sensors are accelerometers rather than magnetic, and separate units
I have the new type Garmin cadence only sensor (accelerometer). It's ace, really impressed with it.
Wish I could say the same for the Garmin unit it pairs to