Movie simulations

[Dogtrousers]

This weekend I took the plunge and activated my free 1 month Tacx premium membership. First thing I did was ride from Grassmere Grassington to Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales over Fleet Moss using one of their videos.

I was quite impressed with the experience. I even called out "bike behind you" when I passed a horse rider. I nearly got driven into the wall by a maniac in a van on a narrow bridge which was quite annoying. The weirdest bits were: I hopped off my bike to open the outside door which had blown shut. When I got back my bike was still rolling down the road, and I had to hop back on smartly; Not concentrating while having a drink and looking down at the screen I was alarmed to find myself negotiating a right turn in a village; No brakes on the simulator - apparently I hit 88kmh on the twisty lane descent into Hawes. Yeah, right.

Stats wise, given the terrain, my perceived effort, my heart rate etc. I think my virtual self seems to go a bit quicker than my real self would. Possibly I've not put the proper data in for my big lump of a bike. Or maybe Tacx haven't corrected for the horrible British road surfaces.

I'm looking forward to trying out some of my real rides using the GPS simulation, where you just get a dot on the map, not a video.

Edited for place name accuracy.

 

[Sharky]

I hope you stocked up with Gingerbread from the shop in Grasmere before you set off.

 

[ColinJ]

This weekend I took the plunge and activated my free 1 month Tacx premium membership. First thing I did was ride from Grassmere to Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales over Fleet Moss using one of their videos.

I was quite impressed with the experience. I even called out "bike behind you" when I passed a horse rider. I nearly got driven into the wall by a maniac in a van on a narrow bridge which was quite annoying. The weirdest bits were: I hopped off my bike to open the outside door which had blown shut. When I got back my bike was still rolling down the road, and I had to hop back on smartly; Not concentrating while having a drink and looking down at the screen I was alarmed to find myself negotiating a right turn in a village; No brakes on the simulator - apparently I hit 88kmh on the twisty lane descent into Hawes. Yeah, right.

WOW, I am impressed that they even thought to include the psycho driver!

We set off down the descent. as promised, I warned everybody about it and told them to be careful. and then ignored my own advice ... So there I was, descending at 65 kph (41 mph), getting blown from side to side by gusting crosswinds, when a tosser in a black car decided that it was perfectly safe to overtake me! It is a narrow road and I was close to the centre of it to allow for lateral movements due to the wind. I couldn't hear anything except for wind noise blasting my ears so it was a complete shock to suddenly find a car a few inches from my right elbow!!!

This might not be the exact spot, but it is close. Imagine riding your bike down there at that speed, close to the centre of the road. Just how can it be safe to overtake?

Did you get big virtual air on the lethal transition at the start of the descent? You do a stretch of moderate gradient and build up speed on that, then there is a hidden lip beyond which the road abruptly drops away at 25%! Many cyclists have crashed there.

 

[Dogtrousers]

It was of course Grassington (not Grasmere) to Hawes. I don't know, these places all sound the same.

Did you get big virtual air on the lethal transition at the start of the descent? You do a stretch of moderate gradient and build up speed on that, then there is a hidden lip beyond which the road abruptly drops away at 25%! Many cyclists have crashed there.

The descent was the least realistic bit of the whole experience. In the real world I go down things like that at about the same speed I go up them, with smoke issuing from my brakes. But as it was at the end of the workout I just treated it as a cool down.

 

[ColinJ]

It was of course Grassington (not Grasmere) to Hawes. I don't know, these places all sound the same.
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The descent was the least realistic bit of the whole experience. In the real world I go down things like that at about the same speed I go up them, with smoke issuing from my brakes. But as it was at the end of the workout I just treated it as a cool down.

You would have worn out your brakes on that one then!

The first time I rode it was on an audax event and another rider did what I did, but crashed on landing and ended up in hospital.

Last year, I watched an episode of 'Helicopter Heroes' featuring the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. One report had the helicopter hovering over a cyclist lying in the road. I immediately recognised that it was in the same location on Fleet Moss.

If you search online, you can find reports of several such accidents on that descent

 

[Sharky]

It was of course Grassington (not Grasmere) to Hawes. I don't know, these places all sound the same.

Never mind, I think the Gingerbread shop is closed anyway at the moment.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You never stop pedalling on the turbo where as outside you freewheel. I find the speeds the turbo gives me for the effort are about right.

 

[Dogtrousers]

You never stop pedalling on the turbo where as outside you freewheel. I find the speeds the turbo gives me for the effort are about right.

That's probably the main reason. Plus the unrealistic speeds on the downhill section bumping up the average.

 

[steverob]

I'll admit the first time I did a video of a ride on the trainer, my brain did trick me into soft pedalling/freewheeling when I was coming up to a T-junction where a car with the right of way was approaching from the other direction, so that he'd have passed by the time I got there!

 

[Dogtrousers]

This mornings outing in the Dales went from Askrigg, over Buttertubs then back to Askrigg via a road called Cross Top to Oxnop Scar which is insanely steep - a long stretch of 20%. I'd have had to walk that in the real world, but the turbo is stable even at ludicrously slow speeds so I could struggle up without wobbling all over the place and falling off.

After that I hopped in my private plane to Normandy and cooled down with a 20km flat ride to Mont St Michel. Ain't technology wonderful?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Cruising through the sunflower fields of Gascony this morning it occurred to me that it should be quite easy to set up a service where people upload their own GPS-instrumented videos and share them. And that such a service probably exists.

Does anyone know about such a service? A quick search suggests Rouvy might do this.

It also occurred to me that it should be possible to sync a GPX track with images from Streetview so it can be "ridden" on a trainer. Is there a service out there that does this?

 

[Aleman]

Cruising through the sunflower fields of Gascony this morning it occurred to me that it should be quite easy to set up a service where people upload their own GPS-instrumented videos and share them. And that such a service probably exists.

Does anyone know about such a service?

Bkool does allow you to do this, I have uploaded quite a few videos of various rides I've done - Username is Aleman in BKool, if you want to search for the routes.

However, it is a real FAFF preparing the Video and GPX track to sync, and Bkool has some rtediculous flaws with video uploading, and resolution is not great

BigRingVR allows you to ride your own Video and GPX track ... and you can have 1080p quality ... I like it, apart from downhill at hairpins, it get a bit "interesting" ... BRVR is also Subscription Free to ride your own videos.

I've put a couple of posts on here outlining my process for generating the video on gpx sync, and then further video manipulation, and I also have a few links to videos and GPX tracks that will work in BRVR ... If you do the Sa Calobra descent watch out for the bus and the cyclist at the bottom

 

[Dogtrousers]

Thanks @Aleman I'm quite new to all this smart trainer stuff. I figured this must exist somewhere. I'll check it out.

Downhill simulation is … interesting. I've been hitting 90kmh+ on some of the downhills on the Tacx films. Needless to say I wouldn't survive long if I rode that way in the real world. Woo look, a junction! zooom! Phew, nobody hit me.

 

[Dogtrousers]

This morning's simulation wasn't a movie but a replay of one of my own rides. You see a helicopter's eye view of yourself proceeding along the road using satlellite imagery, along with the usual stats and stuff. I chose hilly 50k ride and it worked really well in terms of "feel". I felt about the same afterwards and most of the stats were in a similar ballpark to those from the last time I did the ride in the real world. Apart from some ludicrous downhill speeds that is.

I'm worried that I like these simulations so much. When all this is over and winter comes I may have difficulty persuading myself outside.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Well, my free month on Tacx is up and I'll definitely be subscribing. I'm really impressed with the movies. Today's was in the Dolomites. Tre Cime di Lavaredo, 1300m of climb in 24 km. Hard work but I was still going OK by the end. I think I may be capable of having a bash at some of the iconic Grand Tour climbs.