VeloReality Forum

KeithD wrote:My Suggestion was not a free course full stop, but to get most people get the same course when they buy any course they get another free. No choice but a good easy one. Anybody buying a course will get the free one so over time everybody who buys a course will have the one that is on offer. If its a good one like the Ventoux part 2 it will give people a reasonable chance that there will be somebody riding that course. I will be riding the Ventoux part 2 tonight with my wife. I have been trying to get others to ride but its an uphill struggle, until more are on anyway I think its the chicken and the egg situation.
We will be riding at around 7:40 GMT for 40 to 45 minutes.

Your dead right Keith that we need a user base using a particular ride to get ball rolling. Your idea to include a fixed known ride with any ride purchase is a great one & why not Ventoux Part II may as well be the one as its freaking nice...maybe some will buy the other two parts? Its not too hard & has a nice easy start so if your a bit late for the ride its not a big deal if you all start riding harder from the village before the gorge climb starts. I will talk with sales today & see if its possible to do this with the shopping cart.

We have had a little discussion about this & will get in touch with you about organizing a group ride on Ventoux Part II with a coupon buy one get Ventoux Part II free for anyone that wants to join this ride...I want to join it!!!

Also decided to add for customers that actually buy rides a much longer 7.5km free lap based "Belgium kermis Race style" route with the Oude Kawaremont...this is actually quite a easy hill on the trainer with only about 100meters of 10% with most of it about 5% (IRL its the horrific cobbles in the early part & its length that make it the killer it is in the Tour Of Flanders world Tour Classic) bit of a false flat at the top, down the same road as Paterberg but without taking the right turn from hell, you now have a couple km of flat before the hill starts again.... 3 or 4 laps of this & you should start to feel your legs!

I would like to record my agreement with Keith’s suggestion and urge you to think about it.

I’m new to VR but the little that I have ridden so far has been a pleasure, the film quality is exceptional, better than anything I have tried before and in my opinion should have the potential to attract many more users, however I don’t see this taking off quickly unless you can find a way to get people riding together in reasonable numbers.

The price you are charging for films is reasonable and shouldn’t deter people if they want to participate but you need a creative solution to gain critical mass. At the moment the environment is great but there are tempting alternatives if we have to mostly ride alone, on the other hand if we could regularly find groups of people with a range of abilities tackling the same routes at the same time, preferably with someone organising regular races, VR could be the best multiplayer platform out there and in my opinion would take off...

I'm obviously behind the curve, somehow missed the two posts earlier today, good news...

Somehow I never got into TTS RLV. I guess it was that it never worked too well. An online ride had to be started at a specific time, you had to have the film if someone set up a ride, and when we did get a free trial of Kona so we could race on line it was a disaster, as we races 20 KM segments but only the first segment was the same for everyone. The only success was the free rides in Norway on Fortius software and we did those off line, and uploaded the ride.
With VR at least there is a chance someone will join in at any point on your ride. Now how do we use it for a weekly race like this where you ride the course and upload your result?

Keith. I have whole bunch of ideas about this online stuff and will implement those. I would love to run some of them through you. Is there any chance you can get me on Skype ( poukhov_kostya ) so we can talk about those. I just do not want my premature thoughts on public forum before they are well settled and I feel confident. I am available now.

Hi Kostya.
I cannot get onto Skype now as I have to work.
You can mail me though keithd at vitualcycling.org at is @
I will see what I can do with Skype at home. I do not have it. on mt computers now.

Ive set up a new thread for this "Group ride / Veloreality Club run" here http://veloreality.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=191 will pm you Keith also.