FULGAZ Review – Indoor Cycling Training App. Vicky has been using and testing the FULGAZ indoor training app for the past three months. Hear her thoughts on the app and how it compares to others.
Summary of the FulGaz Review
Trivelo Rating – 3/5
Cost – £9.99 / month
FulGaz is cheaper than Zwift for a start for anyone considering that alongside FulGaz. If you are unfamiliar with ZWIFT check our review of the most popular indoor cycling app.
If you are booked into an Ironman event it is a really cost-effective way to recce the bike route.
FULGAZ has over 1500 routes that have been uploaded by members of the community. For me, this was a brilliant feature for an indoor cycle training app. Scrolling through I found a route that went to my home town. Although it seemed really ironic to be riding indoors on a route that was very accessible to me in real life – I found the novelty of this very appealing. A real bonus of this feature is the opportunity to experience other bike routes and in particular ironman cycle routes and have an opportunity to virtually recce them. The tagline is ‘Less Virtual, more reality’ and this really suits the product.
Pros
- The graphics and visuals on FULGAZ are amazing and completely realistic. It is a truly immersive cycling experience as you feel like you are riding in that location.
- A great opportunity to recce a ride from the safety of your own garage/pain cave.
Cons
- Lacks gamification and therefore for some motivation may be lower.
- Workouts are difficult to access/require upload.
First Impressions of FulGaz
My first impression of FulGaz from doing this review was that the dashboard looked good. Lots to do and all appeared very clear. There are absolutely loads of rides to do from all over the world and also opportunities to do workouts and follow a training plan. I couldn’t wait to get started.
Setting up FulGaz for indoor cycling
I very easily downloaded the FULGAZ app on both my laptop and iPhone and registered on fulgaz.com. On the website, you can sync your profile to Strava which uploads the details. Unlike Zwift, there are no screenshots of your ride. Just the key stats.
I linked my Tacx smart trainer via Bluetooth to Fulgaz on my laptop and iPhone. I also tried it connected with an ANT+ stick. Bluetooth seemed to work much better for me connecting to FulGaz. The trainer, laptop and phone all connected well, on most occasions. I did have a few connectivity issues. There were times it took longer to connect and load routes on the Fulgaz site. But that could be down to my broadband. On these occasions, I had to close the app and start again.
All set up, I was ready to go and I thought the best way to test FULGAZ was to start a training plan. I struggled to work out how to do this, so decided to just do a route.
To help you get going with your indoor cycling training read our post on the 5 Best Smart Turbo Trainers 2024. Our recommendation on the best to buy.
The Riding Experience on FulGaz
Once set up I was quickly able to get riding with some great visual images to look at which gave a brillaint immersive experience. As the routes are uploaded by members of the Fulgaz community recording their ride, you truly get an on-bike experience. The scenery goes past quicker when going downhill and you can also feel like you are riding the bends. The downside of this is that you go at the continuous pace of the video. If following a workout and your pace alters, or if you stop, the video keeps rolling.
On Zwift you can really imagine you are on the screen as the pace changes to match your effort level. On Fulgaz you are reminded that you are a spectator of the ride when you stop and the film keeps rolling.
Ride Data
Whilst on the ride along with the amazing views, there is an appropriate amount of data available.
At the top of the screen is a white line. This indicates the gradient of the ride as well as how far along the route you have traveled. At the bottom of the screen is the data including, duration, power, and RPM. If completing a workout there is also a bar chart indicating the intervals to be completed.
The problems I found with the information provided are easily resolvable.
The line at the top of the screen indicating your position on the route and incline was white. This is often lost in the sky of the image. By changing the colour and the thickness of the line, it would make it much easier to see.
When doing a workout there is a black box on the graph indicating power. The position of this box covers the bars on the graph. On many occasions when doing an interval session I was unsure of what was coming next. And how hard and long an interval would be, due to the black box covering the next few bars. This again is easily resolved by moving the small black box above the bar chart. The data in the large black box could be placed vertically on either side of the screen.
Group Rides on FulGaz
I tried on several occasions to join a group ride. Without overthinking about this. I anticipated a Zwift-style group ride, with lots of other riders/avatars around. However, obviously, due to the way Fulgaz is set up, this does not happen. You do have a different screen with a line showing your progress. There is nothing obvious to indicate you are on a group ride. There may be some interaction on the app, but my setup and phone screen size do not lend themselves to being immersed in this. For me, the only benefit of joining a group ride was to do a specific route, without having to scroll through the list and find that one.
I was also not too sure what the ride line indicated. Again this is probably down to my poor eyesight, but all I could see was a line with a dot on it showing progress. The line changed angles and moved along to match movement along the route, but it did not appear to move in relation to changes in incline. Is the dot representing the distance to the end/profile / where the rest of the group is?
Training Workouts on FulGaz
I really struggled to work out how to do a workout. Eventually, I uploaded one of my own and followed this easily and it worked well. What would have been really useful would be to have easy access to an FTP test on FULGAZ readily available.
There are training plans ready for you to follow and use, however, I could not work out how to access them via the website or app. It looked to me as though I would have to take the planned sessions and create a workout to upload onto FULGAZ. The sessions looked really good, but I just wanted to get on and start peddling.
Within the training plans, it lists the complete set of sessions for the block. It is not clear if you have to ride 5 times / week to complete the block, or if rides will be available when you are ready to use them, in a progressive order. The training plans on Zwift are ready to go. No uploading required, but you have to do them within a given timeframe. Or they are missed and you move on to the next session. The workouts are listed alphabetically. It was not clear how you could filter on time like you can with the routes. I did find it difficult to work out how to download and ride a workout.
Video of FulGaz Review
Hear from Vicky further in her video review of FulGaz.
Best Alternatives to FulGaz
FulGaz boasts a virtual ride environment with real routes and visuals. ROUVY is the most direct competitor offering a similar immersive real video indoor cycling training.
If you want a free alternative to FulGaz check our review of MyWhoosh that has some serious backing and well worth looking at.
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1 Comment
Courtney Harum · April 3, 2024 at 7:45 pm
Been looking for an indoor training app for my training and this looks great as can follow exact courses of my races. Thank you!!!