Rouvy Adds Zwift Cog/Click/Ride Virtual Shifting: Battle Royale Begins?

Rouvy has just done what everyone has been asking for: Added virtual shifting to Rouvy, using Zwift hardware*. This allows you to use virtual shifting in Rouvy, just the same as Zwift, using the Zwift Click or Zwift Ride hardware. You technically don’t need the Zwift Cog at all, leaving your existing regular cassette on there. But we’re probably getting ahead of ourselves.

This announcement is a pretty big deal. Over the last year or two, Zwift has heavily pushed not just consumers but trainer manufacturers, to adopt Zwift Cog & Click. In fact, almost every trainer manufacturer except Garmin/Tacx has fallen in line. And while Zwift Cog & Click does have some substantial benefits for multi-bike compatibility (for both consumers and Zwift), its main downside is that Zwift has heavily guarded this as Zwift-only. Thus, anyone who bought a Zwift Cog-enabled trainer was effectively locked into Zwift from an app standpoint.

By Rouvy removing that wall, this means consumers can buy any trainer they please, and use it with not just Zwift, but also Rouvy (and I’m gonna guess, soon, any other app they darn well want). Now, to be really clear here: This is hardly some olive-branch move by Zwift to the indoor training community. Rouvy has done the challenging work of reverse engineering the communications of the Zwift Protocol, and simply implemented it in Rouvy. So, let’s dive into it.

*Now, for a tiny bit of nitpickers corner, technically speaking, a small independent app called QZ has added this a while back for other platforms, but that requires a bunch of middle-man configuration and another app. Which isn’t an insult to that app (they also do treadmill incline stuff too), but that’s much more of a geekery shim/solution than a mainstream solution.

Hardware Required:

The first thing is having the right hardware, which is essentially:

A) A trainer on the Zwift Virtual Shifting compatibility list*
B) The Zwift Click, or Zwift Ride frame

Note that Zwift Play isn’t supported at this time, and it doesn’t sound like it will be either. Rouvy sees Zwift Play as a bit problematic since it takes up two Bluetooth channels (limiting usefulness on Apple TV, which is effectively the same problem Zwift has with it).

When it comes to the trainers, officially the list is any trainer on the Virtual Shifting compatibility list. But in practice, that’s a bit more variable. Rouvy says they’ve tested all of the Wahoo ones on that list, and those all work. Meanwhile, I tried with the Elite Direto XR COG, and that didn’t work. Inversely, I tried with the Decathlon D100, and that *did* work.

In asking Rouvy about this, they acknowledged it may take a bit of time to work through all trainers on that list, as they’re finding slight differences in how each company has implemented the virtual shifting from a protocol standpoint.

*(Note: Rouvy stresses to ensure that you’ve got your trainer firmware fully updated to the latest version, since that’s the version they’ve been doing compatibility testing on.)

Note however, that the Zwift Cog is *NOT* required. That’s because the Zwift Cog has no technical smarts in it. It doesn’t connect to anything from an electronics standpoint. It’s merely in place of a cassette. To demonstrate that, I simply used the Decathlon D100 with a regular cassette and the Zwift Click:

Meanwhile, up on the handlebars, you need either the Zwift Click, or the Zwift Ride Frame (which has integrated handlebars built-in). The Zwift click can be either the black one, or the colorful one. Those are internally identical, merely differ in paint job.

Got all that? Good.

Setup and Config:

Now, crack open Rouvy (remembering to update it first, obviously). You’ll see a ‘What’s new’ screen here, touting the new connectivity:

Then, pair your trainer like normal.

Once you do that, you’ll see the new Virtual Shifting option, which is where the Zwift Click will show up:

At this point, you’re ready to go and start using it in-game.

Riding With It:

At this point, pick a course you want to suffer on (just like normal). In my case, I decided to go with something at the other end of the island, Cap de Formentor:

You’ll notice in the upper left corner is the gearing display (e.g. Gear 16). In this configuration, you’ve got Gears 1-24, and you simply shift through them by pressing the + or – icon on the handlebar. Higher is harder, lower is easier. Just as with Zwift, the responsiveness is instant, and you can very quickly iterate through them. In doing a few test rides, I’m not seeing any difference that I can tell between Zwift and Rouvy here, in terms of responsiveness (and trainer control).

Likewise, when it comes to how the trainer feels, all of this feels identical to Zwift for me at this point. Perhaps long-term testing would yield different results, but at this point, it feels all the same. And that makes sense. The trainer itself already has special firmware for Virtual Shifting, and Zwift (now Rouvy) is simply telling it which gearing to use, based on each time you click.

Albeit, while Zwift did very recently roll out SRAM-style shifting and drivetrain combos on the Zwift Play & Click, that hasn’t happened here yet. But hey, the year is still young.

Wrap-Up:

In many ways, I suspect this will likely be the first of a few salvos back and forth between Zwift & Rouvy. Or, maybe not. Maybe Zwift will simply say ‘shrug’ and move on, focusing instead on Zwift as a game, and the (quite excellent) Zwift hardware (such as the Ride and Cog/Click). As much as Zwift wants to gatekeep the Zwift protocol, Zwift has to remember they built their entire company on open protocol standards. And this goes in direct opposition of that.

One shouldn’t overlook the fact that Garmin has held back on doing Zwift Cog/Click. My discussions indicate they are keenly aware that if they were to jump into that arena, without protocol openness, it’d pretty much kill off the rest of the indoor trainer apps within 1-2 years.

As for Rouvy’s implementation, it’s a bit too early for me to know what longer-term or quirky caveats there might be. Obviously, I see some around trainer compatibility that Rouvy is working through. And if Zwift & Rouvy get into a technical cat & mouse fight club, then things could get messy. But practically speaking, due to the archaic and clunky-ass way that trainer firmware is updated across all companies, that makes things near impossible to play cat/mouse, because it’d break their own customers. Until then though, I’m sure this will make lots of Rouvy users happy (and maybe soon FulGaz customers too).

Oh, speaking of which…Rouvy has decided to let FulGaz live on, complete with getting software updates for the next few years. They’ve come to realize there’s value in keeping both apps and servicing both crowds. But more on that later.

With that, thanks for reading!

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