MyWhoosh 4 – Major Upgrade

More: Detailed MyWhoosh Review

The MyWhoosh indoor cycling platform has transformed itself from two years ago and is now a highly competent, free alternative to Zwift – albeit still lagging far behind on social features. That said, its graphics are on par with Zwift in many respects (here are some of my recent tests, videos and imagery). The company produces regular World and feature updates – we had the Japan World a few months ago (tick…done that!!), and now we have a significant new feature release with MyWhoosh 4.0.0

Read on for all the details of the new features, my thoughts, and some cool imagery.

New Heads-Up Display (HUD)

The redesigned HUD is a significant change applied across Free Ride, Workouts, and Events, adding new metrics.

My general impression is of a slightly fresher, slightly more modern-looking HUD.

I’m a little bit disappointed. I wasn’t especially interested in the transparent map, which has now moved from the bottom left to the top right. To me, the top-right position is the prime position. It’s now displaying data I’m not usually interested in – instead, I was hoping for richer and more dynamic information on the old gradient profile, perhaps like Garmin’s ClimbPro rather than fixed to the next 2km or whatever the distance shown is. It’s nice to overlay the gradient profile line on the transparent map. It makes good use of the space, but it could look better. Perhaps even toggle the top right graphic between the existing combo view, hill climber-only view, and map view for races.

The ride total stats at the bottom make sense. I want to see it augmented with stats showing lap-to-go info (or ride-to-go info) on distance and elevation. The total elapsed time should probably appear down there, too.

To the bottom right corner, we see the new virtual gearing, it’s a bit too large and should be hidden in ERG mode. I’ll come back to that in a minute.

The rider stats on the right seem to work better in the current, more compressed graphic. It now shows more riders; let’s hope it shows the road distance to the rider rather than the previous as-the-crow-flies distance (hence, totally useless). I like how a specific rider can be more easily watched and communicated with, not that I do either!

The main info to the top centre is OK. I want the cadence to be toggleable – I have little interest in that, and it seems strange to have power here, but the power zone information is further to the right. Power zone info could easily be subtly incorporated into the graphics on or under the power number.

To be clear, IMHO. The top area should have power, heart rate, plus toggleable cadence, and speed. The bottom area should contain the total ride info or total workout info. The map/elevation area should include hill/lap to-go metrics in freeride and a richer ClimbPro-like experience.

Triathlon Mode

Triathlon mode allows virtual event organisers and clubs to transition workouts between cycling and running. MyWhoosh says that duathlon-style events will be added to this core functionality. That seems like features organised toward group events, but there is some scope here for individual brick training, which also suits triathletes (and duathletes), and I might use that next winter.

Some of the motivation here seems to be to support junior and superTri events. Fair enough.

Custom Workout Creator (Web-Based)

The workout creator is relatively straightforward and looks nice. It’s nowhere near as comprehensive as the Training Peaks workout creator, but I can use it. The official press release for the new features implies I can share and export workouts with friends and other platforms, but it wasn’t entirely clear how to do that.

Also added are running workouts that I probably won’t use. But it’s a nice touch. Some people will love it.

The structured workout HUD has nice colour coding of the segment details to the left, matching the intensity bars over time at the bottom. A ghost finish line appears on the circuit at the end of each workout step. It’s also a nice touch. I’m not entirely sure of the purpose of the map view when in workout mode.

Virtual Gear Shifting (MyWhoosh MyShift)

You can keep the perfect chain line and change to any of the 30 virtual gears. You use the Link App or in-game controls as the gear changer, adjusting the resistance to mimic a different gear.

I’m a bit of a Luddite and would like to say I won’t use this, but I probably will, as I have a bit of a nightmare putting various bikes onto the trainer as re-indexing is inevitably required. This should stop the need for that.

Expanded Hardware Support (Speed Sensor Mode)

This is a neat addition.

Mywhoosh now supports speed sensors as an alternative to a power meter. So, if you have an old-style wheel-on trainer, all you have to do is put a speed sensor on your rear wheel, and MyWhoosh will use fancy algorithms to translate that into power. The game will then translate power back to in-game speed over the game terrain; thus, the speed in-game will not match the wheel speed. If your trainer has manual resistance settings, they won’t work in-game because increasing manual resistance will result in a modelled power drop and slow you down (ah, the joys of indoor training in 2010…history revisited!).

Workout Management via Link App

Start and manage workouts directly from the MyWhoosh Link App. It’s a convenience thing.

MyWhoosh Police – for Normal Events

Car drivers everywhere will be delighted that MyWhoosh now has its police force dedicated to keeping cyclists following the rules. Hopefully, the police will only appear to focus on those involved during events, which means stopping power/weight doping. It will be interesting to see how well they do this and if it succeeds.

New Garage Items

There is a significantly expanded lineup of new bikes, jerseys, helmets, shoes, and eyewear. Choosing them on Apple TV was a pain, so adding more to the list will make things worse. That said, I’ve got a lot of in-game credit, so I might go shopping later.

Here are the new items

• Jerseys & Apparel – SuperTri Jersey, Giant Elevate Jersey, Gloves, Socks, Giant Race Day Jersey, Gloves, Socks
• Shoes – Giant Surge Pro, QUOC Escape Road (Amber, Black, White)
• Helmets – Giant Rev Pro, HJC IBEX 3 (Grey, Pink, White), HJC Valeco 2 (Pink, Desert, Grey), HJC Furion 3 (White, Rosewood, Silver Red), Oakley CY Helmet
• Bikes & Wheels – Liv AlUla Jayco Team, + Liv Langma Advanced SL0 + Liv Avow ADSLA + Giant Trinity ADV SL0, CADEX TT Disc, CADEX 4Spoke 65
• Eyewear – Naked The Blade (Black Blue, White Red), Naked The Volt (Green Blue, Purple Yellow), Oakley Purple Yellow, Giant Agos (Blue Polar Viz, Red Foto Viz), Giant Helio (Blue Orange Purple Polar Biz, Grey Gold Foto Viz)

Take Out

This is a pretty solid upgrade.

I welcome the changes in general, but I am a little disappointed that HUD changes I’d hoped for weren’t made.