Wahoo has today unveiled a host of new features for its Wahoo X software bundle, which bundles the brand's two separate indoor cycling apps, RGT and Systm, into one monthly subscription.
Among them is a voice chat feature that until now has been almost monopolised by third party app, Discord. Simply known as Voice Chat, users of Wahoo RGT will be able to chat with riders in four distinct ways. First, chats can be set based on proximity, meaning anyone nearby on the road will be able to communicate. The second will be an entire map-wide chat, incorporating everyone in a particular map at a given time. The third will enable riders to create private channels, while the final is a one-way chat, enabling team managers or workout leaders to dictate race tactics or the session at hand without interruption.
Wahoo's reason for building this feature into the app is based on its desire to connect riders; which forms one part of a newfound four-pillar focus for the brand enabling its users to ride, race, train and connect.
To that end, the Voice Chat feature is accompanied by a selection of other new features. The Wahoo RGT app has 13 'real roads', which are virtual maps based on the topography of real-world locations. Among them is the 2021 World Championships finishing circuit in Leuven and a stretch of the Dirty Riever gravel race in Kielder Forest in England.
The latest addition to these, however, brings mountain biking indoors with a circuit called Dunoon Crossover. Based around a destination that's set to open in Dunoon, Scotland, this mixes gravel roads with stretches of singletrack and varying surfaces. Functionally, this will mean a three-tier difference to the rolling resistance built into the algorithm, though it's unconfirmed whether riders will be able to swap to a mountain bike, as is possible in Zwift.
RGT isn't the only side of the Wahoo portfolio with new features, though. In a move that takes indoor training outside, Systm, Wahoo's indoor training app borne out of the Sufferfest platform, is being given the ability to push workouts to Wahoo's Elemnt range of bike computers. This will work in a similar way to TrainerRoad's outside workout feature by automatically pushing the day's workout to your cycling computer and presenting it as a workout to follow.
If you really wanted to distort reality, you could then take that cycling computer back indoors and use it to control your smart trainer, though we're not sure why you'd want to.
Finally, Systm is also getting a number of new race experiences. This puts a camera on a pro rider's bike during a race, then pairs the footage with the same rider's power file and turns it into a workout file. As the rider attacks or a hill steepens, your smart trainer will heap on the resistance, immersing you into the experience and allowing you to pretend you're elbow to elbow with the best in the world. Given it relies on video footage, these workouts are reserved for riding indoors, of course.
