TRANSITIONING FROM ZWIFT
If you’re coming over from Zwift, then prepare to train and ride on some of the world’s most beautiful routes, all in amazing 4K video quality!
REGISTER YOUR
FULGAZ ACCOUNT
FulGaz is available to download for Mac, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows 10 and 11 devices. Simply download FulGaz from your App Store, launch the app and tap Get Started!
When you first launch FulGaz and register for your account, you’ll be set up with a 14-day free trial. There is no need to enter payment details or select a subscription option! Your 14-day free trial begins the moment you sign up. You will need to confirm your account email via a confirmation email before your first ride.
PAIR YOUR TRAINER
AND SENSORS
You’ll need to pair your trainer and/or sensors before you can ride. From the main menu of rides, tap the CONNECT DEVICES button in the top right of the screen. FulGaz will search for any nearby Bluetooth devices and display them here. For smart trainers, tick an option for trainer resistance control, power, and cadence. If you’re using a heart rate monitor or a separate cadence sensor, be sure to connect it here as well.
RIDE MODES
The three main riding modes in FulGaz are Steady, Reactive, and Challenge Mode. For most of your riding in FulGaz, you’ll want to set your Ride Mode to Reactive. In Reactive Mode the ride footage will speed up and slow down based on your power. You can read more about the three ride modes in this FAQ article.
ADJUSTING THE ‘FEEL’ OF
FULGAZ TO SUIT YOU
At first, you may find the riding experience rather to Zwift. The majority of people will notice a decrease in their virtual average speeds and find the climbs to be more difficult! This isn’t a bug or a problem with the setup; it’s just the way things are. FulGaz sets the “feel” to 100% as default, whereas Zwift’s default is only 50% difficulty. There is also no drafting in FulGaz.
ZWIFT IN COMPARISION
Let’s be honest, everything on Zwift appears to be a little too easy. This is because Zwift is easy by default. For starters, there’s the near-constant drafting that boosts speeds, and all upward grades in Zwift are half by default. While you use Zwift’s default “Trainer Difficulty” setting, when you see an 8% gradient on screen, your trainer is actually simulating a 4% gradient.
FulGaz sets ALL gradients to 100% realism by default.
Less virtual, more reality!
Zwift only has one difficulty slider (Trainer Difficulty), but FulGaz has three separate levels. Slope Limit, Slope Scaling Uphill, and Slope Scaling Downhill are the three options. To get to these, go to the upper right corner of the main rides screen and click the “cog” icon, then scroll down and select Trainer Settings, then Advanced Trainer Settings.
SLOPE SCALING UPHILL
This is the most useful setting and adjusts the feel of the climb . The default setting is 100%, meaning an 8% climb will feel like an 8% climb (Zwift’s default is 50% realism). If you find the climbs feel too hard, you can lower this setting. This has no effect on your speed up the climb. Think of it like putting a bigger cassette on your bike, you still need to put out the same power to climb the hill at the same speed, but you can spin up in a lower gear. Your speed is always determined by the amount of power you put out.
SLOPE SCALING DOWNHILL
This is same as Slope Scaling Uphill, but adjusts the feel of the descents! On the trainer, you can easily spin out (run out of gears) and have to “coast” on the downhills, exactly like you would on a descent outside. Reducing your Slope Scaling Downhill will reduce the possibility of spinning out by giving you a little more resistance on the descents.
SLOPE LIMIT
FulGaz will send realistic gradient commands to your trainer up to this limit. The default is 25%, which is a VERY steep climb. Some trainers may not be able to replicate such a difficult climb (especially some wheel-on trainers). If the steeper grades are still too difficult or your back wheel is slipping on the roller of your trainer, you can lower the Slope Limit to compensate.
If you want to replicate the feel of a default Zwift ride on FulGaz, you’ll need to decrease ALL of the Slope settings to achieve this. By default, Zwift halves all uphill gradients and quarters all downhill gradients! Begin by lowering your Uphill Slope to 50% and your Downhill Slope to 25%. Set the Slope Limit to the maximum gradient that your smart trainer can produce.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN…
CONNECTING TO STRAVA
Connecting your Strava account to FulGaz is simple, and after each session, all of your FulGaz rides will sync to Strava.
Log onto your Member’s Page and go to Preferences to connect Strava. Click “Login” next to Strava under the Connect tab to authorise the connection. You may also use this page to connect your TrainingPeaks and TriDot accounts.
NOTE: At this time, FulGaz does not have automatic sync with Garmin Connect. This is a feature we are in discussions with Garmin about having them add for us.
SETTING YOUR FTP (FUNCTIONAL THRESHOLD POWER)
Before doing interval training on FulGaz, you’ll need to set your FTP. You can set your FTP using one of two methods. The first and most accurate way is to ride the Kinglake FTP test! This is a short warm-up, followed by a classic 20-minute effort. FulGaz calculates your FTP using this data and saves it. If you already have a good idea of your current FTP, you can enter it manually into workout settings.
Any questions? Please get in touch and we’ll help you out!
