RowPro Replacement

[PawsyBear]

What did you want to know? I’ve used it on PC cable usb for the last four months. Very stable had no issues.

[underwater]

What does it do for me that would make me want to buy it? Does it offer training plans to help me attain my goals based on my fitness level? Does it automatically add specific rows into my PM so I don't have to add them manually? Does it offer more than pretty cartoons on the screen? Thanks for any info you can provide.

[PawsyBear]

It has lots of training sessions as well as the standard ones like 2K. It has a FPT test and it has a drag a drop design your own. Very easy. Has the game functions like the PM5. Of course there are leader boards for sprints etc. Cross platform PC, phone, iPads etc. Also caters for water rowers. So I think the user base will be large. Motivation? Never really needed pushing personally I’m looking forward to racing. If it goes like a Zwift then we will see clubs, trainers, VIP events etc. Just maybe it might, like Zwift, open up the sport to more mass participation.

[Carl Watts]

You really don't need some software to come up with a training plan for you to hit your goals.

RowPro just got a get out of jail free card now that Zwift has dropped out of the race.

RowPro would have been miles ahead by now had they had both an iOS and Android version out for your phone within a year after the PM5 being released. The ability for Gym users to run the RowPro App on their phone would have been huge by now. Its hard to put a figure on it but I think it could have been a five fold increase in numbers using it by now, possibly as high as 10 times the number of users.

[Zuman]

I was also looking at EXR, but I read somewhere that it doesn't "program" the PM5, and that's a big deal with me, particularly as one who uses RowPro's training programs and the prescribed intervals.

[PawsyBear]

. RowPro would have been miles ahead by now

*should
Agree that’s the whole issue. No development. I use Zwift and thought there must be something similar for rowing? Rowpro? It’s stuck firmly in the past.

I gave EXR a go and saw it was well ahead in the development process. I have no idea wether it will be successful. But I’m sure it’s light years ahead of Rowpro and already cross platform. I was in the beta of Zwift. Look what happened there. More people, more revenue, we the cyclists benefited. There was certainly resistance from the cycling community, now its accepted and by governing bodies for races.

Sending training to the PM5 is on there list. It’s worth remembering it’s not a full developed yet. And even when launched I’m sure there will be loads more to add. Five years on and Zwift just got $450M investment. I’m suggesting EXR has got potential.

Would be nice to see that investment in rowing but it won’t happen unless it has mass appeal across all platforms.

The question was is there an alternative to Rowpro? Yes I think there is.

[Brooklynrab]

I have been a rowpro user for over 12 years. While I used to online race, I had connection issues and sometimes no one was around to race, so I now use it mostly for training now where I set up training routines, and sometimes against myself historically. Anyway, I have looked and no one seems to provide the adaptability for training that rowpro does, but the Windows 10 stuff has become a huge hassle, and half the time it takes ten minutes to get going of starting and restarting my computer. I wish they had a phone app, it would be perfect, I’d pay for an ongoing subscription. Concept 2 should take it over, merge with ergdata and charge a subscription.

[underwater]

It has been almost 3 months since I started this thread and I have completed 6 weeks with Krew. I am using Krew to run the Pete Plan for Beginners (PPB). Krew offers a lot more but I am enjoying PPB for now. I strongly suggest people take a look at Krew.

[Carl Watts]

Since this post started back in April, Concept 2 have released ErgRace.

For anyone who has used it, it looks remarkably similar to using RowPro in 2D online. In fact the "Race Load" to the PM5 looks identical.

The Online rowing side looks to be working fine and its all on your mobile phone. Concept 2 could do some smart stuff tomorrow to get more people using it and having a play. Unfortunately your going back in time 30 years with the graphics, but something that "Works" 100% of the time is far more important than fancy graphics with no connection or crashing all the time.

The obvious move is to get this working and then merge it with ErgData, you then have everything you really need for "Racing" as its quite different to "Training" .

Give ErgRace a go, its so easy to setup on your phone, its free and easy to connect to the 1 min test rows using a PM5 monitor that must be on the latest version of firmware.