Bkool vs Zwift

Bear with me, This is nothing to do with the plans for the Hadrians wall ride 2017. I have a BKool classic turbo trainer. I bought it off eBay and it cost a lot (for me) of money. I have (until yesterday) used it exclusively with the BKool software, which is brilliant. I can ride through a huge number of places around the world and have the simulation of inclines and decents as if I was actually there. I have used BKool for a month or so and until last Wednesday (11-1-2017) I loved it. It has it's quirks (Ok a lot of quirks) If you want to do a specific ride, first you have to find it online (which is not an easy task) then schedule it, for tomorrow...... (tomorrow!!!! I want to ride now, tomorrow I might be in the pub, or at a wedding, or funeral, our just busy!!!) so that's a bit crap. But if you can live with that ten the rides are generally ok. If you don't want to schedule a ride then you can usually find a live ride that is fun (yes, I said fun, it's an indoor cycle trainer for gods sake... but it is still fun :-) ) or a velodrome ride which managed to hold my interest for quite a while, I will join more but probably only as a warmup or warm down ride. Still excellent for that though. They even have competitions (and this is where I fell out of love with BKool) I have taken part in a couple, they are stupidly difficult to join, BKool publicise them on Facebook but for some reason don't publicise how to join in, If you ask (through Facebook) they will tell you, but there is no link, no easy way of finding the ride unless you have done one before. that put me off the first couple of times, and from the comments on face book must put lots of other people off as well. Please sort this out BKool... The main thing that annoyed me is that when on a ride on BKool you get a notification (a 'bing' noise and a popup on screen) whenever someone joins or leaves the ride. this is accompanied by a slight pause in the onscreen display. Normally when on a ride that few people are interested in this isn't a problem, a slight pause occasionally is annoying but liveable. but when on a competition with a lot of riders (80 last Wednesday, plus spectators coming and going) then notifications come thick and fast, this resulted in some very long pauses, which make you think something is wrong, after 10 miles and over 30 seconds of frozen screen I got off my bike and tried to minimise the app (so I could close some background programs, and hopefully reduce the pauses) this resulted in the app closing and losing my position and the miles I had ridden. I was really pissed off. but I rejoined the ride (from the start) and cycled the full 15 miles (so a total of 25 miles when I had only planned on 15) in the end I came 12th but I'm sure I could have ranked higher if I hadn't had to start again. So last night I tried Zwift. I have had a free trial for ages but never bothered, (Strava users used to get 2 months Zwift free, but I never bothered registering) It's not as good but at the same time much better..... There doesnt seem to be the realism that BKool has, no live routes, no video rides (that I found) there do seem to be large groups of riders chatting to each other about how good it is that they are all going at the same speed and they should regroup and ride as a pack (which I dont understand) but the whole thing seems to flow better than BKool, the screen didn't freeze, I could chase other riders and knew when I was being chased, I rode up a steep hill and passed lots of slower riders and got overtaken by lots of faster riders. The whole thing just seemed more engaging. I have connected both my BKool and Zwift accounts up to my Strava account so everything is recorded (no difference between the two that I can tell) I will subscribe to both BKool and Zwift for the next couple of months and decide which I will stick with (to be honest I'll probably continue to use both as they offer a different experience, both of which I like, But I'll probably stop doing the BKool challenges) The only constant in the is Strava, which I wouldn't give up for the world. I started paying for a premium membership just because I hated the thought that a product so good was free, I am happy to pay to keep it going even though the difference between free and paid for is negligible, I am happy to pay for the little extras. :-) That is all. Axe