Wahoo Fitness has announced it is shutting down its virtual cycling platform RGT as of October 31st, 2023.
In an email to subscribers seen by Cyclingnews, Wahoo announced the move is a “strategic decision to focus on Wahoo’s long-established strengths around structured training content, through SYSTM.”
The Atlanta-based brand’s indoor cycling portfolio has evolved through a number of iterations over recent years. The brand cut its teeth manufacturing hardware, including GPS computers and more pertinently indoor cycling equipment such as smart trainers. In 2019, it acquired popular indoor cycling training platform, The Sufferfest, later rebranded it as SUF and then rebranded again as Wahoo SYSTM.
In 2022 it bought competitor virtual cycling app, RGT Cycling, rebranded that as Wahoo RGT and launched its two concurrent platforms – SYSTM and RGT – as a single subscription known as Wahoo X. It retained the longstanding free version of RGT, maintaining that product’s ‘freemium’ offering.
In a statement, the brand claims today’s move “means that all of Wahoo’s talented software team’s energy, attention and innovation will become solely focused on SYSTM,” before promising “a number of exciting new developments” to the SYSTM platform.
In a bid to soften the news it describes as “inconvenient” for current non-paying users, the email includes a code that will enable a 30-day trial of SYSTM.
But more incredibly, the statement shared with Cyclingnews by Wahoo finishes by promising a complimentary membership to Wahoo’s biggest rival indoor cycling app, Zwift. The very same brand that it spent the past year trying to sue for copyright infringement after Zwift launched the Hub smart trainer.
It read: “Wahoo has acquired easy-to-redeem complimentary Zwift memberships – to give its customers the very best in structured training with Wahoo SYSTM and access to the world’s biggest virtual riding community with the Zwift app.”
It is unconfirmed whether the monthly subscription fee, which previously provided access to both RGT and SYSTM, will be reduced.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…