I’ve been a subscriber since around 2018. I live in a developing country in Africa and the USD Exchange rate has not been kind over the last 6 years. My price probably doubled in this time. This made me opt-in to the locked in pricing TR offered previously, even though if I was in a position then I would have gladly paid more as I get so much from the product.
Even so - I’d gladly pay the 2USD increase. Through TR I went from couch to XC MTB race podium (still need a bit of luck to be fair). It enabled me to take on challenges that seemed absolutely impossible just a couple of years ago (completing a 400km race in 20 hours on a MTB) and just made me a healthier individual.
And that’s not even touching on the learnings from the podcast and this forum. Example - I’ve learned to make my own gels and energy drinks - I think the savings there cover a big part of the subscription:-)
The other big saving for me is in time. Maybe it’s something about cycling but it seems a lot of people need or want things to be complicated. TR does the opposite for me - it gives me so much time back. Pick a plan, enter the racing dates, open the app, do the workout, carry on with my life. I’m 44, young family, full time job and studying for a degree, so appreciate anything that can save me time.
Anyhow - enough rambling - from my side thanks to the TR team for an absolutely amazing product. I can’t wait to see what you come up with in the next couple of years.
Well done on your achievements! I haven’t reached any podiums, but I feel the same about TR having made me fitter and faster over the years since i started with it in 2014/15. I’m in canada so a $2usd increase is getting closer to $3cdn, but it’s money well spent.
Just do it. I just checked Zwift pricing (not on it), so I see the “problem”. I am interested in getting stronger and/or maintaining my strength. Since I joined TR, I’ve aged from 57 to 63. TR’s training plans are top notch and in my experience are accurately assessing my fitness.
Most companies, when they raise their rates, claim with great fanfare that they are “Enhancing Your Customer Experience” when in fact they are cutting benefits and decreasing customer service. TR has done nothing but gotten better in terms of customer experience and service!
Has your recent experience been that customer service is better than it was a few years ago? I definitely have seen a drop off there. To the point where I stopped going to them for help because I could get a faster and more accurate answer here. Maybe that’s changed in the last few months?
I already cancelled my subscription before this announcement - I realized that for outdoor season it is pretty much useless & boring after several years - riding several races on Saturdays pretty much ruined the progression levels.
$2 will not make any difference from my perspective.
I just ordered a handful of bottles from https://watrbodl.com but had TR had bottles available for merch, I’d definitely have ordered some. I didn’t know they did coffee mugs, either.
I currently don’t subscribe, and when considering the range of available options, TR would have to offer A LOT for the current price, let alone a little more. It would need to be my only paid-for training platform and not require me to do hacks and workarounds for it to be effective. The biggest problems for me:
Not enough flexibility for non-trainerroad activities, so progression levels becomes junk pretty quick if you do a lot outdoors.
progression levels also don’t take history in to account, so as a new subscriber workouts can be unchallenging for too long, even when you give appropriate feedback
refusal to open up APIs and work with third parties. Not being able to access my workouts to do on other platforms such as indieVelo (or zwift) is just painful. There’s plenty of ways to do this without exposing your entire catalogue IP.
the workout library is a bit of a mess. Quantity over quality. I think it could all be simplified significantly, especially to make outside workouts more achievable. Join does a really good job of this.
I agree with this part, but it even comes for 4-year users every time I come back to the structure and trainer after either a layoff, or just riding outside. Workout levels though, are huge. Anytime I come back to consistently riding, I’ll look for the “stretch” almost immediately. That means I end up catching up faster than AI/ML would have me do…
My 2 cents. I’m fine with an increase.
Trainerroad fits my needs perfectly (YMMV), I use the low volume Masters plans as I’m time crunched and getting older.
A few decades back I was spending hours and hours reading The Cyclists Training Bible and planning my own workouts (on paper) around my racing schedule. These days I love just being able to plug in my events and let Plan Builder work out the rest, I just want to know what my workouts are for the week and get on with it.
AI FTP detection is pretty much spot on (for me) also, and I love that I can toggle workouts as indoor/outdoor and push to my head unit.
Sure, there is an occasional Plan Builder/workout hiccup, but seeing how far TR has come in recent years it’s pretty damn impressive really.
Living in Canuckistan I do wish I could be billed in Canadian dollars, but that’s a minor niggle.
Another triathlete and I love it and have been on board since the start. However it has long been shown that our side of the market is pretty much ignored. While they redid the tri plans, I still get brick runs in my plan with no ride beforehand. Really? If that’s AI in action, I’m not so sure of the value. I’ll stay but not very happy that man multiple requests to CS has been addressed but absolutely no progress other than passing the buck.
And that $15k was probably nothing compared to the true cost of organizational distraction. From my experience working with companies across many industries and regions, one of the most common attributes of success is having the discipline and leadership to focus on “core”. Something like shirts/kits/swag seems small, but it’s a slippery slope if the culture isn’t prioritizing the strategic stuff.
Sure, it would be cool to have a trainerroad t-shirt, but unless selling shirts creates a quicker release of unstructured ride support, then I’ll pass on the shirt.
Yeah but these days you just have another company set it up, do everything for you and you get a cut (yes, it is smaller but they do all the work). Been like this for years now at pretty much every high school for “spirit wear.” Takes about a hour to set something like this up.
EXACTLY. Also, it’s free advertising. There is absolutely no reason it should take more than a few hours of employee time. The point of this kind of merchandise isn’t to make a profit, it’s to get the word out.
If I had a dollar for every time someone brought me an idea that would only burn a few hours of time…
It’s always a time suck doing stuff like this. TR probably wouldn’t want to give carte blanche to a 3rd party when it comes to their brand. Some level of review on artwork, products being offered, etc. is normally manage by someone in marketing. And when they screw stuff up and it affects customers do you think TR is completely out of that loop? Contractors/vendors can be great for non-core work, but they still have to be managed. It’s likely not a big effort, but it’s still a distraction if it’s not supporting strategic goals.
And yeah, I understand that shirts/swag has been outsourced for years but it’s about organizational focus. Small non-strategic stuff adds up and becomes a drain.
As for whether shirts and hats move the needle for TR as a company, I’d defer to them to make that call. Having TR athletes walking around at events seems like a good idea to me, but I personally know very little about how to build a subscriber base in TR’s space. I assume they have some experienced people making these decisions and have prioritized things like the podcast and online content to build the brand. Resources at all companies are limited. Should someone who is focused on the podcast be bothered by the t-shirt stuff?
I get your point, and yes, if you do it all yourself it is not worth the time. But I’ve done this for years with our team…. it is as easy as an email and sending over logos you already have. And it would be as easy as a pinning a link to the online store on top of the message board. (That said, I don’t think there’s a huge market for it but could be wrong… thus not worth the hassle).
From a marketing perspective, something that would be worth the hassle is TR sponsored race shirts for local NICA teams. At least around here (Northern California) there are thousands of riders and super involved parents at every race. It is crazy how many kids are out riding on sworks and top of the line bikes that I still can’t afford. There’s your next generation of subscribers.
