Global Ride: Maui Rollers

About Global Ride:. The producers of Global Ride DVDs wanted to create a product for home exercisers which would bridge the gap between hard-core road cyclists and those of us who are confirmed spinners. In researching what consumers want in a virtual cycling DVD, the No. 1 thing they didn't care for was "looking at people's sweaty butts", so the Global Ride DVDs are marketed as "butt-free"! This means that the on-screen image is pure virtual reality. The ride is shot from the cyclist's speed and perspective, so you see exactly what you would see if you were cycling the highway in real life, with no shots of other cyclists. In this respect, the Global Ride DVDs are the most faithful to virtual reality compared with similar products. Well, there are some occasional shots of Gene Nacey, the founder of Global Ride, cycling towards the camera, but since this added interest and Gene is a hunk, I'm not complaining!

Each DVD in the Hawaii series offers four different coaching tracks, with the choice of American, Italian and Australian coaches, plus a live track from a spinning class using the DVD. So you can ride with a different coach each time, choose the one whose personality and coaching style appeals best, or soak up the energy from a spinning class. All the coaches coach in real time as they ride with you; you can hear them breathing hard and the grinding of their trainer. Or you can select the "music only" option and just enjoy the music and scenery.

Each DVD also offers a bonus cross-training segment. Maui Rollers features a 30-minute yoga for cyclists session. Unfortunately, these sessions do not have great production values: the sound and vision are very out of sync which makes them almost unwatchable, and the session is filmed on a cheap-looking set.

The Global Ride DVDs are not without their critics. The on-road segments do have some camera shake. This doesn't bother me, but some people are sensitive to it. Another flaw is that the disks use vocal music, which can make it hard to hear the coaching at times. Again, this doesn't bother me, but your mileage may vary.

You can see clips of the rides, listen to samples of the music, and order the DVDs from www.globalride.net.

About Maui Rollers: Maui Rollers starts off with a satellite image of the USA, which pans over to Hawaii, then zooms in on Hawaii as the satellite image morphs into a map so you can see exactly where the ride starts – very cool! After a warm-up, the workout starts with a steep uphill ride in the early morning to a track called "Kissed by Morning Rain". Adding to the verisimilitude, the camera lens is spotted with rain. For my first Hawaii excursion, I trained with the US coach, Gene Nacey. I wasn't surprised to learn that Gene is a Certified Heart Zones Cycling Coach; he kept me in my target zone all the way through the ride. The ride, including the warm-up but excluding the cool-down, lasted for 45 minutes, but seemed to go by a lot faster.

Ratings out of five:


Production values (ride only) ****½

Workout design *****


Instruction *****


Fun factor *****


Music ****

Meets expectations *****


Overall 4.75