BigRingVR 8 is officially released

After a public beta and two release candidates, BigRingVR 8 is here: version 8.0.1.158 is out now for Windows and Mac. It's the biggest update in BigRingVR's history: the app is rebuilt from the ground up, pairs with your sensors over Bluetooth and ANT+, brings Training Plans to real roads, and makes every ride count with Rings and rider levels.

Thank you to every rider who tested, reported issues and sent us logs along the way. BigRingVR 8 is shaped by your feedback.

📡 Bluetooth and ANT+, on Windows and Mac

Pair your smart trainer, power meter, heart-rate strap and cadence/speed sensors over Bluetooth (no dongle needed) or ANT+, or mix both in the same ride.

• Full trainer control: the resistance follows the road in SIM mode, and ERG mode holds your target power, over either connection. Tacx NEO trainers work over Bluetooth too.
• At a glance: sensor lights turn green the moment data comes in, and BigRingVR tells you if your trainer ever stops responding to resistance changes.

💪 Training Plans on real roads

Structured training, included with your subscription. Every workout scales to your FTP, and you ride it on a real road you choose: a climb in the Alps, a coastal road, a valley you've always wanted to see.

• 18 plans across six goals: Getting Started, General Fitness, Build FTP, Climbing, Endurance / Gran Fondo and Race & Event Prep. Pick your training days and your sessions are scheduled for you.
• 80+ workouts, each with a power profile. Your own .zwo, .erg and .mrc files appear alongside them.
• Workout first: pick a workout, then click Choose a Ride. The Rides list opens and the workout goes with whichever road you select.
• Fits real life: skip a session, bring it back with Unskip, or mark it Done outdoors if you rode it outside.
• Same plan everywhere: start it on the website tonight, ride today's session in the app tomorrow. Browse the training plans

🏅 Home, Rings and rider levels

BigRingVR opens on Home: today's training session, your scheduled rides, top-rated rides you haven't ridden yet, your challenges and your recent rides, all in one place.

• Rings: every ride earns Rings for the distance and the climbing, so a mountain day counts as much as a long flat one.
• Rider level: your Rings build your rider level, from Grey to Legend with five stars along the way, and beyond Legend: Immortal, Transcendent and Eternal.
• Explorer: on Home, see how many of our 870+ rides you've completed. Your Rings and level also show on your Strava activities.

🔗 Ride Queues

Line up several rides and ride them back to back. BigRingVR moves on the moment you cross each finish line. Every ride saves as its own activity, the parts of a long route can arrive in Strava as one, and you can press T to switch between this ride's figures and the whole queue's totals.

🎬 Smooth 4K, and a ride screen your way

• Video on your graphics card: even 4K plays smoothly on long rides while your computer stays cool and quiet.
• Map: it turns with you, in three sizes (press Z).
• Your ride data: three looks, Modern, Classic and Daylight. Press O to show the data over the video or below it.
• Live ranking: the time gap to every rider.
• Laps: press Space to mark a lap and L to see its details.
• Pedal balance: using a dual-sided power meter? Your left/right balance shows live next to your power, and in the ride summary.

📊 A detailed ride summary

Distance, time, speed, elevation and power, plus Normalized Power, Intensity Factor, TSS and calories, a peak-power chart from 5 seconds to 20 minutes, time in each power zone, your leaderboard place, personal bests and your Rings. Press Enter or S to save.

🗺️ Find your next ride

• List or map: browse as a list or on a map, with every ride as a pin at its start. Filter by country, distance, climbing, Downloaded only or Live riders only.
• ★ and 🔔: favourite or schedule any ride in one click. Your favourite and scheduled rides appear on Home and on the website too.

🏆 Challenges, right in the app

Every BigRingVR challenge has its own place in the app, one click away in the left bar.

• Live, upcoming and past: every challenge at a glance, with your own progress and the days left.
• A page for each challenge: its rides, total distance and climbing, dates and difficulty. Every ride you've completed turns green, and the Ride it button starts the next one.
• Leaderboards: Fastest and Distance, with medals for the top three and your own position.
• On Home too: your live challenges sit on Home with their progress bars, and you can even make Challenges your start screen (Settings → General → Start screen).

See this year's challenges on the website.

📤 Your rides, wherever you want them

Connect Strava, TrainingPeaks or intervals.icu once and your rides upload automatically. Rides save as FIT files: far smaller than TCX, with heart-rate variability and left/right pedal balance when your sensors record them. Prefer TCX? You can save both formats.

⚙️ A faster, friendlier app

• Fast: opens in a second or two, native on Apple Silicon Macs and Snapdragon Windows laptops.
• Faster downloads: ride downloads are up to four times faster, and rides you've ridden before start almost instantly.
• Everything in one window: a guided first-run setup, Settings inside the app, and a left bar for Home, Rides, Training and Challenges.
• Six languages: English, Deutsch, Nederlands, Français, Español and Italiano.
• Nine themes, light and dark, including Trailblazer, the classic lime-on-charcoal BigRingVR look.
• Always up to date: new versions arrive inside the app, and changing your download location moves your downloaded rides with it.

🌐 A new website to match

Your Dashboard, a training calendar, richer activity pages and a story for every ride. In the app, the On the website button takes you straight to that ride's page.

⬆️ Updating

• Already on BigRingVR 8? You'll get this build automatically; just accept the in-app update prompt.
• Coming from BigRingVR 7? On Windows, uninstall 7 first (Settings → Apps → BigRingVR → Uninstall), then run the installer. If Windows SmartScreen shows an "unrecognized app" notice, click More info → Run anyway. On a Mac, drag BigRingVR into Applications and choose "Replace". Sign in with your Google account; your account and settings carry over automatically.

Download: Windows · Mac (Intel and Apple Silicon)

System requirements: Windows 10/11 (64-bit), including Snapdragon/ARM laptops, and macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. The Mac build is universal, native on Apple Silicon (M-series) and Intel Macs.

Keep telling us how it rides

If anything looks wrong, go to Settings → General → Upload Logs to Support right after the ride. The logs tell us more than any description can.

This is only the start. There's much more to come. Enjoy the ride!