You can now pedal around GTA 5 using a real-life smart bike
Take a real ride through Los Santos
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A lot of mods have been released forGTA5 over the years, but few encourage you to exercise. GT Bike V does just that by enabling you to hook up a smart bike to your PC and pedal around the virtual streets of Los Santos. You can even cycle with friends in a new mode.
While players often useGTA 5 cheatsto augment their game, there’s a new option to augment your life. GT Bike V’s latest update introduces multiplayer to theGTA 5 mod(thanks,Rock Paper Shotgun). Get your buddies to connect theirsmart bikeor cycling power meter to a PC, and you’ll be able to ride around the game together. You can either casually roam the streets at your leisure, or join a dedicated Ride for a group cycle.
Right now, multiplayer interaction is pretty limited. You can send chat messages and see the list of players riding a course, but outside of that, group cycles are the main way of banding together with your friends. There are currently no missions or competitive races to complete, but theGT Bike V’s team saysthey plan to implement those features down the line.
The mod’s multiplayer mode doesn’t run usingGTA Online. That means you’ll have to boot up the game in story mode and your online account won’t be affected in any way. It also means the NPCs and weather conditions in your game are local, so don’t expect other players to see the same. It’s a little odd, but the mod’s team says it “doesn’t really [much impact] the experience, so don’t worry”.
Jumping into a multiplayer game sounds easy. You just need to boot up the game with the mod installed, log into your Rockstar Social Club account, and select “join multiplayer ride” in the menu. According to the mod’s description, you’ll be automatically loaded into whichever course has the highest number of players, and plonked next to another rider, so you’ll never start alone.
GT Bike V could even replace your regular workout. The mod records your cycling data into a FIT file that can be uploaded into training apps, such asStrava, to track your fitness. There are several courses to complete, each featuring different routes of varying difficulties, so you can create an entire cycling routine.
Don’t be thinking it’ll give you an easy time of it, though. The mod records the roughness of the ground you cycling across, the incline of the virtual terrain, and even the in-game wind direction, sending all that data to your smart bike so it can accurately reproduce the difficulty of your cycle.
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The mod even periodically captures screenshots of the game to make it that little bit more real.
You candownload GT Bike Vfor free. To get it up and running, though, you’ll need to have a PC copy of GTA 5, a smart bike or trainer that meets thecompatibility requirements, as well as an ANT+ PC dongle that allows your computer to communicate with the bike.
You can also connect a smart treadmill if you’d rather run around the streets of Los Santos than cycle.
Callum is TechRadar Gaming’s News Writer. You’ll find him whipping up stories about all the latest happenings in the gaming world, as well as penning the odd feature and review. Before coming to TechRadar, he wrote freelance for various sites, including Clash, The Telegraph, and Gamesindustry.biz, and worked as a Staff Writer at Wargamer. Strategy games and RPGs are his bread and butter, but he’ll eat anything that spins a captivating narrative. He also loves tabletop games, and will happily chew your ear off about TTRPGs and board games.
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