Originally Posted by
DrIsotope
Always remember: Zwift is a video game, and should be treated as a video game. I've been chugging around the Volcano at 220-230W, barely making ~22mph solo, when a guy on a paperboy bike (you know, the flatbar with the fenders and racks) blows by me like I'm not moving. Because that guy is 5 foot nothing and weighs 100lbs, with an FTP of 100W-- well, at least in the game he is. I foolishly put in my real numbers-- and never rode in a group-- so I never got those 30-mile rides at a 26mph average.
If you're in there for a less boring workout, it doesn't matter. If you're in there to blow past people like they're not moving, start messing with the numbers.
Indeed, it is Not Real, but the effort you put in is real, so it's a good thing. There are no shortage of people who get ALL worked up about weight "doping" etc, which is funny in its own right.
The "paperboy bikes" are actually buffalo bikes, like the kind they fundraise to send down to africa. I guess they had a thing a few years ago, before I joined - if you donate X ($25?) to world bicycle relief, they gave you one of those virtual bikes, and it's actually one of the faster bikes in the game.
I was world-hacked over to the volcano one day and riding around all by myself. I think there were maybe 5 people there that day, but one of them was doing a steady 4.5 w/kg for > 100 miles. I mean, it never wavered for as long as he was near enough to me to show up on the list of people near me. Yeah, I can't do that. He probably can't either.