Originally Posted by
sanmateoclimber
I moved the "realism" of the resistance changes on hills from the default 50% to 100%. I can't understand why I wouldn't want the indoor experience to feel as much like the outdoor as possible. But I know a lot of people don't set that at 100%. Can someone explain the logic to me? It just seems like if I want to get better at transitioning from a flat surface to a 8% grade hill in real life, then the resistance of an 8% virtual hill on the trainer ought to be as comparable as possible; I totally don't understand the counterargument.
As jpescatore said, a reduced setting makes for a bit less shifting necessity. Also some areas of some Zwift courses are 15% gradients, which some people's trainer bikes aren't geared for. On that note, the difficulty % is really just emulating that your bike has lower available gearing than In Real Life. While you may not be able to spin at 90rpm on a 12% gradient on your real bike on a real hill, Zwift allows you to emulate this.