PeteHski

Using the Zwift climb portal on a dumb trainer is pretty meaningless. The whole point of interest of that feature is to simulate real world climb profiles. Riding a climb with variable resistance to simulate a dynamic slope profile is very different to simply riding a dumb trainer at different power levels. The best you could do with a dumb trainer to simulate the climb is manually change the trainer resistance to mimic the slope profile, but that would be pretty tedious. A Smart trainer does this automatically, hence why it is "Smart".

I rode the Col de la Madone climb on the Zwift climb portal the other day. It's quite different from riding say Alpe du Zwift as the slope profiles are very different. But my average power on both was about the same. A good Smart trainer simply brings these climbs to life and differentiates them according to their slope profiles.

MinnMan

"meaningless" is subjective. What has no meaning to you might not be experienced similarly by everybody else.

RChung

Good for you.

On the one hand, we do lots of worthwhile things in life that don't make us faster riders. On the other, most of the time most of those things aren't being sold on the promise that they will.

PeteHski

Well if you ride a climb on the Zwift Climb Portal and your trainer resistance remains the same regardless of the slope, then you are not experiencing any physical simulation of the climb profile. So the climb itself is pretty meaningless. It’s not as if the Climb Portal even provides scenery to look at. It is literally a colour-coded ramp based on slope gradient.

MinnMan

You are repeating yourself. Please go back and read my original post on the topic, You are a sensible person, and the particular situation I outlined (keeping up with a group that is doing a climb) is the relevant scenario,

Again, what is meaningless to you may not be to me. Flat declarations of this sort are beneath somebody of your intelligence.

PeteHski

In post #11 I was specifically referring to the Zwift Climb Portal feature, not group riding. I thought it was pretty obvious that this feature would only be of any relevance when using a Smart trainer. But clearly I was wrong!

hubcyclist

Having a dumb trainer does render any climb gradients irrelevant (perhaps a better term rather than meaningless) but I'm a fan of doing Alpe during intervals at a relatively fixed power. I actually did an Alpe race yesterday and didn't reduce the trainer difficulty like I tend to do and found myself kind of annoyed on the lower gradient sections because I had to do a lot of shifting (and I was trying to maintain a higher avg)

as for group rides, yeah you can definitely use a dumb trainer, it just takes anticipation on the user's part to know when to push higher power

PeteHski

Alpe du Zwift has lots of changes of gradient, ranging from pretty steep ramps to almost flat, which is what makes it interesting and challenging with a good Smart trainer set at 100% difficulty. On a dumb trainer it’s just the same as a flat road. Your avatar obviously moves up the mountain in accordance to your power and the slope gradient, but it still physically feels exactly like a flat road. That’s all I meant by saying that hill climbs on the Zwift Climb Portal are meaningless with a dumb trainer.

I actually really enjoy the Climb Portal. It’s the variety of iconic climbs and their unique slope profiles that is the sole point of this feature.

Of course you can race people up the Alpe on a dumb trainer, but it is not physically simulating the climb at all. I’m pretty sure I could beat my Alpe PR by reducing trainer difficulty to zero and just TT at my optimum cadence. It’s much harder when the slope resistance is constantly changing and your cadence is bogged down on the steepest ramps. Having ridden the Alpe IRL it certainly doesn’t feel anything like a flat road!

Jughed

My Zwift trainer is in shipping and will be at my house this week...

I get a year of Zwift for free - wasn't sure if I wanted to do Zwift or Rouvy, but since one is free, I will try both.

Do I have to build up to the climb portal, unlock it with achievements, or is it just there at the ready?

PeteHski

I think it is just there. But not sure as I'm on a high tier level in Zwift. Zwift Insider website will probably have the answer. The climbs available on the portal are rotated a bit like the Zwift worlds. You can access them directly from the start menu or from riding into a portal you might come across on one of the road courses.

Jughed

Thanks. I did some reading about the program, seems like you can turn on to the climb from any world on a free ride…

Now I just have to learn how to turn!

Im just starting a few months of base miles and I don’t climb in Z2 very well, so it will be a bit before I’m climbing.