Originally Posted by
pennpaul
I am an absolute Zwift newb using a Zwift compatible dumb trainer. I, too, am a slow climber so the fast cadence I maintain throughout the whole 30min session in a high gear even on the 15% section in Yorkshire is totally counterintuitive to me. That's going to take some getting used to.
For those on smart trainers where the resistance is more like real life on hills, does it feel more natural?
Absolutely, more natural.
Set the trainer difficulty (realism) to 100% for the most real experience. The trainer will grind even the most capable cyclist to a halt if the wrong gear is selected on a steep incline.
If you are spinning a weirdly high cadence on a 15% grade, there is something wrong somewhere & that is why people (myself included) spend the big bucks on a smart trainer. The best ones simulate a 20% grade or more.
The trainer difficulty is effectively scaling the "game" grade down to some percentage to a "trainer" grade & then the game calculates your avatars progress in the game world accordingly. Which can be useful in cases where your real world bike has a 32 cassette, but the trainer has a 28 cassette, you can set the slider to 85-90% & have a reasonably close approximation to the gearing on your real world bike.
What this also means is: If you have it set to zero difficulty, (ie dumb trainer) you are effectively on flat land no matter what the game world shows & you can spin ridiculously fast on stupid steep grades. Realism=0 That's not necessarily a bad thing. It can be useful in it's own right if you'd like to do a climb, but don't have the strength or fitness, or a disability (hand cycle) or appropriate equipment (like a 14-23 cob) but have lots & lots of time to do it.