genejockey 

I thought about reducing the "Trainer Difficulty" setting to zero before doing the Zwift Academy Finish Line ride. The last climb - about 10 minutes of threshold+ - has a couple dips that make it hard to maintain a steady power output. But I didn't. I just shifted up and even so my output dropped 100 watts.

spelger

i seem to recall that when that setting is a 100% then climbs are as realistic as they will get, and if a 50% they are more like half the grade. does that mean at 0% the grade is flat?

sometimes i wish they had an amplify setting, like 150 or 200%. not sure how high i'd go but it would sure make things interesting.

genejockey 

Flat and unchanging. Your speed in game is still a function of your power output and the virtual gradient, of course, but for example if you were doing one of the climbs that has the negative gradient sections and you set trainer difficulty to zero, you'd be able to push the same power downhill as you were pushing uphill without changing gears.

But where's the fun in that?

Dunno. My Snap can't fake a gradient much over 12%, so for example on the Radio Tower climb, I don't feel any higher resistance when the gradient hits 16%, but I do go slower.

spelger

too bad, you are missing that little increase in gradient at the mid point. goes up to about 17% for a few meters. i can feel it but drop to a lower gear and seem to fly up at that point. i have the kicker which does a 20% grade.

genejockey 

When I bought the Snap, I had (and still have, come to think of it) a perfectly workable dumb trainer, so even getting the Snap was difficult to justify.

gthomson

Does anyone know when Zwift will start up the indoor riding season? I haven't been Zwifting a ton this fall but when I do, it's the same old rides they've had all summer. When do the Zwift Tours start up? How about the unofficial races or the cat and mouse rides?

Maybe they're focusing more on the Zwift Academy and the league races?

PeteHski

The default Zwift setting is 50% ie. half the actual grade. For racing it's definitely an advantage on undulating terrain, but I prefer 100% for a more realistic experience. It's really obvious when you are racing someone who has the trainer difficulty set low or using a dumb trainer. If you hit a hill you usually surge ahead of them as your power naturally kicks up in response to the trainer resistance. Then you have to pedal like crazy and crunch up through the gears to avoid getting dropped as you go over the top!

spelger

did another event last night, something easy. joined via the companion app 20 minutes prior. started riding and 6 minutes before the event still no join button in the game. had to use the companion app to unjoin then rejoin. immediately the join button in the game popped up. this is just buggy in my opinion. i doubt that this only happens to me.

as an aside, i did an easy recovery ride just to ride but be easy, only 1.3-1.7 w/kg. it is hard to be easy. the group split into two: fast riders and riders riding the advertised limit. it was so hard to not go fast. eventually i found myself in the middle with none of the draft and at times pushing 4.0 w/kg trying to catch the fast group. it is hard to be easy.

Thomas15

Interesting. Like others here I have participated in literally 100s of events (races, social rides, workouts) and never have a problem joining. I always sign up for an event on the companion app and have it running on the same wi-fi as my laptop while on the bike. I actually find the "join" event pop-up annoying because I get several prompts to join the events starting I think 30 minutes before the event starts.


Even with "easy" social rides I usually do a warm up of at least 10 minutes in-game. Sometimes it might take a minute or two to change worlds but it always gets me there. The last few weeks I have not been feeling well but on average I do 4 or 5 events per week. My set up is a Kinetic wheel-on smart trainer, Wahoo HRM, cadence sensor, Dell laptop windows 7, a no name dongle, companion app on an iPhone 6, apple music using blue tooth buds. The companion app and laptop are on the same wi-fi connection, my laptop also runs Discord. I have my Zwift account linked to STRAVA, Training Peaks and Zwift Power. The only complaint I have is I will sometimes get a dropout in the middle of an event, it will self-correct usually I lose about 10 seconds.


At the end of an social ride or event a screen will tell you your place in the event which is never right. If I get out in front of the fence, which I do a lot, i seem to get dinged because I can finish say 10th and the final results will show me 100. I don't really care though. Official race results on Zwift are posted on Zwift Power which is a good reason to link your account to it. If you are not linked to it I think it's as if you didn't do the event. I think some races require it.


A lot of people cheat in Zwift, that is just the way it is. Joining and linking to Zwift power will weed out some of the cheaters not all. I highly recommend that you link to Zwift power, it will tell you what class you are in. If you go by only your FTP you will get stomped. I think it takes your best 3 efforts in the last 90 days to calculate class. My FTP calculates to 3.3 W/kg but I legally ride in C and even there I'm generally in a semi-competitive race a middle of the pack finisher. If you haven't already been on Zwift Insider now is the time. Lots of information there as well as the Zwift users forum.

I do a lot of events run by The Herd. Overall a great bunch but the leaders will usually ride at the top of the advertised power. I have done so many of these rides I feel as if I personally know most of the regulars, leaders and sweepers. As an aside I follow 710 Zwifters and have 550 followers. This is good because I get a steady stream of ride-ons which helps boost my stock pile of drops. I currently have 7.6 million drops. I do very little zwifting in the summer so my level isn't very high (level 39) and I have more bikes and bric-a-brac than I need so the drops keep adding up for no real reason but I do get them. I have all the standard goodies, the Tron, lightweight millies, climbing frames galore and 7.6 million drops. Usually I sign up for an event a day before, if not at least an hour before.

PeteHski

I very occasionally get this issue too i.e. join an event on the Companion App, but no join button appears in the main game. But it's pretty rare for me and it hasn't happened for months. I find Zwift is generally rock solid for the most part. Dropouts during rides are extremely rare and the Companion App only very occasionally momentarily drops its connection with the main game (which is maybe what causes the occasional join issue too?).

Riding slow in Zwift requires considerable discipline! If I'm doing a Z1/2 ride I usually find a group event with the appropriate advertised pace and then stick like glue to the beacon rider, who will usually be pretty consistent. Totally ignore the inevitable breakaways, which are often fuelled by someone on an over-inflated zPower dumb trainer sitting on the front. Or alternatively I follow one of the pace-bots in Watopia.

himespau 

If I need to follow a set (low) pace, the pace partner bots are the only way I can do it. Group rides are too much of a grab bag. So often, the beacon gets excited and goes faster than advertised, or I get tempted to chase a group or something. The bots keep me right on plan.

Sy Reene

Was just experimenting with the pace partner bots. Seem to work ok. I might suggest that the algorithm changes a bit to even say add 10-20% or thereabouts to w/kg on uphills -- might be a bit more natural.

Are beacons in group rides calculated by the posted ride w/kg limit, or are they based on where the leader is? IOW, can a Zwift leader pass his own ride's beacon?

himespau 

It's my understanding that the beacon is the official ride leader. At least that's what I've seen in group rides, so it goes as fast as they go whether or not they're following the posted ride guidelines. That, plus ride leaders who feel the need to fill the middle of the screen with their inane chatter are reasons why I avoid them.

Sy Reene

Sorry, I was confusing myself.. I was thinking of the fences that are on some rides.

Anyway, if you prefer solo riding and a set pace, just create a custom workout, though I don't know if you can choose a world or course that it will run in.

PeteHski

Yes, you can select a world and course from the ones offered on rotation at the start of the game. Then select your custom workout and it will start on your selected course.

spelger

by editing the config file before starting zwift you can ride in any of the worlds. i don't see why this shouldn't work for custom workouts.

Bald Paul

Now that DST has ended and it's dark at our club usual evening ride start time (6PM), I started hosting meetup rides. You can set them up using the 'everyone stays together' option, so riders can pedal as hard or as easy as they want, and the group stays together on the virtual road. It's a great way for everyone from the A riders to the beginners to ride together (virtually) and socialize with group chat. On our last ride we had a group at 1.2 w/kg, and another at 3 w/kg, and everyone finished at the same time. I'm sure the 3 w/kg group got a much better workout, though!

Sy Reene

How does that work for speed? Which group or individual's calculated speed is reflected if you download the ride later? The fastest, the slowest, the average of the whole group?

PeteHski

I'm sure that would work, but I've never tried it. I just choose a course from the normal game menu.

himespau 

I had the impression it was some sort of average (or median) power that determined the speed. Slower riders were going faster than they would alone, but faster riders were going slower when I did it. As one of the faster riders on that particular group, it felt like I was wasting my power because I was much more conerned about xp/drops then than I am now where the workout is the main point for me because the xp levels are so far apart and there are only 2 things I want to buy and are a long time away.

PeteHski

That would make the most sense, so quite likely to be how it works.

himespau 

It's Zwift, so probably not.

Bald Paul

That's a good question! I'll have to ask some of the high w/kg and low w/kg riders to look at their data. I don't use Strava, but my Zwift rides do upload to Garmin Connect, which will show average speed and power output.

MinnMan

Back when I did cardio in a gym, I had earbuds that were designed for exercise. They weren't' so bad and I didn't destroy them. And of course outdoors I wear cycling sun glasses. But anything more cumbersome than those? No Thanks