MinnMan

https://www.velonews.com/gear/tech-w...rs-to-watopia/

Looks like they will be C-, D+, and.....F (?) powered.

I am a little surprised that one of them wasn't a new C+/B- option between Coco and Bowie. do they really need two new ones between C and D?

spelger

Agreed, c was too easy for me and I could only hang with b for the volcano. The descent killed me and I had to break off.

genejockey 

Also they're pulling pace bots from the Makuri Islands. That's too bad. Coco can be pretty boring tooling around the flats in Watopia, but the changing gradients in Makuri made it a lot more challenging.

Regarding their choice of power output - I'm thinking they are aiming at beginners.

billridesbikes

I lower the trainer difficulty to about 20% when I ride with pace partners for this very reason.

MinnMan

I can hang with Bowie for an hour on routes like Sand and Sequoias, but it takes effort for sure. OTOH, I like riding with Coco a lot. If I ride with the group, it's not "hard", but just a good tempo ride. And there are commonly grouplets that will ride off the front for a C+ ride, if that's what I want.

But I really would like a bot that was in between the two.

himespau 

They actually didn't pull them from Makuri and modified one of the Makuri bots to be 3.8 W/kg. Also added a 2.0 W/kg to Makuri and a 3.0 W/kg to Watopia.

gthomson

Wow, I just did my first ride with a pace bot and that was a lot of fun. Not sure why I took so long to try that out? old dog I guess. I have always liked the tour rides (Tour of Watopia, Tour of Zwift, etc...) but those are far and few between now. I used to like the races but the pace is just too much for me now and I go all out and then pay for it. This was perfect, choose a pace bot I can match, get to draft and ride with others - best of all worlds.

Are they on a schedule at all so you can time when to join or just pick a bot and jump right in? I like to have a bit of a warm up first before starting full out.

himespau 

Just pick one and jump in. You can also pick a lower one to warm up with, end that ride and then pick a faster one to jump in with. Or you can ride the route you know the one you want is on and hope its crew passes you when you're warmed up and ready for it (and end the ride and specifically join it for a new ride if it's not passing you soon). They tend to be running round the clock, though sometimes the crowds are bigger than others.

genejockey 

I was in the Makuri Islands last night, and encountered "Eddy Echelon", a pace partner running at 1w/kg. He had one follower. I haven't seen any mention of Eddy anywhere, and I thought Zwift was pulling the bots from Makuri?

himespau 

They seemed to have changed that plan after a lot of pushback from riders. Added a couple new pace partners there instead.

genejockey 

I couldn't slow down enough to stay with him. I mean, 1w/kg? That's deep, DEEP in Z1. Maybe he's the Recovery Bot.

himespau 

The guy in charge of the bot program decided he wanted to add bots at the most common free riding powers (hence the 1.3, 1.8, and 2.1 bots). I guess someone asked him for something super low and he decided to give it a try. I'm not sure I could stay that low. I have a hard time sometimes not going off the front of the original Dan Diesel at 1.5 (other times, he's just about right for a warm up). The 1.8 bot was a great warm up before a race last night.

gthomson

I was in Makuri Islands today a well and that's where I rode with pace bot. Don't remember her name but she was D classification so probably 1.8? A bit slow for me but it was just a short ride on my lunch break.