pennpaul

TLDR: I ride Rouvy and can't seem to find a place in the app to adjust my bike's weight. My regular ride (gravel bike) weighs 6lbs more than my road bike. I favor the gravel bike because it's more comfortable for my back and neck. Using this site, I calculated about 6W savings using the road bike not accounting for aero effect. If I subtract 6lbs from my rider weight in Rouvy, is that the same as being able to set a 6lb lighter bike? I don't have a concept of what 6W "feels" like, but I'd like to know how that would affect a ride in real life.

Extra info:
First off, thank goodness for these training apps like Zwift and Rouvy. Since moving down here almost 6 months ago, I've ridden less than 10 miles on the road because there are no shoulders and there's too much traffic unless you start early like we did yesterday--5:30 am.

Yesterday I did my first group ride which one other new guy called "Nascar" because we started with a 5-mile warm-up, climbed up a hill (where I got dropped), and then rode a 1-mile circuit 14 times. I finished about 1/2 lap behind the main group and was able to lap one other guy in the group in the circuit. My disadvantage is my weight (and it's not all muscle). I'm easily 25lbs more than the next guy (he lapped all of us) and probably 70lbs+ more than the rest of the group average so I'm putting out a lot of unnecessary watts just to finish where I did. While losing body fat is the overall goal, out of curiosity in the short term I'd like to see how much riding a lighter bike will affect my outcome.

I ride Rouvy so the plan is to import this route into their app and then play around with the weight settings to see how that affects the feel. I can't seem to find where to adjust my bike's weight. Is it the same to subtract 6lbs from my rider weight to account for the 6lb difference in my bikes' weights?

BTW, here is the real-world profile of our "Nascar" ride yesterday. It was that 1/2 mile stretch right before the 5 mile mark of 7-10% gradient where I got dropped. I've generally been a solo rider for the past 25 years, and I know I would not have done this pace without the motivation of having other riders out there so I'm glad I bit the bullet, swallowed my pride, and just took their invitation.

spelger

don't know much about rouvy but as i understand things bike weight really does not mean much on the flats (after the acceleration phase). a lighter bike will help on climbs and a heavier one on descents.

surak

Rouvy took out the ability to change bike weight a while back. Yes, changing your body weight should be equivalent in the app. Don't fake your weight in races or time trials if you don't want to be identified as a cheater and possibly banned. Trying out different values in training mode is fine since that won't affect course records, challenge completion, or career mode advancement.

Not that I think you'll learn much, basically going uphill the W/kg ratios needed to achieve the same speed are essentially the same as long as the entire system weight is the denominator. You can easily calculate that without having to do any simulated rides. Going downhill in Rouvy wouldn't be that helpful either. There is a massive advantage to being heavier up until reaching the max speed cap of 72 kph, such that someone 10 kg heavier freewheeling can easily distance a lighter rider putting out not-insignificant watts, which is much more extreme than outdoors.

unterhausen

Zwift penalizes you for more weight on flats. That's because they flunked high school physics, I think. I doubt anyone obsesses over Rouvy enough to measure this effect.