WhyFi

I've gotten to the point on Zwift where doing the Alpe isn't too bad (and I like that I can get off of the bike and stretch while coasting back down, still getting XP), but the one time that I did Ventoux was enough of that noise - too long of a grind that killed my ass.

genejockey 

What trainer difficulty setting did you use?

WhyFi

It's still on the default - is that 50%? Not planning on touching that with the 12-25t on the trainer.

Eric F 

I use 50%, too. I haven't seen a reason to change it. I think my range is 11-27.

phrantic09

I’d like to believe I could handle it. I’ve managed to stay upright through a lot of stuff, including clipping a pedal into the pavement at 30 going around a corner. Being in the pack makes me nervous though because I don’t trust other people.

phrantic09

same. I was doing 75 last year and it sucked.

phrantic09

I want to do a Zwift century this year. I’ll probably get up super early some Saturday and hang on to cadence for 4:15.

WhyFi

Yeah, as it is, stuff like Radio Tower is already putting me in the bailout - I'm not going to change the difficulty and buy a climbing cassette for the trainer - eff that. Having the option to pedal on downhills is nice, too. In general, I'll say that I find the undulating terrain on Zwift to be a bit obnoxious even at 50% - upping that certainly wouldn't help with immersion for me.

WhyFi

I'm mildly interested in doing this, but I'm not likely to do it until I finish climbing for the Tron... Which means that it might not happen before road season in the spring.

datlas 

Mine is on default too. I have my old school 6 speed 13-21 on the back. No wonder I ripped the rear wheel out of the dropouts on that effing radio tower climb!

genejockey 

I run 100% generally, but of course with the Snap gradients >12% only feel like 12%, even if I'm crawling up them.

I was running 50/34 x 12-25, with the Bianchi on the trainer, but I got really tired of shifting the FD so much, plus I really needed more than 34x25 sometimes, so I swapped the Bianchi for the Canyon, which had 52/36 x 11-34.

Eric F 

I've done the Radio Tower once. That was enough, thank you.

Eric F 

A century on Zwift? That's on my "nope" list.

big john

I've had pedal strikes on the road but was lucky to not go down. I was arcing through a turn at speed on the mountain bike with my right pedal down and all my weight on it and it hit a rock that I didn't see. It launched the back end of the bike into the air and I had what seemed like a long time to think about it before it touched down. Lucky again as the bike saved me. Turns out you can get pretty crossed up on a long travel sled and it will still be ok.

datlas 

Same. See above.

big john

What is the Radio Tower?

bampilot06

Brought my bontrager lights back to trek. Talked to the manager about how fast my headlight was dying and how my rear never showed fully charged so we switched them out.

I also bought the smaller day light. He threw in the blender mount for free. Plan is to only use the Ion pro for night conditions and use the smaller light during the day. On early morning rides i’ll mount the ion to my helmet and then switch it off once the sun comes up. Hopefully the plan will work as well as it does in my head. Both are capable of talking to my head unit but I may or may not use that feature. I don’t have all the options available to me as far as what the light can do when connected to the head unit. And the auto feature where it changes from headlight to flash doesnt work as well as I would like. Sometimes it starts flashing when I still need the headlight and other times it switches to headlight for no reason.

Stoked he was willing to switch it out.

Eric F 

Nervous is tense. Tense is over-reactive. Over-reactive is hazardous. Take a breath, relax your shoulders, be predictable, be smooth...and stay aware.

WhyFi

I'd like to cross most of the (non-absurd) routes of the list, and Radio Tower seems to make a number of appearances, so I've done it twice so far. Last time was kind of fun - with no lower gearing to fall back on, I just dug in. Ended up doing it in 6:32 @308w, which I was really happy with; I don't know that I could expect to do much better on the trainer.

WhyFi

A fake climb in the land of fake rides.

Eric F 

An offshoot loop off the Epic KOM climb in Zwift. It's stupid-steep.

genejockey 

This.

WhyFi

Jeez - you could have used some of that to come ride with bam and I. Then again, with bam's recent track record, maybe you're just keeping a proper safe distance.

genejockey 

Aw, c'mon! It never goes above 17%!

The funny thing is, with the Snap maxing out gradient imitation at 12%, it's like the inverse of the LeMond rule - it doesn't get any harder, you just go slower!

big john

So it's not based on an actual climb? What about Alpe du Zwift, is that based on the real Alpe?