himespau 

Did you do the everest challenge for 10,000 meters or the whole 50,000 meters?

billridesbikes

Once you climb the 50,000 meters and past the little spaceship in the Everest challenge you can go to 'Menu' and then to 'Garage' on the next screen. There you can choose the Zwift Concept (Tron) bike and equip your avatar with it.
I have to admit it felt better than winning a jersey or race in the game.

genejockey 

I'm pretty new to Zwift, so I'm still in the low hundred thousands of drops. Just for fun I got the Zwift Steel Bike and classic wheels, and even compared to the Zwift Carbon bike, it's slow. It doesn't make any difference, just riding around, but when I tried to better my time on one particular sprint, it really didn't help. I don't think I'll ride it when doing group rides or races, when I get around to those, but tooling around on my own? Why not? I mean, after all, IRL I've got two steel bikes with 32 spoke wheels and 2 carbon bikes with aero wheelsets, so why not do the same thing virtually?

spelger

i'll check again. i saw the Concept Bike announcement banner on a ride, the alpe if i recall too.

spelger

stayed there until about ~170K...

msu2001la

Do the different bikes really make a difference in the game?
I am new to Zwift, and accumulated enough drops to buy the DT Swiss wheels after my last ride. Just wondering if there's really any difference or if it's just all appearances? I've never tried the TT or MTB bikes, only the stock road bike (Zwift Carbon).

jadocs

If you climbed all 170k feet in the Everest challenge you should have gotten the bike. The 50,000 meters translates to 164,042 feet.

All the elevation you climbed previously does not get added to the Everest challenge. It has to be all done during the challenge.

spelger

only the first few hundred feet were not part of the challenge when i first started. the rest were all everest challenge. i saw the banner message telling me that i got the bike, i just cannot find it. no biggie really but it did take a long time to get there, would be kind of nice to show off from time to time.

-scott

spelger

supposedly they do but the differences are probably not much. i think for instance the time trial bike you cannot draft. in reality i think a rider on a TT bike can draft, not sure there are any physics that prevents that.

esarhaddon

The Tron bike is called the Zwift Concept Z1 in your garage.

spelger

thanks. was looking for something called the tron bike. i guess if i had selected it i owuld have noticed teh wheel color.

thanks again.

atwl77

Another 2,700m of climbing and I'll be getting that tron bike. I wished that Zwift offered more colour controls though. For one, the slider very primitive; secondly, some bike frames are just begging for dual colours.

gthomson

Funny, but I've never liked the concept/Tron bike. Reminds me of video games in the 80's maybe but I prefer earning the real bikes that I could never afford. There's a good video by Shane Miller (Lama guy) comparing the fastest bikes on Zwift and there are 2 real (relatively) bikes that are as fast or faster than the concept bike.

billridesbikes

Yeah, but then you have to use a disk wheel for a road race, which is even more unrealistic.

sarhog

Here’s a newer comparison of the Tron vs others... Zwift Insider article

gthomson

I wonder if they continue to update the performance of the Concept bike to match the performance of the real bikes? if so, then it would continue to improve along with the others.

billridesbikes

That’s a nice plot. I used the Cervelo P5 with the ENVE 3/4 wheel set as my Gran Fondo ‘all-rounder’ this year, but it looks like a lighter frame with more areò wheels might be slightly better for a 98km + 1250m of climbing course. Next month I’ll try the trusty old Tarmac Pro with ENVE 7/8, and who knows, maybe save 1-2sec on a 3hr ride!

ingo

I have 9 million drops but no performance left to buy. You need a climbing bike for big climbs - For me that's the Emonda and Lightweights. An all rounder for Fondo rides with big climbs - the Tron. A TT bike with disc wheel for time trials and non-draft races - Cervelo P5 with 808/disc. A mountain bike for the Jungle Loop - any one will do the differences are tiny. A fast bike for flat races and sprints- Cervelo S5 with disc. I bought the new Canyon Aeroad and then Zwift welded an anchor to it on an update to kill its performance. Only the Tron and Lightweight wheels can't be bought in the shop. Buy the Buffalo bike to ride on easy group rides. Your avatar sits upright so it is easy to see yourself and the bike looks like a tank.

Here is my tip of the day. I race the Three Sisters and Mountain route regularly. Switching to the TT bike with a disc at the top of the Tower will beat a small group of riders to the finish line downtown, even if you have to climb the Volcano. The races get broken up so much on the 25 minute climb that there are only groups of 3 or 4 together after the Tower. For the race to the finish line they cannot catch a solo rider after the descent. A solo rider on a TT bike will take 1:30 out of a solo rider on a road bike down the mountain and hold it to the finish line, groups will rest on the descent because they know it wastes effort to pull at over 60kph. So practice your bike swaps to get them done in under 10 seconds.

gthomson

ingo wow, I just discovered today after watching a video and now reading your post that you can swap out bikes during a ride! Guess I'm a slow learner but grateful for the information.

DCook87

I've been racing in the Zwift Racing League for much of the last three months so I have had need of the fastest frame + wheels available to me. On most courses that has meant the Specialized Venge S-Works with Zipp 808/Super-9 disc wheels. I don't yet have the XP points for the 858's. On the courses with a lot of elevation gain I used the Tron bike which is much lighter and almost as aerodynamic.

gthomson

Are you racing in a team? I've actually watched a few of those races live and they are very cool. How do you find those races? The competition is very tough with those speeds they go at! Would like to hear more.

himespau 

Go to the WTRL Zwift Racing League group on Facebook and post a link to your zwiftpower profile and what cat you are. You will need to have done at least 3 races in the last month to be eligible. There may be other requirements put out by whatever team you want to join.

himespau 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wtrlzwiftracingleague

DCook87

Yes, they are very tough. Unfortunately I have found myself in a team (Northern Rhinos) in the Americas East B1 division which is the highest division for B riders. I would be more at home in the B2 or B3 divisions. So the vast majority of riders in my races are screaming out the gates and I have to ride above threshold for 15 minutes just to keep up, and then usually limp home after the first big split. Also I would prefer longer races, at least an hour in length like a typical cyclocross race. These short races mean so much more time spent in VO2 and anaerobic zones. Another complaint would be the lack of TTT functionality. I can't believe Zwift haven't introduced any functionality for TTT's yet when they are clearly so popular.

I'm on the fence about whether to participate in the coming season two. If you are interested, as the above poster has mentioned, you can go to the WTRL Facebook page and declare your interest. Ride on

himespau 

Yeah, the TTT setup (having to run a timer and sit in the pairing screen or not pedal) is annoying. They're making only 3/8 of the races for season 2 TTTs, but not adding any other format (no crit or iTT, just scratch races for the other 5), which is a decsion I'm not a huge fan of. I liked that TTT and scratch races had the same weight.

Also a bit confusing that the season starts in 3 weeks and we don't know the rules (or how promotion/relegation is going to work). I was the captain of one of the 2 teams my club had in the D's but spent the last half the season on the other team. The team I raced with at the end of the season won the league, so I'm assuming that team will be promoted (I also catted up, so I need to race in the Cs regardless), but something like 10 of the 13 guys from our club who raced in Ds did at least one race with the team that won. Do we all have to get promoted (some of the guys who started on that team are happy staying as Ds forever so we rearranged the teams to give one a better chance at winning)? The guy who was nominally the captain of the winning team only raced with them the first race and is still a D. Can he race in the Ds or does he have to move up to the Cs with us? If we all have to move, we'll have to make 2 teams, one of which is sure to be relegated at the end of the season.

I sort of wish they'd do away with cats and use zwiftpower ranking points to determine where you should race at the start of each season and then let the chips fall where they may. The guy who raced with us who got the second most points for our team in scratch races is solidly a D by power, he's just an incredible drafter (I think he's the only one who has done a ton of outdoor racing) and is able to podium while being 0.2-0.3 W/kg lower than everyone else in the top 10. I need to figure out his tricks.

On the other hand, doing Bologna in the PL tomorrow for the WTRL TTT series. That's going to be...interesting. I did it in a race on Monday that was on pace to be challenging for the WTRL records for my division (the race skipped the last downhill back to the start), but trying to stay blobbed up going up that hill and not dropping the light folks going back down is going to be a challenge. Also, I spent a lot of the race Monday drafting behind folks who were faster than me. Will be expected to be one of the workhorses tomorrow. I'm definitely skipping next week's WTRL TTT as they go up the Alpe.