Zwift

[anonymous-user]

It is all about watts

What W/kg were you putting out on that climb for example?

Usually the conversion from W/kg to virtual road speed is pretty reasonable I find

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You can see the schedule of worlds on various websites. I like www.whatsonzwift.com and www.zwiftinsider.com but there are plenty of others

Three sisters is a Watopia route https://zwiftinsider.com/three-sisters/

Watopia is the world from Friday at 04:01 am

[oddball1313]

This is what I don’t get I’m averaging around 180 watts and just over 200 on a climb putting a bit of extra effort in. I get some will be faster and some slower at this but literally 99% of other riders are going faster than me and my climbing speed is ste

[moonigan]

oddball1313 said:

This is what I don’t get I’m averaging around 180 watts and just over 200 on a climb putting a bit of extra effort in. I get some will be faster and some slower at this but literally 99% of other riders are going faster than me and my climbing speed is ste

How heavy are you or more importantly what weight have you entered for your weight in your Zwift profile?

If you are 80KG then 200W is 2.5 watts per kilo whereas if you were 60KG your watts per kilo would be 3.3 and if you were 100KG this would be 2 watts per kilo.

The watts per kilo number is what determines how fast you go in the virtual world regardless of how fast you are pedalling on the trainer.

[oddball1313]

Definitely 80kg and thats what i have set in the zwift app -just seems odd that other people I know when see their uploaded rides are doing faster speeds at much lower average power and although i dont know for sure but id guess most are a touch over 80kg

I’m pretty honest with myself on my cycling ability, i’m pretty mid table on all the Strava segments so just seems odd to be at the bottom of almost every Zwift segment i’m riding, I cant help feel something isn’t quite right.

[simonF10]

oddball1313 said:

Definitely 80kg and thats what i have set in the zwift app -just seems odd that other people I know when see their uploaded rides are doing faster speeds at much lower average power and although i dont know for sure but id guess most are a touch over 80kg

Are they cycling in a group though? Drafting plays a big part in zwift. It could explain the lower power but faster speed.

[Usget]

If you're seeing 200W and you think you're putting out 200W then there's no calibration issue. Evidence of a calibration issue would be:

- You are seeing a high wattage for the effort you are putting in.
- You are seeing a low wattage for the effort you are putting in.

In the first case, this is down to the model-based "virtual" power meters on some smart trainers being a little optimistic. Especially those of an Italian persuasion. There are some support threads on how to correct this.
In the second case, it's possible that Zwift is throttling your trainer. There are a few threads out there about some trainers' reported power having a reduction factor applied to it. Alternatively, you could have a dirty drivetrain or a faulty turbo.

But unfortunately, if you think you're seeing the right power output, then your avatar is going the right speed. I'd say that most people put in 2.5-ish w/kg on the flat, then have a bit more of a dig uphill - this might be why they appear to be flying past you.

[anonymous-user]

Look at the W/kg of those passing you - it is displayed in the panel on the right hand side of the screen

If you know some of those cyclists and can ride with them in real life, yet on Zwift they are riding at much higher W/kg than you, then, presuming they are using a smart trainer and not Z power, you might be right to suspect they are gaming it a bit.

Something to talk about on the next club run if nothing else!

[CAH706]

Subject to the courier turning up, I should get my trainer tomorrow and will hopefully be zwifting by the end of the day.

Couldn't justify a massive spend so gone for an elite qubo digital smart turbo which will do what i want....which is basically replace my exercise bike with something more fun.

I can leave my share bike set up on it so that will save set up time.

Any tips for setting zwifting up with the trainer and an iPad?

PS I did buy a bluetooth thingy to use with the laptop but ideally would like to use with my iPad pro as that's big enough and more portable.

[anonymous-user]

I use zwift with iPad Pro. Bluetooth to wahoo kick snap and wahoo cadence sensor

There is a bug which means turning the iPad off / on before zwifting avoids some instances of riding alone on screen

But the set up through Bluetooth is easy and quick

An hour uses the best part of 20% battery on my 12.9

[CAH706]

Thanks jpjpjp

[CAH706]

Sorry in advance for all the questions

Good news in that turbo arrived and set up easily with the IPad. All worked really well on an hours test ride.

Few things confusing me that I’m sure are simple but not obvious to me!

1) the ride data in the Zwift app on the iPad shows distance and time but nothing else. How to I see the rest of the data? I can see if I log into Zwift it offers a download option but not sure where to download to etc

2) I seemed to be exceptionally slow. 14km in an hour ( there was a hill involved ). Whilst I’m not great on a bike and the bike on the trainer is average I can’t work out if there is a problem or I’m just cr@p! There does not appear to anywhere to check any settings as the IPad app just takes me to the rides.

Sorry for the dumb questions

[Usget]

From reading this thread it seems like your particular trainer needs some tweaking before outputting the right values to Zwift. Might explain why your avatar was so lazy.

https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/community/posts...

Edit - some more assistance here: http://athletictechreview.com/2017/01/14/elite-qub...

Elite don't like to make things easy for you, but it's worth persevering. An afternoon tweaking and I think you'll find yourself going at a more reasonable lick.

Edited by Usget on Wednesday 24th January 15:53

[CAH706]

Thanks. Really appreciate the help

[fiatpower]

I joined Zwift on Monday following the week long trial. I’m usually a runner but I’m training for a triathlon in June so got myself a road bike and a turbo trainer (Tacx flow) to get some winter training in.

First thing I did was to do an FTP test and got a score of 225 (height 180cm, weight 100kg). Not sure if this is a good score or not but will hopefully improve that over the next few weeks.
Tried a few of the different training programs out but not stuck rigidly to one as yet. Managed to lose 3 kgs in just over a week after rising a total of about 130 miles which I’m quite impressed by.

[miniwill58]

Those with a Tacx Flow or similar - are you calibrating your trainer before each ride?

I just got a Flow on eBay and I've done a couple of rides with it so far. First of all it seems the resistance on the wheel/trainer has to be quite high to be in the green zone of calibration and secondly, seems the trainer needs 10 minutes of riding before you can get a sensible and repeatable calibration.

If you're doing this every time, do you just spin on the turbo for 10 minutes to warm it up (and yourself I suppose...) before starting up Zwift and doing your chosen route/workout/race - or are you just getting straight on the trainer, in to Zwift and calibrate on route...or not at all?

[Sk00p]

I calibrated mine onto the green zone once. Now I get on a just ride it.

[miniwill58]

Sk00p said:

I calibrated mine onto the green zone once. Now I get on a just ride it.

Is that a Tacx Flow? Sorry, haven't scrolled back through to see if you've posted before.

I did that on my first ride, got it in to the middle of the green zone. Rode for ~5 minutes last night and did a calibration while still riding in Zwift, slightly further right on the green zone but thought it would be OK and rode on. Finished my ride and did another calibration and it was out of the green zone and "too loose"...

[Lord Pikey]

I calibrated my new tacx flow once when i set it up and have left it alone since.

I did find it very odd with the tacx calibration app. Depending on things that i never did pinpoint the calibration / slip indicator was either perfect or saying it was far to loose. I wondered how careful i have to be when stopping pedaling as to not put any movement at all into the trainer to give a false reading.

anyway, i signed up on Monday, did an ftp test and got a miserable 160! Onwards and upwards

[Sk00p]

miniwill58 said:

Sk00p said:

I calibrated mine onto the green zone once. Now I get on a just ride it.

Is that a Tacx Flow? Sorry, haven't scrolled back through to see if you've posted before.

I did that on my first ride, got it in to the middle of the green zone. Rode for ~5 minutes last night and did a calibration while still riding in Zwift, slightly further right on the green zone but thought it would be OK and rode on. Finished my ride and did another calibration and it was out of the green zone and "too loose"...

Yes mine's a flow.

I try not to worry about it too much.. I followed the Dan Lloyd workout "Race Winning" Tuesday. 30secs@415W, 3mins @290W, 10secs@415W, rest @140W for 5 mins and repeat.. 5 times! Last interval was proper tough to get through and the final sprint out of the saddle to make the power is about as close to chucking up on the bike as I've come. Figured it's probably working well enough for what I want

[upsidedownmark]

FWIW pretty much any wheel on trainer will get significantly 'looser' over the first 10 mins or so. Largely due to everything (inc your tyre in particular) warming up. If you calibrate cold, you're getting a lot more watts than you should. For any real accuracy, you should calibrate every time.. but it's a major hassle.