Talk to me about Zwift.....
Discussion
Usget said:
Lots of newbies since we've all been stuck indoors. I think it's great to see new people getting into it.
Back in the olden days, logging in and seeing 1000 people riding concurrently was a big deal - now it's well over 20k and climbing every day!
With my usual 15-20mile commute gone I set up an old Tacx T1901 electromagnetic trainer (although the web seems to not acknowledge its existence and refer to the T2020??) with Wahoo speed and cadence sensors.Back in the olden days, logging in and seeing 1000 people riding concurrently was a big deal - now it's well over 20k and climbing every day!
Seems pretty good at the mo, a nice change.
On the flat Zwift and the trainer agree on speed and watts, on any +/- slope though it will over/understate by a fair amount. From what I gather it seems to be how Zwift copes with dumb trainers, drops your reported speed on a climb for example.
jesusbuiltmycar said:
Gp Lama has made a couple of great videos on trainer difficulty:
Climbing:
Descending
He also has a video showing that the MTB is quicker than the Tron bike round the jungle loop!
Makes sense, the jungle loop is a lot of 'gravel' surface. On the tour of wattopia events everyone was put onto mountain bikesClimbing:
Descending
He also has a video showing that the MTB is quicker than the Tron bike round the jungle loop!
I've just started with Zwift, in the garage with an Elite Nero Smart Roller and my old single gear 'fixie'. Just staying upright was a challenge at first but I'm very comfortable now.
The default resistance with a single geared bike on the rollers is quite something, I'm pootling along on Zwift, apparently at around 100 watts and that's tough to sustain for 10 minutes for me. More effort gives me around 160w but I can't hold that for long.
I'm not in for the racing, just something to stare at and compare session to session, so I don't mind if it's way out as long as I'm getting fitter, would just like to cover a bit more ground for a change of scenery on a short session!
The default resistance with a single geared bike on the rollers is quite something, I'm pootling along on Zwift, apparently at around 100 watts and that's tough to sustain for 10 minutes for me. More effort gives me around 160w but I can't hold that for long.
I'm not in for the racing, just something to stare at and compare session to session, so I don't mind if it's way out as long as I'm getting fitter, would just like to cover a bit more ground for a change of scenery on a short session!
lampchair said:
On the flat Zwift and the trainer agree on speed and watts, on any +/- slope though it will over/understate by a fair amount. From what I gather it seems to be how Zwift copes with dumb trainers, drops your reported speed on a climb for example.
Yeah - your avatar's speed in Zwift is correlated to your w/kg rather than tightly coupled to your wheel speed. If you've got a dumb trainer, it has to estimate your watts based on the speed your wheel speed sensor is reporting versus the known resistance curve of your trainer. (To put that in simpler terms - Tacx will say "for someone to maintain 30kph on resistance setting 3 on our T1901 trainer, it will take 300W - for them to maintain 40kph on the same reistance setting will take 400W" and so on. Zwift takes this and turns it into a rough guesstimate of what power you should be doing for a given wheel speed).So, counter-intuitively, to maintain some speed up Zwift hills you need to change to a higher gear on the bike and pedal harder (putting out more power) - to simulate downhills, change to an easier gear (putting out less power).
Zwift should also tell you which magnetic resistance setting to use - if not, pick a middle-ish one and leave it there, and if it feels like your avatar is absolutely crawling along relative to the effort you're putting in, tweak it back a little bit.
Edited by Usget on Thursday 16th April 11:56
In anticipation of the lockdown I jumped in at the deep end and bought a Wahoo Kickr 18, Kickr Climb, Headwind, Merida Speeder 300, pedals, shoes ant+ dongle etc. Coming from a very amateur (twice, three times a year) mountain biker.. very much enjoying Zwift and my 'pain cave' - have spent 14 hours (251 miles, 10k feet of climbing) since getting set up on 30th March. Bit worrying that only equates to 18 pizza slices mind you!
Usget said:
Bloody hell, no messing about with that set up!! How do you find the Kickr Climb - is it fun? I'm considering investing in one...
I feel that it does add a certain realism to the outfit - I've had my Zwift difficulty set to 50% so far (Knees are sore enough as it is) & have only just today found a thread detailing how to get the Climb react as if you have difficulty at 100% - will be trying that tonight. So far for 10% gradients it's only been rising 5% - looking forward to getting the real thing without doing damage to the knees.Is it worth £500? Probably not..
Thanks for your responses. I got everything set up now and I programmed my 20km training loop into the simulator and the feel was very realistic. But... I learned I can't stop mid-ride to sing Happy Birthday with all the neighbours to the little girl opposite without losing all my hard-earned averages! The average speed dropped from 26.4kph to 20.1kph on Strava but not on Garmin Connect. I paused my Garmin but left Zwift running. Strava is fed from Garmin connect which is fed from a Garmin Edge. A little investigation required....
Zwift - I wished I discovered it earlier . Another Zwift newbie.....
My partner use to manage the social pages for the triathlon club I'm a member of and she knew all about Zwift years back but oddly I only discovered it a week ago. I've heard about it but never took any interest. I now know why it was her secrete . It's blooming addictive and I'm in the studio straight after work Zwifting.
Prior to lock down I use to do a spin class or two or sit on a Watt bike for an hour in the gym, bored or out on the road.
I also like to know what I'm doing, hr, watts, etc and the trouble with the spin studio, it's dark and you can't see the read out.
I've now discovered Zwift and get totally immersed in the Zwifting experience and what might have been a tedious workout on the Watt bike is now fun, involving .... time now literally flies.
I really don't get why some say Zwifting is poor training, isn't real training. For me spending an hour on Zwift is more beneficial then an hour on the bike outside. I can ride at a constant defined wattage, I don't need to slow down, watch out for traffic, potholes .
The question for me now is do I invest in a smart trainer, that's if I can find one for sale ?
My partner use to manage the social pages for the triathlon club I'm a member of and she knew all about Zwift years back but oddly I only discovered it a week ago. I've heard about it but never took any interest. I now know why it was her secrete . It's blooming addictive and I'm in the studio straight after work Zwifting.
Prior to lock down I use to do a spin class or two or sit on a Watt bike for an hour in the gym, bored or out on the road.
I also like to know what I'm doing, hr, watts, etc and the trouble with the spin studio, it's dark and you can't see the read out.
I've now discovered Zwift and get totally immersed in the Zwifting experience and what might have been a tedious workout on the Watt bike is now fun, involving .... time now literally flies.
I really don't get why some say Zwifting is poor training, isn't real training. For me spending an hour on Zwift is more beneficial then an hour on the bike outside. I can ride at a constant defined wattage, I don't need to slow down, watch out for traffic, potholes .
The question for me now is do I invest in a smart trainer, that's if I can find one for sale ?
Seventyseven7 said:
With no current equipment how much would it cost to get setup on Zwift?
Buying everything from actual online shops that is, not ‘you’ll get a bike for £50 off gumtree’
You'll need a bike, a trainer and something to run the app on. Depending on how you run the app and your trainer type you may need an ANT+ dongleBuying everything from actual online shops that is, not ‘you’ll get a bike for £50 off gumtree’
You can run the app on your phone, which I'm assuming that you already have, so a bike and a trainer.
Smart trainers aren't strictly necessary, but kind of defeat the object if you don't have one, so a smart trainer and a bike would seem to be the minimum.
Bike won't be an issue, smart trainer availability might be
This should tell you everything you need to know.
http://hub.chainreactioncycles.com/buying-guides/n...
http://hub.chainreactioncycles.com/buying-guides/n...
My main issue (having set this all up recently) is that text etc is incredibly small on Zwift, so using a phone is very challenging if you actually want to know what's going on.
Particuarly hard for me as I'm on rollers, so I'm moving around a fair bit compared to a trainer! I've been looking at gooseneck phone clamps to try and bring the phone across in front of me. I do have a laptop but a bit nervous about having £1500 of kit directly in front of me on rollers! I haven't come off yet, but sods law it'll be the day I'm using the laptop.
Particuarly hard for me as I'm on rollers, so I'm moving around a fair bit compared to a trainer! I've been looking at gooseneck phone clamps to try and bring the phone across in front of me. I do have a laptop but a bit nervous about having £1500 of kit directly in front of me on rollers! I haven't come off yet, but sods law it'll be the day I'm using the laptop.
Seventyseven7 said:
With no current equipment how much would it cost to get setup on Zwift?
Buying everything from actual online shops that is, not ‘you’ll get a bike for £50 off gumtree’
There are much (much!) cheaper ways to do it, but I went for the 'buy everything from online shops' option just before lockdown.Buying everything from actual online shops that is, not ‘you’ll get a bike for £50 off gumtree’
Wahoo Kickr 18 - £999.99
Wahoo Kickr Climb - £499.99
Wahoo Headwind Fan - £199.99
Wahoo Kickr Floor mat - £69.99
Merida Speeder 300 Hybrid bike - £575.00
Ant+ dongle - £29.99
Shimano SPD pedals - £33.99
Shoes for me - £54.95
Shoes for the better half - £54.00
Cleats - £9.99
Zwift subscription - £12.99 (PCM)
Bottle cage * 2 - £30.48
Water bottle * 3 - £24.98
Quad Lock phone mount - £82.90
Cycling shorts - £ 42.74
Total - £2721.97
Ouch!!
ukaskew said:
My main issue (having set this all up recently) is that text etc is incredibly small on Zwift, so using a phone is very challenging if you actually want to know what's going on.
Particuarly hard for me as I'm on rollers, so I'm moving around a fair bit compared to a trainer! I've been looking at gooseneck phone clamps to try and bring the phone across in front of me. I do have a laptop but a bit nervous about having £1500 of kit directly in front of me on rollers! I haven't come off yet, but sods law it'll be the day I'm using the laptop.
A bit pricey but the Quad Lock 'Out Front Pro' is pretty nice - no complaints with mine.Particuarly hard for me as I'm on rollers, so I'm moving around a fair bit compared to a trainer! I've been looking at gooseneck phone clamps to try and bring the phone across in front of me. I do have a laptop but a bit nervous about having £1500 of kit directly in front of me on rollers! I haven't come off yet, but sods law it'll be the day I'm using the laptop.
https://www.quadlockcase.co.uk/collections/shop-mo...
Comacchio said:
Seventyseven7 said:
With no current equipment how much would it cost to get setup on Zwift?
Buying everything from actual online shops that is, not ‘you’ll get a bike for £50 off gumtree’
There are much (much!) cheaper ways to do it, but I went for the 'buy everything from online shops' option just before lockdown.Buying everything from actual online shops that is, not ‘you’ll get a bike for £50 off gumtree’
Wahoo Kickr 18 - £999.99
Wahoo Kickr Climb - £499.99
Wahoo Headwind Fan - £199.99
Wahoo Kickr Floor mat - £69.99
Merida Speeder 300 Hybrid bike - £575.00
Ant+ dongle - £29.99
Shimano SPD pedals - £33.99
Shoes for me - £54.95
Shoes for the better half - £54.00
Cleats - £9.99
Zwift subscription - £12.99 (PCM)
Bottle cage * 2 - £30.48
Water bottle * 3 - £24.98
Quad Lock phone mount - £82.90
Cycling shorts - £ 42.74
Total - £2721.97
Ouch!!
Admittedly I already have Bike, kit, clothing et al, and a decent fan, so all it cost me was a smart trainer at £499 and £ 13 pm for zwift.
Edited by ian in lancs on Friday 17th April 12:29
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