Talk to me about Zwift.....

[anonymous-user]

bagusbagus said:

I mean for £13 you can already purchase some 2nd hand bicycle on fleabay and go out and enjoy yourself.
To pay £13/month to sit in front of a screen and play a video game while exhausting yourself... WHAT THE FLYING FUK!

£13, who really notices that, as for a serviceable bike for £13, whatever floats your boat but you're likely to have to spend a lot more than that, £200-300 or so, even then it's pot luck. Best I managed was an old Specialized for £100 that needed a BB, tyres, chain and cassette.

[anonymous-user]

bagusbagus said:

Gets a 6k bike, rides it inside on a turbo.
WTFFFFFFFFFFFF DUDE...

Few years down the line you will look back and think the same - wtf was i thinking...

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 5th November 16:55

You're wrong.

Zwift is brilliant in the winter and the turbo is really useful for training. When it's raining etc into the garage, join a group ride and when you're done no cleaning up, no faffing about. Last night I joined a 45 min interval group, I wouldn't have bothered but it pushed me along with the others there. I have done the whole, '10K miles a year in all weathers thing' and tbh, I hate the cold, can't stand cleaning the bike (even though I have to) and get really fed up with the amount of dhead drivers trying to change the shape of my bike.

Also, I have ridden pretty much every road locally, I get really bored of the same stuff. Intervals on the turbo have always been a very good tool for increasing power and when you have been injured, or are recovering from one, I'd say there is little better.

So, park all the silly comments about turbo training and the value of bikes. I bet you spend more that £13 on an average night out and probably twice that figure a month on bike related kit when you average the yearly spend. If you don't like the fact that some people decide to train indoors on their £6K bike bear in mind that not everyone has the same disposable income or priorities, the last place I would expect a fall out is in Pedal Powered, leave that to the knobheads moaning about 'cyclists' in GG.

[E65Ross]

yonex said:

bagusbagus said:

Gets a 6k bike, rides it inside on a turbo.
WTFFFFFFFFFFFF DUDE...

Few years down the line you will look back and think the same - wtf was i thinking...

Edited by bagusbagus on Monday 5th November 16:55

You're wrong.

Zwift is brilliant in the winter and the turbo is really useful for training. When it's raining etc into the garage, join a group ride and when you're done no cleaning up, no faffing about. Last night I joined a 45 min interval group, I wouldn't have bothered but it pushed me along with the others there. I have done the whole, '10K miles a year in all weathers thing' and tbh, I hate the cold, can't stand cleaning the bike (even though I have to) and get really fed up with the amount of dhead drivers trying to change the shape of my bike.

Also, I have ridden pretty much every road locally, I get really bored of the same stuff. Intervals on the turbo have always been a very good tool for increasing power and when you have been injured, or are recovering from one, I'd say there is little better.

So, park all the silly comments about turbo training and the value of bikes. I bet you spend more that £13 on an average night out and probably twice that figure a month on bike related kit when you average the yearly spend. If you don't like the fact that some people decide to train indoors on their £6K bike bear in mind that not everyone has the same disposable income or priorities, the last place I would expect a fall out is in Pedal Powered, leave that to the knobheads moaning about 'cyclists' in GG.

Exactly. I bought my Wahoo Kickr over 3 years ago, so does that classify as "a few years down the line"? Either way....if it breaks, I won't hesitate to buy another.....

[johnwilliams77]

My garage is too far away from my house and I cannot easily get wifi. Does anyone know if zwift uses much data? Could I use data from my 4g or would it bust my allowance very quickly to utilize zwift?

[anonymous-user]

E65Ross said:

For a few years I've been consistently using trainer road and also the sufferfest, but when the weather is miserable and I want to do some form of longer ride (eg 2 hours so so) I don't always want to kill myself (sufferfest) or do really long tedious intervals like on trainer road.....so what's zwift like? Sometimes when riding outdoors I like to just do endurance/tempo stuff, other times I like to work hard up hills, for example. What can zwift offer me that the others don't?

I know people can "race" others online, but what about the days I just fancy going for "a ride"?

Already have a Kickr, power meter etc so I'm all kitted up

Thanks

If you have a power meter then just sign up for the trial and have a go. There are loads of new things since launch, I was one of the beta testers and it's amazing how it's grown. You can join plenty of sub 2w/kg group rides all the way up to hard training sessions. Drafting works really well and out of the group you have to push 20-30% IIRC to get back on, plenty of power ups along the way. You gain points for riding which get you different kit and bikes, it's a bit cheesy but it's ok. Zwift has a facility to build custom rides or just ride on your own, then tag along with a few others, the same as the road. As an example there were 100 in the group last night and it stayed together until just about the end with various intervals, most have a chat feature so there's plenty of banter. That's the USP, you are riding with 'real' people not AI. On a massive screen, with the view set to the handlebars it's quite freaky how your brain works I have been through the Sufferfest and used it with TR, all good but Zwift is another level.

https://zwift.com/events/

If you want to race you have lower levels to begin from, it's all very simple to set up. Definitely give it a go and let us know how you get on.

[E65Ross]

johnwilliams77 said:

My garage is too far away from my house and I cannot easily get wifi. Does anyone know if zwift uses much data? Could I use data from my 4g or would it bust my allowance very quickly to utilize zwift?

I'm assuming your garage has a power supply? If so, get a powerline. I actually have one spare (ethernet though, not wireless....so it's a plug that connects from your router to the plug via an ethernet cable, and another plug in your garage which connects to your laptop/pc or whatever via an ethernet cable) which you can have cheap (£10 + postage). If you specifically want wifi, you can get them off Amazon relatively cheap.

[johnwilliams77]

E65Ross said:

I'm assuming your garage has a power supply? If so, get a powerline. I actually have one spare (ethernet though, not wireless....so it's a plug that connects from your router to the plug via an ethernet cable, and another plug in your garage which connects to your laptop/pc or whatever via an ethernet cable) which you can have cheap (£10 + postage). If you specifically want wifi, you can get them off Amazon relatively cheap.

Yes, it has power. Thanks for the offer. But it is too far away from the house for a cable. I would need to buy a mobile router and data plan to run it from the power supply, that could get quite expensive.

[E65Ross]

johnwilliams77 said:

E65Ross said:

I'm assuming your garage has a power supply? If so, get a powerline. I actually have one spare (ethernet though, not wireless....so it's a plug that connects from your router to the plug via an ethernet cable, and another plug in your garage which connects to your laptop/pc or whatever via an ethernet cable) which you can have cheap (£10 + postage). If you specifically want wifi, you can get them off Amazon relatively cheap.

Yes, it has power. Thanks for the offer. But it is too far away from the house for a cable. I would need to buy a mobile router and data plan to run it from the power supply, that could get quite expensive.

You don't need a cable, that's the beauty of powerline. It is 2 plug sockets.....1 plugs in nearby the router with a cable FROM the router into it. The 2nd powerline plug plugs into your garage somewhere and a cable FROM that plug into your laptop. It, somehow, sends the internet data via the electrics in the house.

[johnwilliams77]

E65Ross said:

You don't need a cable, that's the beauty of powerline. It is 2 plug sockets.....1 plugs in nearby the router with a cable FROM the router into it. The 2nd powerline plug plugs into your garage somewhere and a cable FROM that plug into your laptop. It, somehow, sends the internet data via the electrics in the house.

I think 0.5 mile might be stretching it

[E65Ross]

johnwilliams77 said:

E65Ross said:

You don't need a cable, that's the beauty of powerline. It is 2 plug sockets.....1 plugs in nearby the router with a cable FROM the router into it. The 2nd powerline plug plugs into your garage somewhere and a cable FROM that plug into your laptop. It, somehow, sends the internet data via the electrics in the house.

I think 0.5 mile might be stretching it

Ah, right They usually have a max of about 1/4 mile I think. Sorry!

[Dannbodge]

You can get data only sim cards.
They are like £30 for 50gb data to use over a year.

Zwift doesn't use much iirc.

[Usget]

I've used Zwift for a couple of years now. I've probably done 50% more riding this year than I would otherwise have done. It's brilliant and well worth the money.

I personally get bored with the structured training plan type sessions, but I can go much harder if I'm chasing a personal best up the Watopia KOM than I could if I was just told "do 250w for 30 minutes".

In particular I like the social aspect of it. Me and some others from this forum have a Whatsapp chat going where we often (once a week or more) arrange to ride "together", which normally ends up like a real social ride - gentle for a while, then balls out attacks to annoy your mate.

£13 a month is a lot. But it's standing bravely between me and obesity, so it's a worthwhile investment for me.

[Mr Ted]

Usget said:

I've used Zwift for a couple of years now. I've probably done 50% more riding this year than I would otherwise have done. It's brilliant and well worth the money.

I personally get bored with the structured training plan type sessions, but I can go much harder if I'm chasing a personal best up the Watopia KOM than I could if I was just told "do 250w for 30 minutes".

In particular I like the social aspect of it. Me and some others from this forum have a Whatsapp chat going where we often (once a week or more) arrange to ride "together", which normally ends up like a real social ride - gentle for a while, then balls out attacks to annoy your mate.

£13 a month is a lot. But it's standing bravely between me and obesity, so it's a worthwhile investment for me.

I was an early adopter of Zwift and quickly found myself using Zwift rather than Trainer Road, I have even entered some races, something I would never do on the road! The experience with my Tacx Neo is so good I can easily spend a couple of hours on Zwift and never get bored.

I have noticed on Strava that there is a definite migration away from real road rides to virtual rides, it would be interesting to see some properly audited figures for the UK as there has been a noticeable drop in the number of roadies out for a ride in my area this year.

There are chat groups for Zwift on Teamspeak, does anyone use them?

[Daveyraveygravey]

Usget said:

...£13 a month is a lot. But it's standing bravely between me and obesity, so it's a worthwhile investment for me.

That's a fraction of gym membership though, and that really is boring!

[Usget]

Daveyraveygravey said:

Usget said:

...£13 a month is a lot. But it's standing bravely between me and obesity, so it's a worthwhile investment for me.

That's a fraction of gym membership though, and that really is boring!

It is a fraction of gym membership until you amortise the cost of the turbo, and then the better turbo you buy because the wheel-on turbo wasn't good enough, and the bigger screen, and the fan, and the dedicated turbo bike because you're worried about weakening your best bike, and and and...

But you're right, over as few as 15 years it's definitely cheaper!

[smn159]

OP is a troll, as a glance back through any number of his posts where he berates anyone buying stuff that he can't afford himself will confirm.

[E65Ross]

smn159 said:

OP is a troll, as a glance back through any number of his posts where he berates anyone buying stuff that he can't afford himself will confirm.

I'm sorry, but what on earth are you on about? Please could you show me some examples of that? If people can afford stuff I can't afford, that's absolutely fine by me, and can't think of any times I've said otherwise?

It's quite clear I'm just asking what zwift would offer me over some of the other indoor TT platforms out there

Edited by E65Ross on Wednesday 7th November 15:37

[smn159]

E65Ross said:

smn159 said:

OP is a troll, as a glance back through any number of his posts where he berates anyone buying stuff that he can't afford himself will confirm.

I'm sorry, but what on earth are you on about? Please could you show me some examples of that? If people can afford stuff I can't afford, that's absolutely fine by me, and can't think of any times I've said otherwise?

It's quite clear I'm just asking what zwift would offer me over some of the other indoor TT platforms out there

Edited by E65Ross on Wednesday 7th November 15:37

Yes, apologies, not you - the Bagus bloke I meant, assumed it was one of his whinging posts again

[E65Ross]

Oh yeah, that fits with his posts on this thread too

[E65Ross]

Just out of curiosity, when loading a route, is there a way to see the route profile before starting, or even during the ride?

Thanks