Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

I did a ride on the London course last night intending to ride up Box Hill. For some reason, I didn't make the correct turn and ended up doing the long road to Tower Bridge (dull) and doing it backwards (Fox Hill). Then clicked the left button at bottom of decent to take me back into London and ended up going up Box Hill. So, unintended hill reps which worked out a bit of a killer but PB for Box Hill which leaves me slap bang mid table in the STW league. I agree, following someone up there really does give an incentive.

I suppose my question is, how the hell do I navigate without getting intimately familiar with the course and storing it to memory banks..? If ever single driving game on a computer has a little route map in the corner of the screen, why can't Zwift?

I'm dropping down the box hill ranking so fast my ears are popping.

Try a USB extention cable if you are getting ANT+ dropouts [url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-Male-Female-Extension-Cable/dp/B00NH11PEY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1484907017&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+extension ]amazon linky[/url]

I seem to be way off the pace on Box Hill, kinda mirrors IRL for me. Is it still London course tomorrow? If it is i might see if I can bring my time down a bit.

Performance on other segments (Zwift and real world) indicates you should be a bit quicker than me on that climb.

I'm probably not back Zwift until next week now - actually planning real world rides at the weekend if it's not to icy!

I suppose my question is, how the hell do I navigate without getting intimately familiar with the course and storing it to memory banks..? If ever single driving game on a computer has a little route map in the corner of the screen, why can't Zwift?

I haven't tried navigating yet - I just pick a route at the start that has the bits I want in it. Can you turn etc. from the Mobilelink app? I have that within reach when on the Turbo but not my laptop.

Try a USB extention cable if you are getting ANT+ dropouts amazon linky

Last night was the first time it happened to me but given where it happened (halfway up box hill) then spending a fiver to sort it out seems like a bargain!

weeksy - Member
Average HR 167 for me... MAx of 173 for it....

My absolute max is just under 180.... so should give you an idea of how hard i was trying.

Average of 287W with a max of 323w

how the hell do I navigate

My Flow Smart sounds like a bag of bones after 2 rides, I'll wait until it disintegrates across my garage. In the meantime I'll turn the music up !

Can you turn etc. from the Mobilelink app? I have that within reach when on the Turbo but not my laptop.

yes. on the controls page (swipe from the power stats page) when you approach a turn then you get a turn left or turn right button. you have to hold them for a bit sometimes to get it to register.

My Flow Smart sounds like a bag of bones after 2 rides

Same here, sounds awful, almost enough for me to want to go back to my old silent dumb trainer

I'm getting so much noise from the bike at the moment (the drivetrain is close to knackered so my weekend job is replacing most of it) that I can't hear if my Flow is making any funny noises!

I'm languishing in the basement of the Box Hill climb, at 12:something.

Might have to give it a full on beans effort tomorrow morning, see if i can at least get into the 10's. Bucket on standby.

{just checked - 12:08, I need to take 90s off that time to make even 3 places up. Gotta have a dream though.....}

i just picked the London loop from the drop down. Gives a few miles to warm up

That was my problem. I had a crisis of confidence about which to pick - couldn't remember. I now know the Loop includes Box Hill and the Classique doesn't. Fail to prepare....

I suppose my question is, how the hell do I navigate without getting intimately familiar with the course and storing it to memory banks..? If ever single driving game on a computer has a little route map in the corner of the screen, why can't Zwift?

Have a look at [url= http://zwifthacks.com/zwiftmap/ ]this[/url]

Performance on other segments (Zwift and real world) indicates you should be a bit quicker than me on that climb.

I'm probably not back Zwift until next week now - actually planning real world rides at the weekend if it's not to icy!

Some of those RW PBs might well be from a couple of years back!

I am pecilling in a 100km outside ride for next weekend, weather and life permitting.

There are some good PDF maps on the ZwiftBlog site. Print em out or download them to a tablet so they're handy for navigating until you learn what & where the turns are. Also shows the various loops/routes you can select.

7th place for me, I would like to improve but 7 minutes at 310w is my limit although that was set in September, am I any fitter now?

Probably doing the WBR ride at 09:00 tomorrow, I could try warming up on Box Hill for it but I don't think I can improve much.

Mossimus. Thanks for the ZwiftMap link. I'll give that a go tonight or tomorrow. 🙂

Grrrrrr!!! Complete fail today:

The Zwift launcher crashed every time after I logged in and selected "ride" (I even uninstalled and reinstalled it! and let it do an update that took ages!) 👿 👿

Then I decided to just ride on my Tacx Flow 2240 and listen to a podcast, but all of a sudden the trainer started making a huge racket (a kind of ratchety, clicking noise, no matter what speed/effort I used). I recalibrated it twice, but that made no difference.

Bad day or is my equipment all broken????

It must be a day for equipment failure. I managed to get TWO punctures this morning while trying to get a zwift ride in...grrrr

It must be a day for equipment failure. I managed to get TWO punctures this morning while trying to get a zwift ride in...grrrr

How on earth did you manage to get two punctures on the turbo trainer..?

I've had a puncture on Zwift, patched it. Got another 10 mins into it and the valve went. 😆

I've had a puncture on Zwift, patched it. Got another 10 mins into it and the valve went.

With your output you've probably overheated the tyre...

Anyone had issues on their T2240 Flow trainer not changing resistance whilst hooked up to Zwift running on an ipad? Re started trainer and ipad but it didn't work.

Trainer is only a month or so old.

I have to say, reading all these posts, the T2240 isn't looking to be quite the bargain we first thought is it ?

I managed to get TWO punctures this morning while trying to get a zwift ride in...grrrr

/pleased with direct drive trainer 🙂

weeksy - Member
I have to say, reading all these posts, the T2240 isn't looking to be quite the bargain we first thought is it ?

Quite! Worked great for the first month - didn't use it for a week and now the resistance isn't changing - strange really. At first I thought it was the fact I was using an iPad but I remembered that I'd done two rides on the iPad with no problems before.

Maybe it's time to go and get a replacement.

Quite! Worked great for the first month - didn't use it for a week and now the resistance isn't changing - strange really. At first I thought it was the fact I was using an iPad but I remembered that I'd done two rides on the iPad with no problems before.

Maybe it's time to go and get a replacement.

Might be worth checking to see whether you can change resistance using the Tacx app first. I've had a couple of rides where the resistance wasn't changing but I'm not convinced whether it was a Tacx issue or a Zwift one.

@epicsteve - can you do that on the Tacx Utility App? Is it the Testing Dashboard?

[quote=buenfoxa ]Anyone had issues on their T2240 Flow trainer not changing resistance whilst hooked up to Zwift running on an ipad? Re started trainer and ipad but it didn't work.
Trainer is only a month or so old.

is it paired as a power source or a controllable trainer.

mine appeared to forget the controllable trainer pairing last week but i was in the middle of a race before I realised. re-pair it and control came back.

is it paired as a power source or a controllable trainer.

mine appeared to forget the controllable trainer pairing last week but i was in the middle of a race before I realised. re-pair it and control came back.

Good shout - will take a look at that aswell.

I think Tacx's quality control isn't the best. Even the Neo at £1k isn't ultra reliable.

My Vortex took 2 boxes of vortex's before I managed to assemble a working unit, using parts from both. It's a bit creaky at the moment too.

Just realised I've made a stupid error. Zwift has been using the stages power meter for power and the vortex for cadence... Didn't realise the stages could also do cadence, hoping my power increases slightly now back to where it used to be. 😳

why would cadence reading affect the power reading?

I think Tacx's quality control isn't the best. Even the Neo at £1k isn't ultra reliable.

My Vortex took 2 boxes of vortex's before I managed to assemble a working unit, using parts from both. It's a bit creaky at the moment too.

I managed to track down the noise to the motor housing - it seems it's "split" ever so slightly; it was clipped together with some very small looking plastic ridges and only screwed together on one side. Nothing is broken, but the plastic ridges won't clip together completely any more.

I'm planning to take it back to Halfords and ask for a replacement - best to take everything and disassemble it I guess? Or leave assembled to demonstrate problem?

Very annoyed 👿

I guess because power is a function of both how hard you press the pedal but also how often.

(hyperbole) You might have the force of an bull but if you're only cranking twice a minute you still won't be travelling far.

If the cadence coming off the turbo isn't correct (and i don't know how it works it out, maybe by measuring subtle differences in the power stroke and converting that) then even if the torque measured on the crank is right the overall calc won't be right.

NB not an engineer hence may have misused some terms, but you know what i mean

Just realised I've made a stupid error. Zwift has been using the stages power meter for power and the vortex for cadence... Didn't realise the stages could also do cadence, hoping my power increases slightly now back to where it used to be.

The Stages will always be using its own cadence sensor combined with torque from its strain gauges to work out power. Having Zwift use a different cadence sensor makes no difference to the reported power.

thats what I thought, it'll just be the number that gets recorded in zwift/strava. power is power.

That's my thought process too! When I was pedaling last night my cadence was erratic even though I was at a consistent cadence, so clearly somethings going wrong now I'm not using the vortex for both measurements as it used to be consistent.

I haven't really read up on this so I'm a bit clueless/stabbing in the dark here. 😆

@epicsteve - can you do that on the Tacx Utility App? Is it the Testing Dashboard?

It's not in the utility app - it's in the Training app (not that I've used that yet!).

I've tried both my 4iiii power meter for power in Zwift and also the readings from the T2240 - they seem close enough that it doesn't matter which is used. I have Zwift getting cadence from the power meter though - mainly 'cause I can't quite get my head around how the T2240 would know that (although it does seem reasonably accurate at working it out). Even more confusingly I've also got a Garmin speed & cadence sensor on the bike however I've turned that off for the moment.

Cadence from the tacx is likely to be a bit erratic as it works it out from pulses in the pedal stroke. There's probably a fair bit of "smoothing" that goes on with the data.

Cadence- Get a Wahoo Ant+/blue tooth cadence sensor- attach to cranks- works well.

+1 for the Wahoo kit-had a Wahoo Kicker Snap/Cadence Sensor/Heart Rate monitor since Black Friday and approx 700KMs on Zwift has been faultless, just works every time and setup was easy.

Alp girl, my first one did the same but after 30 mins fiddling I did manage to get it to clip together. If you can't fix it I would package it up and take it back. Halfords should swap it without any drama.

I'm 52 out of 57 on Box Hill. I'm confident I can make it up to 50th 🙂

The t2240 is definitely built to a budget price but frankly for £190 before discounts it's had me riding exactly 992km more than I would have done without it. Better than a gym membership for me.

They all seem to have "the ratchety creak" after a while and that's probably the well-known issue with the plastic roller and metal sheath starting to separate. There are some posted fixes for out of warranty turbos or you could try to exchange, although I'd expect a replacement to do the same thing sooner rather than later.

like alpgirl and timidwheeler I was getting some *other* horrible noises from my t2240, which I discovered was due to the plastic body over the electromechanical section coming slightly askew and fouling a moving part. The plastic has a crappy twist-lock fit secured with a t20 torx self-tapping screw. I loosened that and was able to re-engage the twist-fit. That noise has gone now.

Tacx neo on order now though 😉

By the way, I think pulling the power cable out from the turbo can pull on the cover, potentially causing the cover to come out of alignment. I've taken to unplugging at the wall socket instead.

I hate the creaking noise of my T2440,it's not the low rpm roller issue though.
I've only had it a few days, does the creaking noise constitute a reason to reject it and get money back, would rather spend more on another

Mine doesn't creak. Are you using the QR that came with it?

I'd take it back

It's not supposed to creak so shouldn't be a problem to use it as a reason to return

I'm going to check it carefully again and it's going back if I can't stop it. I hate noises on bikes (or turbos )

like alpgirl and timidwheeler I was getting some *other* horrible noises from my t2240, which I discovered was due to the plastic body over the electromechanical section coming slightly askew and fouling a moving part. The plastic has a crappy twist-lock fit secured with a t20 torx self-tapping screw. I loosened that and was able to re-engage the twist-fit. That noise has gone now.

Hmmm, maybe I should try that first? a replacement will probably have the same problem soon 🙁 Time to invest in the next model up?

New PB up Box Hill. Frustrating close to getting under 9. Still, I feel pretty good about the improvement over the last 2months. More W, fewer kg (body weight down 15% (although that's since July), FTP up 25%). Weeksy, thank you for starting this thread it's made a huge difference 😀

Alpgirl I don't think you'll necessarily get that problem back, just don't yank the power cord out and it should stay in place. I think most of them develop the low speed creak sooner or later. I don't mind that though.

That was my goal this evening dc2.0. I managed 08.21- just pipping me old Zwift racing nemesis Jason 🙂

Don't know if it makes a difference but I leave mine permanently set up, in fact the bike hasn't been off it since I bought it back end of november.

Good work crosshair.

Got the thing with the serious lag between video and turbo control again tonight. Towards the end of the ride I timed it using the sleepers in the tube, was a good minute and a half lag. Annoyingly weird riding with it. I've only had it since the GCN meltdown. Anyone else had this?

Don't know if it makes a difference but I leave mine permanently set up, in fact the bike hasn't been off it since I bought it back end of november.

I had no lag this evening, but had it badly during the KISS TT/GCN meltdown on Wednesday and at various other times. I have however just switched today from Bluetooth (I have a mac, so can connect bluetooth directly and don't need to use mobile link) over to ANT+, so that might have made a difference but too early to tell.

mrblobby: have you looked at the log file in Zwiftilizer?
That may shed some light on any problems...

mrblobby: have you looked at the log file in Zwiftilizer?

I shall investigate!

over to ANT

I've been using bluetooth so far but might give ANT+ a go if it gets any worse. Weird thing is I've only had it happen twice (tonight and the night of the GCN ride) and both on the London course.

That was my goal this evening dc2.0. I managed 08.21- just pipping me old Zwift racing nemesis Jason

Good effort. I have managed to do 8:22 twice now, I might have to put a bit of effort in next time I ride up there.

I'm glad I sprinted at the end 😀

After a few months of trouble free operation my t2240 has got the click/grind. Still working perfectly - just had to crank the tunes a notch to drown it out. 1 year warranty is it?

Popped my zwift racing cherry this morning with a cat D Danish race or something. One lap of the London 8

Followed advice to be practically full on sprint out of the blocks and was briefly in the lead group, but that soon changed when I nearly blacked out and I gradually made my way back to mid pack where I stayed for the rest of the race. Had a good battle with a Malaysian lightweight lady and a well matched Austrian who I finally slayed on the nipple on the top of box hill (the bit where it goes back up to 10% and I nearly black out again)

Then on the downhill I'm full beans and the malaysian is doing 0w/kg in a tuck and staying with me. Is that her trainer, or is there a code to use or what?

Looked on ZP after and ended up 12/28*, with a 2.1W/kg average (203W / 160bpm - my max is about 170 so 'quite hard')

* Actually came 23/39, but 11 were DQ including some doing 3W/kg and more. Explains why keeping up with the lead group for the first bit nearly killed me. Why do folks enter lower cats; if people were taking this seriously** you don't really know who you're competing against which could affect tactics.

** I'm not, just did it to see how hard it would make me work. I'm still coughing now 90 mins later. Although I do see on message boards it REALLY pisses some people off!

Well done on the first race, it doesn't get any easier.

A few things affect the descent. If you are in a group, or even sat on someone's wheel you will descend quicker, so it is worth making the effort to get in a group before a long descent. This might mean a big effort to bridge a gap, or even easing off slightly to let a group catch you. In your case the lady behind was probably just slipstreaming you down the hill. The frame and wheels will have an impact on overall drag, so impact descending speed. And the tuck position seems to descend quicker, I think it is over 60kmph and 0w to trigger it.

On the London course always try to get in a group on the flats, and then 100% effort on the climbs.

Morning all.

I've been Zwifting on and off for over a year now and following a recent illness I'm giving it some more attention at the mo. There seem to be a few STW clubs on Zwift - which one are you guys on?

Just been for a trot round Laaandan - why's it always raining & foggy there (Brexit? 😉 )

Had something like my best shot at box hill, though trainer was at 100% "real" and I struggle to read the road in advance so I bog down / spin out every now & then. Can't imagine ever getting under 7 min like some of our faster brethren

Got a thumbs up from somebody just as I was finishing a "sprint" effort - I suspect they were laughing too hard & hit the keyboard by mistake 😳 . If it was a STWer, cheers - I aim to amuse !

Just been for a trot round Laaandan - why's it always raining & foggy there

Was a bit odd Zwifting in a wet London today and being able to look out the window and seeing a lovely sunny (if cold!) London outside.

Then on the downhill I'm full beans and the malaysian is doing 0w/kg in a tuck and staying with me. Is that her trainer, or is there a code to use or what?

If using a smart trainer just stop pedalling when going downhill and you'll do the same...

Just managed a 9:12 PB on Box hill, think if I want to break 9 minutes I will need to lose a bit of weight.

Just managed a 9:12 PB on Box hill, think if I want to break 9 minutes I will need to lose a bit of weight.

Well done! Can't see me threatening that anytime soon!

just checked my Box Hill time from this morning's race. 12:07 previous down to [drum roll].........

12:02.

FFS

Doesn't help that I was pretty much on the rivet all the way to Box Hill as well, might have to make a special trip in the week 😉

Doesn't help that I was pretty much on the rivet all the way to Box Hill as well, might have to make a special trip in the week

Given a 2 second improvement would get me 2 places I might do the same - cruise round to the bottom of the hill then go for it!

That was exactly what I did for my effort

Anyone else notice some Strava weirdness? I went up Box Hill yesterday, average time - nothing special, but never recorded a time on the main hill segments. And then today did 3 hours riding around London, and got 2nd overall on a 14 minute segment that only 24 had ever attemted, from the velodrome and one lap around Whitehall, Palace and the Strand.

If it was outdoor I would blame the trees affecting the GPS.

Were you taking random turns to make a combo segment few others use?

There seem to be a few STW clubs on Zwift - which one are you guys on?

STW Zwifters....

Then on the downhill I'm full beans and the malaysian is doing 0w/kg in a tuck and staying with me. Is that her trainer, or is there a code to use or what?

Stop pedalling. I can hit 75 kph down fox hill by rolling over the top and freewheeling down the other side.

[IMG] [/IMG]

Seems like scope for reverse weight doping!

Are you saying my bum looks big...