Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

Granted, but the fairly amateurish, haphazard manner in which Zwift has evolved - especially in which you have to faff about looking for results, tells me these are bike fans first and corporate men second. Without this Forum I wouldn't have discovered Zwift as soon or used it as I have. Their website as a first point of contact is poor.

Say a VC bought a stake in Zwift. They'd develop their own results system (which can't be that much of a job, surely?) rather than buy ZP, get runners or rowers on there, expand the number of courses and whack the price up. It's got a hell of a lot of potential in the right hands but I'm sure we'd lose something in that happening, even if it is only paying more money and having busier rides.

Wonder how far away the runners are from getting into production? I've seen a few out and about on the course and DC Rainmaker has beta tested it. It's not clear if they'll support ANT+ foot pods but even if I have to get a bluetooth one it'd not be expensive given I've got a decent treadmill already.

Still waiting for anything like some results from the 7.05pm BRS TT last night... I do wonder at times why i'm bothered or even expecting anything now... it's just rubbish...

the 'live' tells me where i was at the time i guess.. but really.. has to be better to be worthwhile from a results perspective.

It didn't change how hard i tried/rode of course 🙂

Say a VC bought a stake in Zwift.

Thought they already had, didn't they put in another £20 million at the end of last year?

Weeksy- the stock answer for that from race organisers (who are almost all unpaid volunteers/enthusiasts) is "feel free to organise your own series!!"

We should organise a STW MTBers race 🙂
(Kim Little would still win of course 🙁 )

Re BRS TT - Zwiftpower Live is broken at the moment - everything is being fed in manually by Rob via Strava. He's throwing in the towel on organising races - finding it too difficult to manage and please all.

I don't even think it needs a VC to be honest, I just think they need to hire a few coders for a few months.

Yes, people will argue about DQs but I'm sure just as many won't bother racing as it's broken, but get bored of just rolling around by themselves, so quit. DQs only really apply at the top anyway, if people are outside the bracket they need to go up a cat, looking at last nights KISS for example, only 20% of racers are in cat A.

If it was totally solid and offered all the metrics which Zwiftpower offered, showing my improvement over time, I'd be far more into the racing aspect.

We should organise a STW MTBers race

Yes indeed we should....

A flat one yeah 😉

[url= https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zwift#/entity ]https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zwift#/entity[/url]

Oof

Wow. Changes afoot then? I think their first question will be how they make Zwift less 'seasonal'. Sure, subs average out as its a global market but I'm sure I'm not alone in that I'll probably suspend my account April/May until winter. I can't see what they could do to get me on the turbo in August.

Wow. Changes afoot then? I think their first question will be how they make Zwift less 'seasonal'. Sure, subs average out as its a global market but I'm sure I'm not alone in that I'll probably suspend my account April/May until winter. I can't see what they could do to get me on the turbo in August.

There are a couple of things they can try - ramping up the racing side of things is one, and enhancing the training programmes is another. I'd tend to agree that in August I'll also mainly be riding outside however I can still see me using Zwift as a training tool.

One thing that is working well at the moment is my race starts:
[img] [/img]
Would be nice to be able to hold the lead for more than the first 10 feet though!

I can't see what they could do to get me on the turbo in August.

force you to have young kids that keep you in the house of an evening 😉

I think i'll keep mine going. Sometimes in an evening/day it's still not really viable to be heading out in the hills into the mud and slop, even in July.... This country can be wet anytime as we know... Also evenings when i'm at home with my nipper, can't just shoot out... but i can jump on the turbo...
Lastly, there the racing element... the ability to push harder when racing people...

there was a link to an interview that I posted the other day with Eric Min. it seems they (zwift) seem to have finally clocked the innate draw that racing has.

it's what strava worked out over all the myriad of fitness apps and propelled them to where they are now.

The thing is Jam Bo, in the open cat races, Zwift do give you a results screen. It's only the guys at KISS who have chosen to turn them off for their races as they were fed up with people noticing discrepancies.

If Strava could find a way around the clock time problem- they're best placed to solve the results conundrum really.

Still waiting on Zwiftpower for the results of last night's KISS race, mind you I certainly didn't trouble the top 50 or so, I think. I don't know whether it's because my legs were a bit tired from the previous night, or I switched to using the Stages instead of the Tacx for power metering, or I also forgot to calibrate the Stages before starting, or whether I'm just not very powerful.

I may give Friday night a go though, as Mrs. Pierre has just said she'd like to go out and meet an old friend for drinks - it's pretty sad that my first thought was "oh, that would give me a chance to go on Zwift!"

On the thing about what Zwift do with your money, I'd love them to expand the game side of it - they've got an engine for rendering a virtual world, but they've only got three maps, so the actual choice of ride is very limited and they've made them all as close to real-world riding as possible. I'd pay good money to be able to race around some of the courses in Mario Kart, for example, especially if there were Mario Kart style power-ups!

The thing is Jam Bo, in the open cat races, Zwift do give you a results screen. It's only the guys at KISS who have chosen to turn them off for their races as they were fed up with people noticing discrepancies.

The open cat race I just did have a results screen at the end - first time I've seen one on Zwift:
[img] [/img]

The thing is Jam Bo, in the open cat races, Zwift do give you a results screen. It's only the guys at KISS who have chosen to turn them off for their races as they were fed up with people noticing discrepancies.

BRS TT didn't have a finishing banner/text last night... If it had... i wouldn't be looking to see where i finished 🙂

Greater choice and easier to search workouts might mean I dropped my TrainerRoad sub and just used Zwift all year.

Rob Bolt must have got fed up with it and switched it off too then 🙂

It's because the ZP watchers are more accurate than the way Zwift calculates the finishing order...

They'd develop their own results system (which can't be that much of a job, surely?) rather than buy ZP, get runners or rowers on there, expand the number of courses and whack the price up. It's got a hell of a lot of potential in the right hands

A cynic might suggest that Zwift are happy to let ZP bust their balls trying to make it work in order to keep the interest in racing up, whilst planning/developing their own system. They surely must have cottoned on to how popular racing & the sort of stats/leagues etc that ZP makes possible are.

It's because the ZP watchers are more accurate than the way Zwift calculates the finishing order...

Greater choice and easier to search workouts might mean I dropped my TrainerRoad sub and just used Zwift all year.

epicsteve, you had a draft boost and didn't use it?! 😉

Greater choice and easier to search workouts might mean I dropped my TrainerRoad sub and just used Zwift all year.

http://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/

I can't see me renewing when my TR subscription comes to an end.

force you to have young kids that keep you in the house of an evening

Got enough already ta but you are right. Will need to purchase a bigger fan in the summer though. Racing would also keep you tied in, especially running series across a period of several weeks/months...

Thanks for the link @mrblobby

I'm going to have a go at SST tomorrow evening.

It's because the ZP watchers are more accurate than the way Zwift calculates the finishing order...

Zwift can be just as accurate as Zwiftpower if it likes, Zwiftpower is using third hand data from Zwift -> Strava -> ZP.

If anything it should be a lot more reliable as it doesn't have to cross reference data between two sources. What happens currently if someone digital epos the fit file from Zwift before uploading to Strava? It just seems an unnecessary extra step.

I'm not saying it needs to always give instant feedback, it's fine collating it later. It could offer a preliminary result, which is just how people cross the line if it likes. I'd just like to see my improvement via a vaguely reliable portal. Yesterdays races still haven't been sorted, for example.

ZP uses virtual 'watchers' out on course to log racers as they pass. It only uses Strava as verification AFAIK.

Oh....

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Gutted !

- by a second! Bad luck weeksy. Next time...

I hate it when you think you have a spot and then someone uploads their ride late 😉

Good ride though still....

I think it also shows something interesting .... Also a bit weird...

M Barber in 2nd went past me with <40m to the line....

As for the other bloke.... i don't recall seeing him either in front of or behind us.... at all....According to 'LIVE' button, he's 12s behind me....

Confused..

Bummer. Felt similar yesterday when I got pipped for a Cat-D win by someone who would have been competitive in Cat-C. In fact one of the Cat-C guys that got dropped by the guy in D got in touch to say I was robbed!

And I've just realised that playing with my Stages and doing a zero reset / calibration while holding it dangling in my hand before fitting it to the bike was a silly idea. I wonder what my actual power numbers were last night...?!

M Barber in 2nd went past me with <40m to the line....

As for the other bloke.... i don't recall seeing him either in front of or behind us.... at all....According to 'LIVE' button, he's 12s behind me....

Confused..

basically what you see on the screen is "local" to your computer, due to network issues/lag/etc and doesn't necessarily reflect what's happening on the server.

Also I think Strava takes into account discrepancies in the start times whereas Zwift does not? The difference between gun & chip timing basically.

I'm happy though. First time racing I was near the back of D, so to get somewhere up near the pointy end in C is great. Its tough now as I want to go home and find a race for tonight lol. Which as I'm on both a rest day and a fasting day, would be a bad idea.

basically what you see on the screen is "local" to your computer, due to network issues/lag/etc and doesn't necessarily reflect what's happening on the server.

I think this is why sometimes people swerve out in a big loop or just ride out of the bushes to get them back in sync.

one thing I have noticed and I'm not sure if its real is sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in the wrong draft behind someone slower and a parallel to a train of people is pulling away. seems to have to put in a big effort to jump out from behind them and try to tack on the back of the other.

i was going to do the EVR C race tonight but its a:) richmond worlds & b:) 3 laps/30 miles.

so i'm going for 5 x volcano circuit for an easy 1000 XP to see if I can unlock a better bike.

basically what you see on the screen is "local" to your computer, due to network issues/lag/etc and doesn't necessarily reflect what's happening on the server.

Has Zwift Kudos changed ?

I had some and it now comes up with "Well done" ? Is this just me or is it everyone ?

Well that's dull with no-one to race...

basically what you see on the screen is "local" to your computer, due to network issues/lag/etc and doesn't necessarily reflect what's happening on the server.

[url= http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=3356 ]http://www.zwiftpower.com/race.php?id=3356[/url]

Argh, 26 hours on and I'm getting sick of waiting for this race to update. Most of the people listed weren't even in that race. D cat was supposedly won by people who were also racing in A at the same time. 96 upgrades apparently.

So broken 🙁

My 8 year old is now fully signed up as a junior member in Zwift. Wasn't that complex to be fair 🙂

How long before you're both setup and racing each other? 😆

LOL he's got a long way to go on that front yet... He may be a budding XC/Enduro racer, but he's still only 8, so little legs.. but he can put in a consistent 1.8w/kg which does make me smile... he did 10km on Sun, then 10.5km last night and came in all sweaty. We'll see yet if he keeps going with Zwift and if he does i may have to invest in a 2nd wheel for his CUBE as he's Zwifting on knobblies at the moment, i can't be bothered swapping tyres each time, so he just rides it on what he's got fitted for FoD and XC stuff. But happy to get a spare rear if he needs it.

Does anyone know, will zwift work with just a power meter eg no cadence or speed via ANT?

I want to try out my TT bike and would swap a Powerttap wheel from my Turbo bike but cant be arsed with the rest for just one session.

[quote=Kryton57 ]Does anyone know, will zwift work with just a power meter eg no cadence or speed via ANT?
I want to try out my TT bike and would swap a Powerttap wheel from my Turbo bike but cant be arsed with the rest for just one session.

yes.

Is it a very old Powertap hub? I think the current ones (e.g. G3, GS) will report speed and cadence (albeit not quite as accurately as a more direct cadence sensor).

Still waiting for the results of Tuesday night's KISS Europe C&D race on Zwiftpower... is it normal for it to take this long?

[quote=Pierre ]Still waiting for the results of Tuesday night's KISS Europe C&D race on Zwiftpower... is it normal for it to take this long?

with KISS? yeah. they seem a bit hit & miss. i think they have too many races and from what i've read its quite an involved process sorting the results out.

50km of London Classique as part of the ongoing 'slower longer' rides, 1 hour 34 mins (plus 6 mins warmup for turbo for calibrating/spindown), so i'm fairly happy with that. The Parkwood is really nice on the turbo actually, comfy and plush, nice.... I like it lots on there. I can even get the power down for a sprint or two, but can't really maintain the flat out TT type effort on it... but that's not a massive issue as that's not the plan
Weight may hopefully be back on the way down, so i've adjusted weight in Zwift/Strava to 96kg now, so another 1kg off.... Just another.... errrrm, 15kg lol to go !

Bought a Tacx Vortex Smart trainer as I've been off the bike for 7 months with a shoulder injury, looks like it'll be 3 - 6 months before I can get back to our group MTB night ride.

So far I've only done a few of the free Tacx 'activities' but I'm thinking Zwift would be more engaging but I'm poor shape so don't want to try and start racing straight away - is it worth signing up if I just want to ride and get some leg fitness back?

I am currently just about hold the bars on the road bike on the trainer but once I've had the surgery I'll need to sit upright so racing is at least 4 months away.

Any advice gratefully accepted.

I'd say it's a decent option for a slow bimble on the turbo... the scenery is quite nice and watching other people whizz past makes you feel like you're not on your own (even if you're not racing). You can crank the hill difficulty down so it doesn't use full resistance at first.

@leftyboy, Zwift is definitely interesting even if you don't race, mainly because it's much more engaging than just sitting spinning away on a turbe (even if you'd be listening to a podcast or watching a film).

Initially there's just the exploring the world aspect to it - you've got a choice of potential routes, and there are ways to "hack" it so that you don't have to ride around the world that the schedule chooses for that day, for example so you don't get stuck ploughing round Richmond if you'd rather be riding up the mountain in Watopia. There's also the chance to virtually meet other riders and go for a ride together, however gentle or hard you choose to.

Basically it's £8 a month to make turbo training a lot more interesting, whether you race or not!

On the notes about KISS being a bit hit and miss, what race series would people suggest as being a bit more reliable? Really enjoy the racing but can't be arsed if the results are always going to vanish into the ether.

I used to try and aim for Tues + Thurs 8pm KISS races.

I'll probably just use Zwift for Sub2/Sub2.5 sort of endurance events, if racing gets any worse. Seems a shame.

the couple of EVR races I've done have been good. mon/weds 8pm-ish

zilog6128 & Pierre thanks I was hoping someone would say that! So far I've been doing a 30 min session at 06:00 - 3 times a week with one 60+ min at the weekend which after 3 weeks has left me a little bored so I think Zwift is worth a go 🙂

£8 a month is not a huge amount, my colleague spends that in 2 - 3 days bringing Costa coffees in despite us having great free coffee in the office!

Cheers jambo, I'll have a peep. Sounds like a good swap.

Looks like yesterdays EVR is up already, beats my Tuesday KISS race anyway.

I used to try and aim for Tues + Thurs 8pm KISS races.

Same here (I've noticed you on the same KISS D races), I've done a couple of EVRs and prefer them but Monday / Wednesday are not so convenient for me. KISS C tonight for me, my first KISS C race and my first on the London Loop.

I'm kinda regretting doing a long slowish one this morning now as i wanna race you lot ! But Thurs evenings just don't work for me anyway as it's Cubs and Dodgeball night.

leftyboy - Member

Bought a Tacx Vortex Smart trainer as I've been off the bike for 7 months with a shoulder injury, looks like it'll be 3 - 6 months before I can get back to our group MTB night ride.

So far I've only done a few of the free Tacx 'activities' but I'm thinking Zwift would be more engaging but I'm poor shape so don't want to try and start racing straight away - is it worth signing up if I just want to ride and get some leg fitness back?

I've been signed up since before Christmas & am yet to do a race.
I've done 1 group ride, but the rest of the time I just choose a route & hit 'just ride'.
MUCH better than just staring at a wall in the garage. You'll always end up coming across someone of similar ability & end up in a bit of a race, or use the people ahead of you as targets to keep your motivation up.

There's no contract and a trial period, so as long as you have the required kit there's no reason not to give it a go.

zilog6128 & Pierre thanks I was hoping someone would say that! So far I've been doing a 30 min session at 06:00 - 3 times a week with one 60+ min at the weekend which after 3 weeks has left me a little bored so I think Zwift is worth a go

To me, it depends on your attitude but in 5 weeks I've only raced a couple of times, i've also done some group rides, and i've done quite a bit of just leisure riding. Having a smart trainer that changes the resistance as you hit hills makes it immediately more interesting than a flat turbo; and if you're of the right mindset* every ride can be a race if you want - because there'll be someone else out there about your speed to race against.

* someone needs to rewrite the rules of commuter racing to cover zwift, with points awarded for passing people on Tron bikes (serious mileage types) and points off if someone passes you while on a training program warmdown, etc.

http://www.itsnotarace.org/scr-rules/

Cheers theotherjonv & stumpy01 I need some motivation because it hurts to use the turbo as my shoulder is not playing nice! Once I've had the op to remove the damaged bursa, a subacromial decompression, the bone spur removed and finally the ACJ removed I think I'll need a LOT of motivation to get on the turbo 🙂

Had my ACJ on the RHS removed about 8 years ago and it wasn't too bad but the surgeon says the above list might smart a bit 🙂

I'll give Zwift a go.

Might be about tonight, I'll give KISS another chance since I've missed Mon + Wed anyway.

To anyone who's not tried racing, there's no pressure with them. You can sign up to one and not turn up, or give it a shot and drop out after 5 minutes. I'm rarely bothered about where I finish, the winners will always be the people skirting right up to the bracket limits (it's a shame there's not a slight overlap), it'll always push me to try far harder than I would be otherwise though.

If you can maintain about 1.8w/kg or above, you'll find a pack to sit with in the D races.

To anyone who's not tried racing, there's no pressure with them

True, the only group rides I've done have been "sub 2.0" event rides, pretty safe there 🙂 The longest one was 2 hours, which is always a good chance to watch a random Netflix film.

Conversely that is why I don't do group rides as I don't want to go in to a group that I'll hold up.

I used to think the same, in fact I held off joining a club until I was averaging 15 to 16mph on 50mile+ road rides by myself. The club I eventually joined has bronze, silver and gold rides though and it turns out the bronze group average more like 12-14mph and I'm typically the fastest rider in the group, even on hills (especially on hills in fact). I haven't been out with the silver group yet but from their rides on Strava they're averaging about the same pace as when I ride myself so I should be ok with them by the looks of it. The gold riders would drop me on the very first hill though!

I've only done 2 Zwift group rides (not racing ones) so far. The first exploded from the start - it was supposed to be a sub-2 but loads of people averaged 3W/kg+ right from the off. The 2nd ride was also a sub-2 although for that one I stayed behind the leader and the group kept together pretty well. That one was pretty slow though - I think the first lap was at 1.5W/kg, the 2nd about 1.7W/kg and the final one at 2W/kg. It was a bit tedious in fact - unlike a road group when you'd be chatting to folks at those speeds.

I will be giving the KISS C race a go tonight, although trying to take it easy as I have been suffering with the lurgy for the past week or so and don't want to over do it....

I'm trying to decide whether to have a nice gentle z2 cruise around London or to wander over to Box Hill and have a go at a PB. Tomorrow is a rest day anyway.

Just to add another voice right at the start of the Zwift journey. Signed up for the free 7 day trial a couple of weeks ago, and now signed up as a full member.

Using a standard Elite fluid trainer with Garmin cadence/speed sensors and Mio Link heart rate monitor, connected via an ANT+ USB stick. Really enjoying the immersive nature of the sessions, and finding the virtual power pretty good. What was a chore is now much more enjoyable. I'd recommend it. Not got into any races yet, but may try in a couple of weeks.

Managed to take a whole 2 seconds off my Box Hill PB although that actually gained me 2 places on the STW leaderboard.

I'm thinking about KISS D tonight, don't really feel up for it but maybe to try some 'racecraft', see if I can follow the wheels, get in a group (or the autobus) and just try some skills rather than just pure brute effort.

Just need to get the girl in bed in time.

You won't find many wheels to follow in KISS D, usually spreads out pretty quickly. IME EVR races have better group riding for some reason

got a Tacx Flux coming tomorrow, used Zwift with my old Elite Turbo Muin 18 months ago ish,

do i still need to setup in a similar way

ANT+ Key for MacBook & Zwift loaded

now, do i use the power from the trainer, or do i use the Stages/Vector depending on what bike I'm using,

i know how to link the Garmin so i only get the work out data (power/cadence/time) rather than the zwift file with distance (i don't like trainer data to pollute my actual outdoor mileage)

Currently watching Cheers_Drive, well riding along with him while sitting on my sofa. Going well in C's at KISS

He needs to learn some Crosshair drafting skills though 🙂

Nearly box hill time...

Is nath riding too ? - got a thumbs up from him just now but he was nowhere to be seen, wondered if he was in a start gate somewhere

Not sure matey i'm afraid... Didn't see him when looking through names... Was just showing my boy it all as he wants to race 🙂

what's Cheers_Drive called on there ?

Edited just in case he doesn't want it leaving in

Just spoke to James Hodges from ZP. There was no LIVE DATA captured from Tuesday nights KISS race because [s]Glen Knight was too busy sucking off the GCN crew[/s] of technical issues!

So my first A race technically doesn't exist and I'll never accurately be able to work out where I finished.

Charming!!