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On the pause menu where you see the orange boxes for settings, kit, achievement etc. Top left of that screen is edit profile.
Bottom right on that is ftp
ok found it now, thanks.
The interface is a bit crap, that stuff should be accessible from the start screen, and at the end of the ride.
Having read this thread I now want to zwift.
Having read up on turbo trainers, I'd like to do it on a Tacx Neo!
I've never been on a turbo trainer, I last had a road bike circa 1993 and it's not certain there's a competitive bone in my body, but this looks ace!
I wonder if I should be on commission from zwift and tacx.
wolfenstein - Member
hi, can someone please spec me stuff to get into zwift cheaply in very laymans term (like..posting links)what?
Smart turbo? = Tacx Flow T2240
ANT+? =
Heart Rate Monitor? =
Road Bike? = Cheapest I can get my hand in Decathlon near me.
Smart turbo - nice to have but not essential. If doing it cheaply you could get a normal turbo trainer but check it's on the list on the Zwift website, so you get more accurate numbers.
ant+ dongle - I got one named 'anself' one from Amazon. It was a tenner. I didn't bother with a usb extension lead, but I probably should have done.
HRM - again not essential, but I like knowing what my heart rate is doing. You could always start without and add later.
Road bike - triathlon or eBay?
I would also recommend to anyone thinking of getting into turbo training whether using Zwift or not to get a large pedestal fan. It doesn't need to be fancy, I think mine was about £19 from Amazon.
Also, one of those towel thong things to keep the sweat that will pour off you away from the bike...
ok found it now, thanks.The interface is a bit crap, that stuff should be accessible from the start screen, and at the end of the ride.
Your right some stuff is still quite poor, especially the logging in and out bits but its better than it was a year ago
Interesting....but I think I'll stick to my tried and tested method. This winter I've got all the Game of Thrones to watch. Each episode is about 45 mins, and thats about all I can take on the TT.
My 2p's worth:
I did a whole 12 week ftp builder in the new year and it really set me up for the summer, although my favoured target event for the year folded, (epic Cymru) and I rediscovered ale...
Last night I did my first ride since April on zwift. (Garmin bike sensors and HRM, generic ANT+ dongle and Kurt Kinetic rock 'n' roll trainer) if originally planned to just spin for 30 mins or so, but found myself on the 'slope' of the mountain climb... in the end it was a one hour ride with a 30 min block of climbing at threshold and a spin down at the end!
@Weeksy- only if I get 75% like all good pyramid schemes 😀
I did 2h30 on there tonight. Literally flew by! (1xGroupride 1xCoached interval session).
weeksy - Member
I wonder if I should be on commission from zwift and tacx.
Same here. I've now got 5 friends signed up with another who came round to have a go yesterday, very interested.
It's not just that Zwift is totally amazing fun but my real world results are starting to get noticed as well (I'm not bragging as I wasn't exactly rapid to start with, more a slow overweight bloke becomes slightly less fat and slightly less slow).
😳 Ahem... just so I get the right one, is it the "first generation" ANT+ dongle on this link I need or the "second generation" one??
Either. I think the generation thing refers specifically to their product line - so the first gen is bulky & sticks out, the second gen is a much more compact one.
ANT+ is the important bit.
I went for the first gen version because it was cheaper, but in hindsight I should have bought the small compact one (second gen), so I could just leave it in a USB port and it wouldn't be obtrusive.
It's a bit of a pain having to remember to take it with me into the garage wit the laptop, but don't want to leave it plugged in, because I know I'll catch it and snap it off.
weeksy - Member
I wonder if I should be on commission from zwift and tacx.
This thread has me looking at the Neo once again, that'd be a nice chunk of commission 🙂
Oh, and with hindsight - I probably should have bought a USB extension lead to go with it, just in case.....
It works fine at the moment and I have had no drop-outs or problems, but it would probably be 'better' if the dongle was located closer to the sensors.....
For the sake of a few more quid it's probably worth getting one, even if it turns out you don't need it...
OH - and one more thing. Pay attention to the delivery time from that seller. I got mine from them too, and signed up to the Amazon Prime trial to get next day delivery - otherwise it's about 2-4 week delivery.....
This thread finally encouraged me to get round to signing up on Zwift - I had been meaning to for a while, just not actually got round to actually doing it.
Anyway, I managed to get home early from work today so thought I would crack on with the FTP test for a baseline. I did one a couple of years ago now & was around 3.2w/kg in the middle of winter, with lots of riding but minimal training, so distinctly average in that respect.
Well, after the sick feeling subsided & I could read the screen, I clocked in at 3.3w/kg this time. I went too hard off the start & suffered horribly in the middle, which will have hurt my average, coupled with a fairly rubbish season of riding & probably a few kg overweight, I think that could/should bump up to 3.4-3.5w/kg by Christmas.
I'd love to try & stay motivated over winter and push hard to see where I end up. We shall see. If it started with a 4, i'd be amazed, and impressed with myself!
OH - and one more thing. Pay attention to the delivery time from that seller. I got mine from them too, and signed up to the Amazon Prime trial to get next day delivery - otherwise it's about 2-4 week delivery.....
Aha! I was just looking at the "sold and fulfilled by" bit and wondered if I was going to have a similar experience to my Halloween decorations order that just about made it from China in time for 6pm on the 31st 😀
So if I go for the Prime trial, it really arrives the next day?
Well, after the sick feeling subsided & I could read the screen,
!!! how hard is that test??
!!! how hard is that test??
It's pretty much one of the most horrible things you could ever do to yourself.
if you dont feel that like that the end of a FTP test you didnt go hard enough....
thinking about having a crack at one of the races tonight. is the KISS europe race a stupid place to start?
alp_girl - MemberSo if I go for the Prime trial, it really arrives the next day?
Well, when I did it, it was around 7-8pm on a Friday night (11th Nov) & with 'Prime next day delivery' or whatever it is, it said will be delivered Sat 12th Nov & it was.
Was delivered by Royal Mail...
You just have to remember to cancel the Prime trial before 30 days if you don't want it or you will be charged £79 for a year of Prime.
thinking about having a crack at one of the races tonight. is the KISS europe race a stupid place to start?
Perfect place to start, I have done 4 or 5 of these. Tonight's races have different starts for each cat. Make sure you enter the correct Cat as if you exceed the cat limits you will be DQed
Be prepared to put a serious effort in from the off, the pace will settle down a bit after a couple of minutes.
Hob Nob - Member....so thought I would crack on with the FTP test for a baseline
I've had a sore throat for the last 10 days or so & the glands in my neck have been up, so I've put off doing it but I think I'll do one of these ftp tests in the next few days now I seem to be back to normal....
Not really looking forward to it, if I'm honest but figure it has to be done!!! 😆
KISS race is perfect, generally about an hour or so in time, so you can keep up a decent chunk of your FTP speed/power.
I did an hour this morning so i'm not playing tonight.
!!! how hard is that test??
As hard as you make it, but essentially if you are doing it to train and improve it should be everything you have for the actual 20min stint.
There is a bit of an art to doing them though - basically you need to be as consistent and solid as you can all the way, no point in blowing up in the first 5-10 mins and limping home with a low result.
If you can, start strong & slowly ramp it up all the way to the end. in short.
I've had a sore throat for the last 10 days or so & the glands in my neck have been up, so I've put off doing it but I think I'll do one of these ftp tests in the next few days now I seem to be back to normal....
Not really looking forward to it, if I'm honest but figure it has to be done!!!
They are no fun at all - I had a serious chest infection about 6 weeks ago, so have only just started doing anything remotely tough since, it was nasty work today 🙂
Persuaded Mrs A to let me have my xmas prezzie early, so I'm off to Halfords over the weekend to get involved.
It's probably sad that I'm so excited about it. Been feeling fat and lazy of late, so I'm expecting pain. Last time I went out my legs felt like wet noodles 😐
Don't forget guys, if your smart trainer has Bluetooth, you don't strictly need a dongle to get going if you have a mobile device as you can pair through the Zwift App.
I was going to ask to see if anyone uses just Bluetooth? My laptop has Bluetooth but I wasn't sure how reliable it would be, compared to Ant+.
Should be spot on.
Mmm..I've heard otherwise but never tried it myself.
I have done sessions on Bluetooth to try it out through the app and they worked perfectly. No good for Ant+ HRM and Cadrnce or I would use it all the time.
Also, my wifi isn't great. My laptop is ethernet cabled in for group rides and races. I wouldn't trust my iphone or iPad wifi signal not to drop out.
[quote=crosshair ]I have done sessions on Bluetooth to try it out through the app and they worked perfectly. No good for Ant+ HRM and Cadrnce or I would use it all the time.
Also, my wifi isn't great. My laptop is ethernet cabled in for group rides and races. I wouldn't trust my iphone or iPad wifi signal not to drop out.
i was struggling with wifi in the shed on my phone but have an powerline ethernet adaptor in there. discovered earlier that I can set my laptop up at as a wifi hotspot and linked my phone to that. worked perfectly.
first race hurt. waiting for the final results now...
bugger it. just over the cat D limit (2.65) so disqualified, but it would seem so were 16 out of the 36 entered. i was trying to hold onto them.
is there somewhere it shows you your W/kg figure for the race?
i meant during the race.
Yes, Zwiftpower runs live.
(Or just run average power on your Garmin etc)
that seems complicated.
edit: not the garmin bit, don't have one. got a kinetic inride powermeter on bluetooth.
Easier just to race in C 😉
probably will next time. just suprised me the pace of the Cat D race and then everyone I was burying myself chasing get disqualified...
jam bo - Memberprobably will next time. just suprised me the pace of the Cat D race and then everyone I was burying myself chasing get disqualified...
Yup, it's proper crazy but not uncommon, i had about the same number in a race DQ'd... hence i won... with a 2.53 average.
If you've got the legs there's a race tnoight, both me and Crosshair are racing in C. (my first time in C and expect to be last). 7pm. Friday Criterium series.
Big qn is though Jam, did you enjoy it ?
I might do the crit race tonight, just to see what it's all about.
How does it work? Do you just sign in before & join the event? get going once it starts?
Joining rides used to be chaos but recently theres been a new group ride function added details here..
https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/210511106-Joining-an-Event
@ Jambo perhaps if you hadn't got into a sprint finished you wouldn't have bumped up a cat 😀
There is a 10 mile TT every Wednesday at 20:00 GMT, for a slightly easier race experience, but must be done on a virtual TT bike so there is no draft effect.
guilty...
how did you work that out?
Sprinting at the end probably won't affect your w/kg on Zwiftpower. It is based on 95% of your best 20min effort during the race, which normally happens in the first 20minutes of the race.
I normally do the TFC race, but am currently away with work so giving it a misss tonight. There is normally a good turn out of C riders.