I have a cycleops non smart turbo. Can I just buy a ant+ speed sensor and connect it to my PC and zwift, or is that too simplistic? Thanks.

I think you can use it with speed and cadence if zwift has its power curve.

You will also need an ant+ dongle for PC

won’t these just pair to an iPad / iPhone without the need for a ANT dongle?

LINKY

You can’t make a dumb turbo smart – the “smart” bit is the program (Zwift, etc.) sending commands to the turbo to increase/decrease the resistance so you don’t have to change gear.

Using speed and cadence sensors lets you tell Zwift what you are doing, Zwift will display this, but it’s up to you to match it to what’s required by speeding up/changing gears, etc.

Bluetooth sensors will connect to any device (iPhone, iPad, etc) that has Bluetooth but if your PC doesn’t have BT then you’ll need a dongle to plug into a USB socket to connect things.

If you have a new gen Apple TV then the Zwift app on the Apple TV works great.

Any of the cheap speed and cadence sensors on eBay any good?

You can’t make a dumb turbo smart – the “smart” bit is the program (Zwift, etc.) sending commands to the turbo to increase/decrease the resistance so you don’t have to change gear.

You can get halfway there is you use a power meter with ANT+ or bluetooth connectivity – Zwift will then know how much power you’re putting out and be able to adjust the speed of your avatar according to your actual power output rather than an estimated one… but obviously it won’t control the resistance you’re feeling at the pedals, so even the steepest climb will still ‘feel’ exactly the same as a flat bit, though you can change gear to increase resistance of course.

The downside is that most power meters are so expensive that you might as well buy a smart trainer unless you want the option of also being able to measure power outside in the real world.

Thanks guys, I have bought the wahoo speed and cadence sensors.

I’m using a dumb trainer with an ANT+ sensor plugged into the computer. You only need a speed sensor to interact with zwift. Like its been said above the smart (although some are only one way smart) communicate with zwift.

Unless your “dumb” trainer is on the list of supported trainers, your in-game speed will bear no direct relation to what everyone else is doing in terms of effort/speed.

Zwift needs to know your POWER not speed. It then works out the appropriate in-game speed based on your power, your weight and the incline/decline. There are various equations that convert all these parameters into speed.

What zwift does support is the use of a (bluetooth/ant) rear wheel speed sensor with a SUPPORTED dumb trainer as for those trainers it has an approximate “map” (graph) of rear wheel speed and power for that model. That POWER ESTIMATE then gets fed into Zwift’s speed calculations. If you’re not using a recognised trainer and just pick one at random, your POWER will probably be way off and hence speed too.

However, even if you don’t have a supported trainer, it’ll get you started at least..

I would have thought that a cyclops trainer will be supported by zwift unless is is super old, the issue you might have is that the calculated power in my previous experience is well down on real life.

I used zwift a bit back in the days when it was free and then £8 with an elite mag trainer and it had my ftp at 180ish.

I’m nowhere near as fit and strong now but I’ve bought a power meter to get me through this situation and I can easily maintain 220w+ for over half an hour so I’m likely to have an ftp around 200-210.

The other issue is that virtual cycling is really fun, but you’ll wish you had a proper smart trainer which is why I’ve chucked another £550 at one of them. It’s coming tomorrow, I can’t wait.

@RichT – I bought a pair of the cheap eBay speed and cadence sensors and they’re absolutely fine.