I’m sure this is an easy question for someone on here, but I’m confused as to what I need for Zwift.

I have: a road bike and a Tacx BlueMatic trainer.  This isn’t a smart trainer or anything, but it is one of the ‘supported’ dumb trainers so should be enough, right?

I also have a Garmin Edge 510 and a Garmin speed/cadence sensor.  It’s one of the older ANT+ ones.

To run the app I guess I could use either my iPad or my MacBook Pro.  I don’t particularly mind although the iPad might be easier to mount in a sensible position.

I think I need to buy something else, and I *think* these are my options, but correct me if I’m wrong:

1) I could get a bluetooth speed / cadence sensor.  The Garmin ones are £45 from Wiggle.  I could then ‘relegate’ my current ANT+ sensor to my commute bike so there’s a minor advantage there. My HRM would still be ANT, though, so I couldn’t use that.

2) An ANT+ USB dongle.  I don’t think I can use this with the iPad, but I could use it with the laptop?

3) Some sort of ANT+ to Bluetooth ‘bridge’ thing.  These seem expensive.  I’m guessing there’s no way to force the Garmin to act as a bridge?

I’m leaning towards option 1.  It’s slightly expensive but it would give me another speed/cadence sensor to use and seems more versatile.  But no HRM (how important is that?).  Anything I’ve missed that I should consider?

IIRC, you can have a dumb trainer+power meter or dumb trainer+HRM+Speed+Cadence.

This should be on their website though…

I’d check that it will run on an iPad first. I had a chew on getting setup with PC when it wouldn’t run on a 32 bit version of windows, then when I upgraded it wouldn’t run with the onboard graphics. Thought it would be a doddle setting it up with an old machine, but the entry requirements are quite high, relatively speaking.

Personally, I’m using an ANT+ dongle with smart trainer, 4iiii power meter, and Garmin HRM*

*The power meter isn’t required, since it#’s measured by the trainer, but it’s on the bike and Zwift seems to favour that.

I used a dumb trainer and an old ant+ garmin HRM/speed/cadence connected to my ipad pro via bluetooth using one of these

https://www.merlincycles.com/4iiii-viiiiva-heart-rate-monitor-104087.html?utm_campaign=googlebase-GB&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shopping&utm_term=Cycle+Computer+Accessories&ucpo=42232&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoa6ejtiD3wIVB7XtCh2KeQ44EAQYAiABEgLfpvD_BwE

There was an issue earlier in the year but Zwift sorted it and it’s been fine since.

I did have a ant+ dongle in a macbook pro but the the mac was a bit old and it was very slow.  Viiiva HR with ipad has been great.

I run Zwift with a supported dumb trainer and Garmin speed/cadence/HR sensors, over ANT+.  Looking at your options an ANT+ dongle is probably easiest, but the 4iiii HRM with ANT+ to Bluetooth bridge looks good if you want to just use all your existing sensors.  Massively detailed review here:

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/07/viiiiva-bluetooth-bridge.html

Wahoo speed an cadence sensors Bluetooth to my iPhone that I have plugged into a tv with their stupidly priced hdmi lightning dongle.

One more thing.  Just just my own experience, but my wife went through two sets of duff (brand new) Garmin speed sensors.  Switched to Wahoo, and it was solid straight away.  My Garmin stuff is working fine, but I’d probably switch to Wahoo sensors if I was buying today.

IIRC, you can have a dumb trainer+power meter or dumb trainer+HRM+Speed+Cadence.

Not sure about that. The website doesn’t really mention HRM or in fact cadence – only a speed sensor. But what I don’t know is how much those things add to the experience. I know a power meter / smart trainer would be ideal but that’s a bit rich for my blood…

If using an ipad then all your sensors have to be bluetooth. If you want to join in the races and you are bothered about where you finish then i suggest you also use a HR as a lot of races require them otherwise you will be dq’d from the final results. It is not a pre-requisite for the races themselves but just for the results on zwiftpower. I think there is a recommended bluetooth hr  from Amazon for about 20 quid from Coosports??

This is my problem with zwift. I’ve got a smart turbo but always feel confused by setup and options, so much so that I find the whole thing a massive faff and don’t use it very much.

I used to have a dumb trainer set up before switching to a Wahoo Kickr.

I used the Wahoo Blue speed and cadence sensor. Which was pretty simple to set up but a little iffy on position for the cadence on my cranks. This worked well once the power curve was selected in Zwift. I added a Wahoo Tickr HRM as well and that works fine. I use an Ant+ dongle with an extended USB cable to help with reception. This is all via my surface book. Everything works the same via bluetooth with my Iphone 8. I think Ant+ is more reliable for me, but others use BT fine YMMV

Before you start adding up too many expensive sensors and cables I’d consider a smart trainer. Cyclops Magnus was discounted on chain reaction and also had 0%paypal offer. If you buy the cheap Bluetooth HRM from Amazon that’s all you’ll need for the full zwift setup. The Magnus will control resistance, record power and has a fairly good cadence sensor built in.

That setup works perfectly with my iPad, the only complaint I’d have is a bit of tyre slip on the occasional 15% gradient. Apart from that it’s been great.