Zwift, my journey, my weight and my fitness.

I have only been using it for a few months now but I have seen huge improvements in my times. The fact it also automatically uploads to Strava with a map, segments and photo just adds to it

Real world and indoor world ?

I’ve not really done much outdoors to use a useful comparison yet, but i’m at Swinley tomorrow afternoon to give it a whirl and see if anything outdoors has taken a boost.

Cool, thanks for the confirmation re dongle! I’m planning to use my road bike, so I guess I need a trainer tyre as well so I don’t wreck my “real” road tyre…?

alp_girl – Member

Cool, thanks for the confirmation re dongle! I’m planning to use my road bike, so I guess I need a trainer tyre as well so I don’t wreck my “real” road tyre…?

I doubt it wears out that much quicker… but if you’re like the rest of us, you’ll be putting in a load more miles. So it may feel like it’s wearing out quicker.

Depends too if you’re going to ride outside as then you’ll be swapping tyres. My bike doesn’t go outdoors so is never removed from the trainer..
I even bought a set of SPD-SL’s that will never even see a step outside hahahahaha

Depends too if you’re going to ride outside as then you’ll be swapping tyres. My bike doesn’t go outdoors so is never removed from the trainer..

Reading this thread I think my road bike will be staying on the trainer all winter (or longer 😉 ) might be time to buy one of those Sequoia type bikes and make the road bike a trainer bike 😀

Think how much easier it makes the world

No more

“what waterproof shoes ?”
“how do i keep my hands warm”
“what tyres for mud”
“i keep getting punctures”
“ewwwww dog poo”

It’s just now…
“what ANT+ dongle for my turbo”

“what turbo shoes”
“what gloves for turboing”
“what tyres+pressure for my turbo rig”
“i keep sweating all over my turbo rig” aka “what towel?”
“ewwww now my house/shed/man cave smells of sweat”

“does only zwifting make me gay?” / “where did my friends go?” / “pub?”

I do have turbo shoes…

I dabbled with triathlon a while back and tri shoes are much cooler indoors and can be worn sockless so they are now turbo shoes.

Plus it means no-one gets to laugh at me wearing them

My dumb Tacx trainer must have done 30 miles in 3 year (ended up going to someone from these parts). Bought a proper trainer and did 300 miles in last years strava/zwift freebie. Been looking forward to this years winter riding in the cellar, as soon as I clear the manflue its game on \o/

Have read this with a lot of interest. have had a dumb turbo for a while, but cannot motivate myself to stare at a wall. This sounds like it would change my opinion and seeing as Tacx 2240 can be had for less than £200 i can see myself getting tempted to try

Really finding this thread quite interesting.

Seems loads of people are interested from a purely motivational viewpoint which is pretty alien to me since the only motivation I need is being able to ride strongly next spring/summer.

Would be an interesting Strava stat to find out what % of rides between Nov/Feb take place in Watopia.

It’s on the heat map.

http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#12/-193.03579/-11.64635/blue/bike

cannot motivate myself to stare at a wall.

so watch stuff on TV? / a screen of some sort?

Tried that canopy, its so so not the same.

I do have turbo shoes…

I dabbled with triathlon a while back and tri shoes are much cooler indoors and can be worn sockless so they are now turbo shoes.

Ooooh, finally a use for my summer roadie shoes that are way too cold to use during a UK summer 😛

Do I buy the trainer before Black Friday??? I’m sooooo impatient to try this now….

Nearly got the Tacx from Halfords but decided to check my laptop would run it (had my doubts, its a 8 year old macbook) and it’s a long way off the minimum specs. Puts it out of my reach from a financial perspective.

I gave zwift a go last night, I was a quite disappointed, I don’t think it is a patch on traineroad and sufferfest, I guess it would be fine to just go and batter yourself for a time, but lacked any decent targeting or structure.

I think the workout mode it a pretty good replacement to TrainerRoad, granted TR has more and its has structured plans but Zwift has all the basic plans covered so you could just pick something similar.
IMO TR is expensive in comparison to Zwift

You can run TR whilst Zwifting as long as you pair up properly. The workout list is growing all the time and is customisable so pretty versatile.

I think the best thing about Zwift is that it’s somewhere to go on your bike. Sounds trite but with even a smidgen of imagination, you sort of fool yourself into forgetting you are in the pain cave.
“I’ll just ride another ten minutes” or “I’ll listen to one more track” cannot compare to “I’ll just race this maniac up the KOM one more time!” 😀

Once sweat proof VR headsets come out, I think I’ll sell my outdoor bikes 😀

I’ve quite happily used a dumb trainer and garmin speed/cadence/hr sensor for the past 18 months or so. I upgraded the pc pretty quickly but only because we had some parts knocking around and my son does that kind of thing. Its now an 8 core processor and £150 graphics card that can max out the settings.

Recently bought one of those £200/£180 trainers from Halfords and its very good, I’m not sure you get more or less of a workout but the experince is more immersive.

Also both dumb and smart trainer gave me very similar power results, there isnt a strain gauge in either so no reason either should be more accurate.

If your new to it I would do an event, start with something like the sub 2 or 2.5 Tuesday nights.

I doubt it wears out that much quicker…

it really does. Not only do they wear out faster. They lose all grip and spray molten shredded rubber all over the wall. You may not be bothered, or notice. But 15 quid for a trainer tyre is well worth it.

Or a trainer wheel.

ghostlymachine – Member

I doubt it wears out that much quicker…
it really does. Not only do they wear out faster. They lose all grip and spray molten shredded rubber all over the wall. You may not be bothered, or notice. But 15 quid for a trainer tyre is well worth it.

Or a trainer wheel.

Probably depends on a ton of factors, but I’ve used a turbo trainer on & off for 5 years or so & never used a trainer tyre….
Never had ‘molten shredded rubber all over the wall’…..this sounds to me like a result of the roller tension not being high enough & the tyre slipping on the roller generating excessive heat. I will concede that this may be due to my puny legs not putting enough power through the system to cause this to be an issue, but my first port of call if I saw this happening would be to look carefully at the set-up & see if anything needed tightening up.

Regarding wear – it’s hard to quantify. I am not entirely clear on the mechanism that would cause a tyre to wear more quickly when rolling on a smooth roller compared to a rough, lumpy surface.

If I really get into this Zwift thing, then I might use a second wheel with a turbo tyre on, but to anyone thinking of starting with it, I wouldn’t say that a turbo tyre was an absolute must…..

I’ve got one fitted, but only because a neighbour brought one over the other day to give me…. But don’t need a spare wheel as i’ve no intention of riding outdoors on it.

If I sprint hard I can get wheel spin and a burning smell from my tyre but I can’t sustain that sort of effort (800W+) for long so it’s never really been an issue.

I really struggle on the sprint aspect, i’m not sure if it’s this particular turbo power delivery, the riding position stopping me getting out of the saddle easily etc or something else..

I can put out 270w consistently for most of my ride…. i can put 300w out for a 10 mins sustained effort… but i can’t get over 500w for a sprint for sure !

it really does. Not only do they wear out faster. They lose all grip and spray molten shredded rubber all over the wall.

Never had that. May be an issue with softer compound racing tyres (i’ve also heard of them heating up and blowing the tube), but usually just stick an old partly squared off training tyre (Rubino, Krylion etc) on there and i’ve never had any sign of one disintegrating.

Spare cheap wheel for the turbo is of course invaluable.

Regarding wear – it’s hard to quantify. I am not entirely clear on the mechanism that would cause a tyre to wear more quickly when rolling on a smooth roller compared to a rough, lumpy surface.

They definitely do wear faster, mainly I think because they get hotter and probably slip more. I’ve got a dumb turbo and use an old road wheel+tyre on it, and the tyre is very smooth now, a lot smoother than the similarly aged tyre I use for proper riding. Not had any molten rubber up the walls, though!

but i can’t get over 500w for a sprint for sure !

they don’t call me thunder thighs for no reason.

they don’t call me thunder thighs for no reason.

I’ve got thighs like Griepel. Honestly… it’s part of being a big lad… i struggle to get jeans that fit. But i dunno, i just struggle with getting a sprint going.

It doesn’t really suit my riding style either.

How realistic is the racing based on W/Kg?

Is it your W/Kg at FTP that it looks at for categories?

If it is, looking at zwift, I’d be in their A cat based on my W/Kg, but I actually race in 4th Cat in real life as I’ve been doing flat circuit races against bigger people, whos advantage lies on the flat rather than the hills like mine.

Is it a similar thing on zwift or does having a high W/Kg stand you well on the flat there too?

Ok so to complete the questions of the noobs! whats the recommended hr monitor for use with the t2240? am I right in assuming it connects to the software rather than the turbo?

eeek that’s hard to answer.

I’m on there at 96kg, so in the larger side of things and from what i can gather from my times/mates, i flat speed better than i climb. I’m not sure which aspect of it is the reason, whether it’s my actual watts or my w/kg, but i personally think when i’m powering at 2.7w/kg on the flat i seem to go better than other riders putting out roughly the same power… but i don’t think there’s much in it.

You Zwift W/Kg is configured on a 20 min effort, 95% of that effort. But obviously a true FTP is in at 60mins.

Your overal ride is taken into account though, so if it’s say a 1 hour ride, it’s your overall power, at 95% gives your catagory.

Recently a lot of people were caught out as the race was short, <40 mins, so their relative power figure was better… Although some were just crazy as they put in 4.2w/kg in a <2.49w/kg race… so they were DQ’d.

With the racing it’s a quick start, settles down and goes around about the expected w/kg then. Although i’ve only raced D’s, i know lads who race C/B and it’s a similar sort of thing.

Hopefully that helps a bit… but easiest way is to give it a try in a race and see what happens, work out where you are from there.

I think if you’re moved up from a catagory due to power, e.g D > C then you race back in D, you’re auto banned from results… But i can’t see why you couldn’t try an A race and drop to B for personal preference as long as your power figures didn’t put you in A etc.

The course will play a factor for you though i think, plenty of races are on the flat courses… Which suit me better. Although the London Loop does take in Box Hill which gives me a struggle in the races.

alexxx – Member

Ok so to complete the questions of the noobs! whats the recommended hr monitor for use with the t2240? am I right in assuming it connects to the software rather than the turbo

HR Monitor talks to your ANT+ dongle.

I’m on there at 96kg, so in the larger side of things and from what i can gather from my times/mates, i flat speed better than i climb. I’m not sure which aspect of it is the reason, whether it’s my actual watts or my w/kg, but i personally think when i’m powering at 2.7w/kg on the flat i seem to go better than other riders putting out roughly the same power.

Flat is where as a bigger guy you have all the advantage – raw power is everything on the flat.
To match your power at 2.7W/kg i’d have to be putting out 4.5W/kg…..

However, come to a climb, and to match my ~220W FTP you’d need to put out 370W!

Speed for W/kg is the same regardless of terrain, your weight is already accounted for in the. alculation. The difference you experience is drafting.

Anyone heard of a confirmed date for zwift releasing to ios devices? My laptop has rubbish integrated intel hd graphics which doesnt work, not prepared to buy a new laptop just for zwifting.
Weekst – was it you who ordered the cheap chinese speed/cadence sensor?

Interesting reading, thanks

[/quote]Weekst – was it you who ordered the cheap chinese speed/cadence sensor?

yes, still waiting for it… 12 days.

blader1611 – Member

Anyone heard of a confirmed date for zwift releasing to ios devices? My laptop has rubbish integrated intel hd graphics which doesnt work,

Just wondering whether you’ve tried it to see if it will run, or whetehr you are just going by the numbers on the website?

My laptop doesn’t match the min requirement for graphics (mine has got Integrated HD3000 and the min spec is Integrated HD 4000) but it runs fine.
I did wonder if it might keel over when more riders were on the screen, but I was on it last night and there were loads of riders around at one point & it coped fine.

The Zwift algorithm accounts for terrain so w/CDA based on your size and height are what count on the flats and w/kg take over on the hills.

My laptop doesn’t match the min requirement for graphics (mine has got Integrated HD3000 and the min spec is Integrated HD 4000) but it runs fine.
I did wonder if it might keel over when more riders were on the screen, but I was on it last night and there were loads of riders around at one point & it coped fine.

My laptop also below min spec but works fine. In the resolution section I only get the option of the two lowest settings which look fine to me.