gthomson

Is it just me or does anyone else feel Zwift seems to favour those over in Europe with the number of events that would cater to those time zones? I'm looking at the number of Zwift events which occur between 11 AM EST and 5 PM EST and there are loads of different types of events, trainings, group rides, etc.. but when I look past 5 PM EST the number or events drops considerably.

Is there some kind of reason for this or m I just seeing it from a different perspective?

kcjc

Nope. I suspect cycling as a sport (organized competition against another or for entertainment) will always be more popular in Europe than elsewhere.

blacknbluebikes 

Out of curiosity, I just thumbed thru the event list on Zwift Companion app and counted 30 posted after 5pmEST, might check your filters on that. I'm including A,B,C,D,E; no "only shows"; types Group Ride and Team TT. Did not include group workouts, race fondo or single TT. None I wanted to do, but... I don' think that's a bad count at all.

gthomson

I tend to go to the Zwift Events page when looking at activities but can't imagine why it would be any different than what is shown on the app. I can't see how many events occurred before the current hour but when I was scrolling through it this morning there just seemed to be so many events, but this might have been the reason why. This particular race has multiple start times so maybe that' what i was scrolling though which made me think, holy cow so many events going on through the day.

RChung

I think it's just you.

There are some events that Zwift creates but there are also events that local clubs and organizations create. Zwift's own events often happen on an hourly basis but there are a lot of cycling clubs in Europe and they've gone to the trouble to declare themselves "official" clubs within the Zwift structure, create rides, and upload them to Zwift. Accordingly, a lot of those group rides are scheduled at times that are convenient for their members. Zwift isn't "favoring" European time zones: they're just publishing events that official club partners created. If you think there should be more events in your time zone, create an official group, create some group rides, and submit them to Zwift.

BTW, Zwift is HQ'd in California.

gthomson

I wasn't aware that users can create their own events. Pretty cool.

unterhausen

I have noticed that some events are not created by zwift. There is probably a way to make them public, the club I belong to does it by invitation only. It's a bit awkward. OTOH, it would be weird if a batch of people we don't know showed up*. But since the riders we know are from all over the world, some people might show up that know us.

*I was going to call them randos, but we're a batch of randonneurs. So we're the randos.

RChung

If you go over to Youtube or to Zwift Support or to Zwiftinsider you can find instructions and tutorials on how to create events.

This is the one that was at the top of the list when I searched on Youtube, but there are others.

himespau 

There do appear to be more non-Zwift generated events in the European time zones, but there are also lots more riders over there.

gthomson

I checked on the Zwift Events page with Cycling filtered events between 12 PM EST to 2 PM EST and counted over 97 Zwift events (Zwfit and Club Event) which would be in prime Zwifting time in Western Europe.

Looking at events from 5 PM EST to 7 PM EST which i would consider prime time here in N.America and there are less than 30 events.

BJack312

I work at home on Mondays, and usually get an hour ride in during lunch (Central time zone). I've noticed that there are several times more people on Zwift at that time than in the evening, usually 6:00 to 7:00 pm. This past Monday, there were around 24,000 people on Zwift at noon, yesterday evening at 6:30 there were about 7,000. This seems to be a pretty consistent thing.

choddo

Since I’m in Europe, this is only right and proper

Having said that I was doing a Japanese event at 1930 last night. Must have been early for them.

The ZRL events in the screenshot above are a good example, they run APJ and US timezone specific events but got about 3x the demand in EMEA so had to run a lot more divisions there.

(they are awesome by the way, great series and well worth joining a team if you can find one, last race of the current 6week block next week then a break and a chance to jump in for the next mini-season)

gthomson

It makes sense there is more events where cycling is in more in demand and that is the way it is in Europe and other parts of the world. N. America does not have the same cycling infrastructure or culture that Europe and Asia have. Car is king over here.

I think I'll see if I can find some time on my lunch hour to jump on some of these great rides instead of waiting until the evening.

bblair

Are you looking for races or workouts or group events? I am in the Eastern U.S. time zone and there are almost too many rides. It's like scrolling through Netflix. If there were only a few, I'd just pick one and be done with it.

Of course, workouts and solo rides can be done anytime you like. Throw in the climb portals and robopacers and I really have a hard time deciding. Events like Tour de Zwift run every hour.

zacster

Now that you say that I'm going to go on Zwift earlier than I usually do tomorrow to see what it's like. I usually start between 4 and 5pm Eastern Time and that's already getting late Euro time. I can just check from my main computer since it connects to the trainer even though it is two floors away. But when I ride there are usually few Europeans but lots of Americans and Canadians. It must not be a South America thing because I never see people from there, not that I'd know what their flags are.

choddo

Surely everyone knows these two?

gthomson

Brazil and Argentina? I know I got at least 50% on this test

rm -rf

DC Rainmaker's blog had a recent post that related: Here’s Why Peak Zwift Is Always a Tuesday

rm -rf

The public group rides I've done need quite a bit of work: leaders and sweepers, a description of the ride type and speeds, texts during the ride, etc. Private invitation rides are simple to arrange, and the riders already should know what to expect. I like that both types of groups rides are available. The public rides often have a front fence option. That's either set to "remove riders that stay in front of the fence for 60 seconds", or "let the riders keep going off the front as far as they want, it's just a reminder."

Pacer bot rides with teleporting!
I've been doing the Zwift bot pacer rides, but in the past, I wanted to warm up first so I wouldn't get dropped.
Now: I pick an easy pace group, do a longer warmup, then hit the Teleport button on the phone app. It's the one that looks like two map marker icons.




Now I see all the bot speed groups and can pick one. I get the usual 10 seconds to start pedaling. And if I get dropped, I can teleport back to that group instead of doing the frustrating high wattage efforts to close the gap. I've done "intervals" this way, with a set of jumps to a too-fast group. How long can I hang on the fast pace?

The whole session gets recorded as one ride. (The map shows straight lines connecting the teleported locations of the different start points during the ride.)

himespau 

I also use the teleport when a group that I'm riding with and is pushing the limit for the effort I'm able to do (or for what I want to get done that day) reaches a hill or a dirt/gravel section. I'll teleport to an easier bot until they're past that section. This past week, I was doing The Big Ring with Coco, but teleported over to Yumi for laps around Volcano Circuit for 12 or so minutes when Coco hit the jungle.

zacster

I just checked Zwift to see the difference going in at noon eastern US time and it is all European, and a lot busier. There were 13,000 riders in Watopia, usually I see 3-4k.