UnfilteredDregs

Cool...It definitely has it's place, and seems a lot more fun than just slugging it out on a trainer.

carpediemracing 

So I went and did the sprints last night. They were good. 18-19 seconds full gas for me, very tough, close to race sprint efforts.

The rest of the course is basically too tough for me, hills are too long, laps too long. As a benchmark it takes me almost 30 minutes to do a lap so for me 30 minutes pedaling before I get to do another sprint.

I figure when the shorter loops go live, whatever they might be, I'll be better.

The one weird thing is the cornering. Full traction in a turn is a bit odd, also full gas pedaling through turns. Not sure how the game could force coasting or whatever though, so I'll live with it.

I have to figure out how to deal with the little dips and the steeper stuff. I figure there's got to be an optimal approach to doing those but I haven't played around to figure anything out or even try different tactics.

chaadster

I miss the sprint zone distance indicators.

carpediemracing 

Me too.

I based my first sprint on the times I saw thrown around, 20-21 seconds, so I peeked at the screen, saw 9 seconds, and though, oh boy. Then I looked up and I was basically at the banner.

The curves are not great because there are no "curve" dynamics there, no need to ease, etc. If it was straight or there was a bridge or if it was even slightly meandering (to hide stuff from view until you got closer) that would be better.

utahp8ntballer

And rode Zwift for the first time since I finally got a compatible trainer. I have to say it was far more satisfying than I anticipated. I have never pushed so hard on the trainer before and was able to keep my HR up the whole ride. I only did 30 min but that was the most brutal 30 min I ever did not on the road.
The mileage and speed were off compared to my Garmin. 12.2 miles compared to 10.2 and avg speeds of 23.4 compared to 20.1 or something like that on my Garmin. Probably a trainer issue is my guess. Either way, it was pretty fun.

carpediemracing 

The Garmin measures your trainer mileage/speed.

Zwift calculates a virtual speed and therefore virtual mileage. For example at the beginning of the KOM hill I'm going 2-3 mph Zwift speed but I'm still going the same 11 mph or whatever on the trainer. My SRM (which is wired and so doesn't share data with Zwift) will tell me I'm going 11 mph, Zwift/Strava will say 2 or 3 mph.

I'm thinking of putting .carpediem or something like that at the end of my name because I think there are a bunch of people I know from here and another forum that are on Zwift but I don't know how they appear on Zwift.

jmX

Guess what showed back up in this mornings update? I didn't have time to put all the markers in for last weeks update, but they were in the day after and that update has now gone live.

Also a little marking on the road was added where each segment starts.

carpediemracing 

Appreciate the little notes. It's nice having a little inside scoop on what's going on there.

I'll be doing a 5 min max effort tonight but hopefully I'll have enough strength after to check things out.

himespau 

I had been checking back frequently hoping that you'd be putting my sportscrafters rollers with progressive resitstance on your list, but after reading carpediemracing's review today, it sounds like there's a bit too much keyboard stuff to do to go riding with rollers.

jmX

Once the ride starts exactly 0 key presses are needed. Plenty of people use rollers on Zwift.

carpediemracing 

My teammate uses rollers (with a powermeter). Although his peak power is limited it doesn't stop him from mixing it up with the non-green. He's in the polkadot below.



With the keyboard the things that would be most useful would be:
- Clicking on other riders to see what they're doing. w/kg is one thing, seeing "400w" to me makes it a bit more real.
- Clicking on other riders to get an idea of what the leader board looks like for all three competitions.
- Changing views if you want to take a picture.

With the smart phone I use it for taking a snapshot and doing a wave or elbow wiggle for someone I know as they pass me.

If I was on rollers I'd want the laptop pretty high up next to and slightly in front of me, above the arc of the bars if I fell over. On rollers I build up static electricity so that's a separate factor.

chaadster

I was gonna say...I think the app does most of the stuff that the keyboard does, but I admit I didn't use the keystrokes much before the app came out because it was just inconvenient.

With the phone app, I can keep the controls on a side table, close at hand; I use it very little at this point so having a bar mount or something close isn't necessary in my mind.

I haven't thought about the difference between w/kg and gross watts, CDR; what is the keystroke to show watts? Does it change the display value on the leaderboard, or where do you see it?

chaadster

Ah, that's nice. I was thinking that Zwift segments (which count towards game rewards) started when the position clock popped up, but maybe that is inaccurate? I certainly ride some segments for time before I see a postion clock pop up, so knowing where the segment starts might help me target results on those better.

It's kinda funny, though, that I'm as keen to watch Strava segment standings as I am the game standings at this point,I suppose because I'm more "riding" Zwift than "playing" Zwift. Unlocking kits, wheels, and other virtual bits is cool, I guess, but it's really looking at my relative effort and results that compels me more than anything. Perhaps if I knew and understood better how the "upgrade" or XP worked, I'd be more engaged with that aspect, bit I think it's just that I value the training and workout aspect above the rest.

motorthings

if anyone hasn't seen it yet, there is an invite-only facebook group "zwift riders", ask to join if you are interested. A lot of great discussion, and generally lessening complaining about z-doping.

carpediemracing 

Watts - I click on a rider and it shows that rider's dashboard, including watts, cadence, and HR if they have an Ant+ HR belt.

*edit - adding image/description
I clicked on the rider behind me to take a picture. The data up top (watts, speed, etc) is all his. With the last update (Apr 30, 2015) there's a "Ride On" button (to give the rider a cheer) as well as a "Return" button (just a u-turn left turn kind of arrow icon) to return to your own view.


With the various posts (on the Facebook page) of people doing some nutty things, I started clicking on people doing massive efforts to see what sort of numbers they were pushing. To see a red highlighted w/kg (which indicates above a certain number, maybe above 8 w/kg?), that's sort of intimidating to me, but then to see, say, 500w, that makes it more palatable. I haven't been around or close enough to see someone go for the green jersey so that would be interesting. Heck, I don't even know what I do when I go for it because I'm not looking at the screen during a sprint effort.

carpediemracing 

For the short efforts (polka dot, green) it's when the clock starts (and now there's a white line on the road, but it's not super visible on my laptop until I'm almost on top of it). You can see your time starting as 0 seconds. For the lap (orange) it starts at the lap banner. Your time comes up on the screen a certain distance (not sure where) from the banner, but it'll say, for me, something like 29 minutes when it first appears.

I went to the helicopter view to see what was "under construction" but you can see the timer (my time to the left, next best time to the right). That's 32 minutes and counting for one lap. This is for the orange/lap time.

RPK79

This has me seriously intrigued. I would need to get a compatible trainer (need a new one anyway since I burned the bearings out on mine) and an ant+ dongle though.

utahp8ntballer

I got a green jersey yesterday for the sprint. I finished in 22 seconds which was fastest for whatever time period they had the leader board up for. Not sure if it's a few hours, a day, or what since the fastest rider time on that segment shows as 18 seconds via strava. When I crossed the line it automatically changed my jersey to green and said congrats on the screen. Looking at my strava for that part showed that I hit 1180 watts which I'm sure is not true. My HR was 195 which is 4bpm off my max. I thought my bike was going to break off the trainer.

carpediemracing 

Ant+ dongle, Ant+ speed/cadence pick-up, and a compatible trainer (seems a KK fluid is one of the better choices - I happened to own a CycleOps Fluid2 so that's what I use).

Or if you have an Ant+ powermeter you're all set, you can use rollers or a trainer or whatever.

carpediemracing 

Last sprint I did was in the 21.x second range, and I blew about 2 seconds before the line. SRM said 1090w peak, 960w for 10s, 860w for 20s. I tried to get up to speed going into the sprint - I figure I'd lose less speed at the tail end, with low power, versus trying to accelerate 10 mph at the beginning. I didn't do any analysis so I don't know how my approach went.



Looking at the ride data it looks like the power was close. With the Fluid2 the resistance goes up when the fluid heats up so my Zwift power will drop quicker than my actual power (because my trainer gets harder and harder to move). The peak is basically the same, 1060 or whatever. SRM says I basically gave up at 727w, Zwift says it was more like 580-620w.

Tomorrow I hope to ride Zwift.

greenlight149

i got the beta invitation and am thinking about trying it out, but i dont get how it can be accurate in terms of power when its just using the power curve of a approved trainer. i mean the power can vary so much depending on the tire pressure and how tight you screw it in, what if you are only doing 200 watts but according to the power curve you are doing 300 watts?

for example, trainerroad thinks im doing 380 watts on my rollers, when in reality im doing 230 at the same speed, measured by a powermeter. (big disappointment btw lol)

chaadster

Zwift does not "just use the power curve of an approved trainer." It will take powermeter ANT+ output, so actual power.

But yes, estimated, or virtual-power is always problematic, for TrainerRoad, Zwift, or whomever tries to provide it.

In the end though, it's up to the user to decide if they want to lie to themselves and be a cheater, or if they want to be a serious and decent person and make the effort to set up their trainer as accurately as possible.

When I was using Z-power, it was high, as I had an old wired Powertap against which I could check. The problem is that I don't think most virtual power users have a meter to baseline against, so we have to accept a certain degree of inaccuracy when accepting Zpower or any virtual power numbers.

zwift is just a game though, so what's really at stake? Not much. If they ever do take it to another level, it's easy enough to restrict competitions to real power. But would you trust someone to not futz with calibration or some hack in order to gain advantage? I would not...but it's a game. If you want to be a mensch, you've still got to take it to the races, or at least the road.

greenlight149

yes yes, my wording was not the best. i know that zwift is compatible with power meters as well as virtual power. in fact im planning on using my power meter and a ant+ stick.

My concern isnt whether someone is going to "cheat", because most of the time they dont realize the virtual power is way off ( see my example), so yes it would be a more level playing field if some races are restricted to power meter users, so that zwift doesnt think someone is doing 380 watt, when its really 220. after all, the point of playing a game is to win right.

utahp8ntballer

I'm finding Zwift to be very good at getting me to ride the trainer longer. I did 1.5 hours today and I've never ridden a trainer that long before. Sure I was watching TOC at the same time, but I was still Zwifting. I got the green and orange jersey at the same time. Held the green until I got done but someone took the orange away.

mvnsnd

From Zwift: