thin_concrete

Hi diesel_dad - did you purchase this combo? I saw a couple/few Garmin speed/cadence packages on Amazon and want to purchase the correct one. Also, do I need a Garmin GPS/computer to make it work or for calibration? I don't own one, but rather a simple Sigma that I like and do not want to replace.

Thanks in advance,

tc

EDIT - I am looking for the path of least resistance to starting Zwift this winter (if it ever comes...). While I would prefer not to replace my Sigma, I will if need be, but at some later point. If I can use Zwift with just these 3 items, that would be ideal.

jmX

All you need is an ANT+ dongle and speed sensor if you have a supported trainer. No Garmin computer needed.

Or, if you have an iPhone you could you get a speed sensor that supports Bluetooth you won't even need the ANT+ dongle, it'll just use your phone's bluetooth to communicate with Zwift.

Do you know if you have a supported trainer?

thin_concrete

Thanks, jmX, for chiming in. I have a Travel Trac Comp Fluid trainer, so unsupported.

The sensors I was looking at are linked below.

Speed/Cadence:

https://smile.amazon.com/Garmin-Bike-...=Garmin+ant%2B

USB connection:

https://smile.amazon.com/Garmin-USB-S...=Garmin+ant%2B

I'll be using this with a MacBook Pro purchased earlier this year. Will this setup work?

Many thanks,

tc

jmX

That'll work, but make sure you get a USB extension cable to get that ant+ dongle out by the bike. ANT+ signals are weak and indoors are much worse for wireless then outside.

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-E.../dp/B00NH11PEY

thin_concrete

Thank you so much, jmX - I just finalized my order. I'll sign up for Zwift this week!

diesel_dad

Hi - Santa Claus has not arrived yet, so have not actually tried it. Will post when I do. It interfaces directly into Zwift on a laptop, so no need to upgrade your on-bike GPS unless you want to use the same sensors.

Ho Ho Ho
Todd

Robius

It's great, so far. I tried to watch a Sufferfest video during Zwift riding but Sufferfest videos requires a cadance sensor i guess. I guess i will buy one soon.

So i tried a Zwift workout(sweet spot training): https://www.strava.com/activities/454110605/overview

kpotier16

I've gotten the chance to try it on a cycleops phantom. I thought it was great, if you have a trainer that works with it, I would recommend it

chaadster

That would be ab-fab!

kaimat

The girlfriend and I have been using it quite a bit recently. Winter in Wisconsin has been pretty mild this year, so indoor riding hasn't been quite so necessary. Nonetheless, we've enjoyed Zwift so much I splurged a bit and a bought a Tacx Bushido Smart trainer to really feel the hills while riding. (If anyone is interested, bike-discount.de has them for $470 shipped to the US -- and the trainer is wireless so no need for the European power adapter.)

DaveLeeNC

I have found ZWIFT interesting enough that I have, now that my two free months (ala' Strava Premium are about to expire), started to pay the Zwift folks for their product. I guess the best answer to my question is "just show up and see", but exactly how does a race or group ride work regarding the peloton and drafting? Is it basically a big blob of riders and everyone in the blob gets drafting assist? Or is it like a 'real peloton' where you are primarily focused on your spacing WRT the rider in front of you?

All my riding so far on Zwift has basically been "TT mode" and I have never messed around with trying to draft. But I will say that the few times that I did I seemed to be constantly passing the guy in front of me.

A secondary question. What is the best view when racing or in a group ride? Is it the top view so you can better see your spacing?

Thanks.

dave

jtaylor996

Ok, I just gave zwift another try. After the update the wattage numbers are a better match to what strava is guessing, maybe a little more optimistic.

I did the FTP test, and I think my issue is that I suck. My FTP came out at 155. When I first started the app up it guessed an FTP of 246 for my. This means the first part of the test was way too hard for me. I couldn't hold the power for the second part of the warm up. This means my FTP part was probably a little low (but I'm not guessing by much).

I liked the richmond course. I'm still on the fence about joining up, though. But the experience was a lot better this time.

chaadster

I don't clearly understand what you're talking about here, but basically the link between Strava estimated power and Zwift ZPower, and that they should match up, I don't get at all. I honestly can't even get my head around it...

Are you talking about Strava estimated power for a Zwift virtual ride? I would have thought that Zwift submits its ZPower figures to Strava, and so there would be no Strava estimated power. I mean, you can't do a Zwift ride without some kind of power info (actual or virtual power), so how/why would that get stripped away for a Strava upload?

Or are you trying to compare real world ride power estimates from Strava to Zwift virtual power? If so, how? Have you actually ridden Richmond course and have Strava estimated power from that? Even if so, I'm not sure Strava estimated should be as accurate as ZPower off a trainer, or clear on what factors exist that should make the two power numbers align.

Sorry if I missed a post earlier which explained these things.

bored117 

I do have power meter (quarq) and first used dumb trainer (cheap magnetic). While it did work quite good, the abruptness of trainer and not road like feel killed it for me. I gave it a shot with fluid trainer which made it more enjoyable... but not having the hill vs automatic adjustment of resistance was bit anti climatic. My son and wife wanted to give it a go, but without power meter, it was... questionable to say the least. So I ordered a smart trainer and got it.
Elite Smart Digital B+ or something. I have been enjoying the structured workout it offers since then. Also, when going on free ride, it adjusts the resistance beautifully and could be quite immersive experience. My trainers power output was within about 5% of power meter reading. Only detracting part would be when you do structured workout, it's power output will change much much slower since it is based on speed of roller spinning more than the power you are actually putting out. I could imagine how it could be annoying if you are doing short interval training.
I eventually singed up and paying for it now.

jtaylor996

AFAIK, Strava has it's own estimations of power output, and doesn't get the values from Zwift at all. That's why it's worth making the comparison. I've been comparing both real world rides and side by side power output numbers between the two. I think Strava is using the heart rate and speed data, while Zwift is only using the roller calibration and speed.

When I first started, the numbers were way off (30-40%), but with the last update they're pretty close. If I had a real power meter then I'd know for sure, but I don't have one to make that comparison.

chaadster

That is incorrect; Zwift rides uploaded to Strava bring the power numbers with them, whether you're using a power meter or their virtual Z Power.

I still do not understand what you mean about comparing real road rides and side by side power numbers between Zwift and Strava.

I don't know how, aside from actually riding in real life the Zwift route, you could make any sensible comparison (between Strava estimate and Zpower), and again, I don't know that Strava estimated power show track Zpower (to say nothing if the route is not the same).

If you mean to say you're benchmarking off your perceived effort, I can only say that it is extremely difficult to compare a trainer ride effort to a real road ride. You cannot make a substantive comparison between the two.

jtaylor996

In my case it is correct. My ride uploaded to Strava from my Garmin 520, not from Zwift directly. That's why the numbers are different.

I am benchmarking vs perceived effort at a give speed (it's flat where I ride, so it should compare somewhat with effort on the trainer at the same speed). Yeah, I know this is a sucky comparison, but it's all I have to go on without forking over $1k for a real power meter.

chaadster

Okay...confusing. It is still not correct that Strava is ignoring or overwriting Zwift power data. So you're recording your stationary rides on a Garmin, not using Zwift (no ZPower), so why were we talking about comparing Strava estimates with ZPower?

In any case, I don't think you're doing yourself any favors with all this speculation and cross-comparison of dissimilar activites.

SpeshulEd 

If you're riding in zwift and tracking the ride on your garmin as well, you should upload the zwift data to strava. The zwift site even says that it won't match the garmin. Zwift is doing everything by watts, your garmin data will be very different than your zwift data.

PepeM

Tried Zwift properly for the first time yesterday. Did one of those 'Zwift Training Races' on the Richmond course. FTP is ~3.5 w/kg so went for the C race which is supposed to be for people in the 2.5-3.2 range. The supposed neutral start was far from neutral and fairly fast but nothing too crazy. Fell behind immediately but caught up before the actual start. Once the actual 'race' started we were moving at a decent pace, not too fast. Got dropped after ten minutes or so as I was having issues with the e-drafting. It was really hard for me to judge exactly how hard I should be pedaling. Basically, I fell behind a little bit so cranked it up which made me overtake the whole pack.Slowed down to try to merge with them but ended up way behind and couldn't catch up. Still rode the three laps, most of it riding with one other fella who beat be in the end by ten seconds or so.

All in all it was a blast. Probably the most enjoyable 90 minutes session I've done on a trainer. Still need to get used to e-drafting which is quite tricky and there also seems to be some lag between me changing my effort and my e-fella responding, which complicates things even further. Now I'm really tempted by a smart trainer but I'll try my best to hold off. Tried to replicate the climbs by switching to higher gears but obviously it is not the same.

SpeshulEd 

I think a lot of the folks who do the races or group rides turn off their ERG mode (if they have a smart trainer) as I've seen people say that's easier to keep with the group that way. To me this seems to kind of defeat the purpose. I can never seem to hang with a group either, I'm either too fast or too slow, usually the only time I can hang is when I'm in workout mode or riding the TT bike when I'm not trying to draft anyway.

If anyone hasn't noticed yet, if you ride the TT bike, you get 10xp every you go through a kom or sprint point instead of the stupid power ups, this makes leveling up come a bit faster.

And Watopia was expanded today with an underwater portion and gravel roads if you choose the "flat" route. The "hilly" route seems to be the same after a quick glance. I need to explore more tomorrow.

PepeM

I am guessing ERG is where the software controls the resistance? Funny to hear that, I thought part of the issue could be that on my dumb trainer I just keep my effort constant while on a smart one the effort would change based on the grade, so the group could be increasing its effort because they reached an incline while I'm still putting out the same watts until I notice they're going faster. Having a smart trainer and not using what makes them smart sounds like madness to me, although I am starting to think the lag (based on the response lag I've seen) might be a bit annoying.

SpeshulEd 

Speaking of lag, my macbook lags a bit when it's loading the map in certain spots, which seems to almost pause me for a second and then people always fly by me.

redcon1

I had my first Zwift 'crash' yesterday when I was sucking onto the wheel of a small group, and another rider came up from behind and muscled his way in front of me. We both veered right off the road suddenly and I had to sprint to catch the group.

I still have trouble catching and maintaining the draft of another rider or group. I am going to try the front handlebar view to see if it helps me judge the distance.
On a side note I rode portions of the actual course in Richmond this past weekend (albeit on the 29er MTB) including Libby Hill and 23rd St climbs. Fun!

jmX

If you have a phone video of that you could pm me that'd be great...I'm curious where you're seeing it. I'd look up your hardware spec in our customer service database but I'm not sure what your name is (you could PM me that too if you wanted).

PS, more than a million of those 'stupid' powerups have been used (not including the XP powerups)