The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Soldato
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After a bit of advice if possible.

The gym has some Wattbikes. I've finally worked out how to connect it to my phone for Zwift purposes. The issue being that i've connected it as a power meter, so i missed the cadence info. Not a huge deal but i'm also missing HR data which is a bigger issue.

I generally just use my Garmin for workout purposes and so record on that. Sometimes with a chest strap and sometimes without. Am i better to take my HR strap with me and connect it to my phone, and then is it possible for my phone to handle 2 connections (Iphone SE), i vaguely recall an issue years ago with an Apple TV where there were limits to the number of connections it could handle.

My other question comes with changing resistence, there's no option for Zwift to adjust the wattbike that the gym uses, there's just an airwheel with a slider similar to the Concept 2 rowing machines. As such it's a bit awkward to change resistance mid ride and i don't know where it's best to set it. Too low and i can't put power down when i want to without smashing a huge RPM, too high and i'm at a stupidly low cadence when i'm just pottering around.


Trying to workout whether it's worth persevering with or to just give up. For reference i'm not too bothered about racing as it'll be used on an erratic schedule, more just something to make it a little more interesting. I generally hate indoor cardio and so when i intend to do an hour, i get bored and do around 20 minutes!


I started out on a Wattbike in the gym using a old Samsung phone that supported ant+. Pairing the Wattbike power and cadence was permitted within the app, along with the chest strap. For resistance I varied the fan based on big hills and how much power I wanted to put out at my preferred cadence.

At home, with the Tacx bike and a iPad I can pair the bike and heart rate strap over bluetooth no problem.
 
Soldato
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Damn, you are on to me! I messed up getting ready for the 830am ZHQ race which only had about 10 people in. Joined the 1330 one which was busier and was doing really well until it got strung out on the last lap. The importance of positioning. Also did a casual 66 mile yesterday which had a amazing attendance at the start.
There seems to be more and more 'endurance' type group rides on there at the moment, but also 'less' races. I mean there are still a bunch on there but the numbers seem to be getting more and more condensed into 'popular' races than spread around like previously.

But does mean you can pick and choose your races if you want 'wins' - like me doing a saturday evening, long hilly ride gets a nice 1st place. But the reality is coming in early 10 minutes in front of 2nd place on a hard course at an 'unpopular' time to ride is just ego fluffing ('racing' against 6 others in C and the 2 up front getting DQ).

Getting into some of the competitive stuff and a 5th in a FRR stage race (vs 43 others in C), or a 3rd in ZRL (vs 77) or 10th in ZRL (vs 74) should be more impressive. But people only look down your profile for wins! ;)

Any recommendations for heart rate monitors to link up? Or anyone recommendations/tips in general for a new zwifter
Good work on the setup, you'll likely (using a HT) need to push the 'difficulty slider' right up to try and get some 'speed' out of the groupset. The gearing on that bike being made for trails/off-road not fast on-road.

I’d perhaps recommend AGAINST a Wahoo Tickr.

My first one, the original failed after about 3 years which was fine, I bought a Tickr2 which the strap broke after 3 months, replaced under warranty and now the second one seems like it’s on its way out.
My 7 year old (original) TICKR would disagree. Will admit I changed the strap (for an £11 Amazon one) last year, but 5 years out of a strap was probably 2 years too long, it wasn't losing any accuracy from it - just a poor fit.

I'd happily buy another TICKR. Wahoo also have one of the best supports in the business. I think Garmin are generally ok now, but they did have a few years where their chest straps had issues so people where buying other 'solid' straps to use with them. Still more money than the TICKR.

I use a Whoop band for HR as I like how it measures my other activities. Expensive - yes. The best - yes :)
Great advice other than this bit, Whoop are ok (currently half way through waiting my 16 weeks delivery time for mine), but they're quite far from being the 'best'.

They're not as accurate as generally any of the chest strap HRM's. But you don't buy a Whoop to be just a HRM. ;)

After a bit of advice if possible.

The gym has some Wattbikes. I've finally worked out how to connect it to my phone for Zwift purposes. The issue being that i've connected it as a power meter, so i missed the cadence info. Not a huge deal but i'm also missing HR data which is a bigger issue.

I generally just use my Garmin for workout purposes and so record on that. Sometimes with a chest strap and sometimes without. Am i better to take my HR strap with me and connect it to my phone, and then is it possible for my phone to handle 2 connections (Iphone SE), i vaguely recall an issue years ago with an Apple TV where there were limits to the number of connections it could handle.

My other question comes with changing resistence, there's no option for Zwift to adjust the wattbike that the gym uses, there's just an airwheel with a slider similar to the Concept 2 rowing machines. As such it's a bit awkward to change resistance mid ride and i don't know where it's best to set it. Too low and i can't put power down when i want to without smashing a huge RPM, too high and i'm at a stupidly low cadence when i'm just pottering around.


Trying to workout whether it's worth persevering with or to just give up. For reference i'm not too bothered about racing as it'll be used on an erratic schedule, more just something to make it a little more interesting. I generally hate indoor cardio and so when i intend to do an hour, i get bored and do around 20 minutes!
Yes Apple can only handle 2 BT devices at a time. As the Wattbike will only connect as a power source, then see if it appears as a cadence source too? Sometimes the single BT stream will include cadence, so you could then get power & cadence & HR showing. But for you I'd say connect the HR and the PWM, then see if it allows you to connect (or even shows) a cadence sensor. It likely won't, or Zwift will tell you 'you have too many connections' when trying to connect it.

One way around that could be to use 'Mobile Link' where you can connect 2 devices to your handset (or companion app on it) which then broadcasts them as 1 stream to another device where you would combine the 3rd. But we're talking phone and then also using an AppleTV. At a guess you're just using your phone at the gym? No real way around that, limitation of Apple/iOS I'm afraid. You can get 3rd party devices which would combine data streams to then broadcast to the iphone, think there's even a HRM which will. Although generally find people using them when they have ANT+ devices which don't broadcast on BT and need to convert (as again Apple/iOS only support BT and not ANT+).

As for the resistance, unless the Wattbike shows as a 'Controllable' trainer there's nothing you can do (as it means they're not ERG or FEC compatible). You'll have to continue to manually adjust to get the resistance required for what you need.
 
Soldato
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Good work on the setup, you'll likely (using a HT) need to push the 'difficulty slider' right up to try and get some 'speed' out of the groupset. The gearing on that bike being made for trails/off-road not fast on-road.

I didn't know this was an option, I'll look into this as you are right, theres not quite enough oomph using the current set up.

Grabbed a polar h9 as well for a HRM. Enjoying it so far and it feels good to be working out/exercising again after slacking for a few months now.
 
Soldato
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Has anyone tried one of the many no-name brand cadence sensors from Amazon? Wahoo and Garmin sensors are £30 - the unknown ones are around £18 which is better for cake money...
 
Associate
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Has anyone tried one of the many no-name brand cadence sensors from Amazon? Wahoo and Garmin sensors are £30 - the unknown ones are around £18 which is better for cake money...
I bought a cheap one a couple of years ago (brand was "lixa-da") - it didn't pair reliably and batteries went flat quickly. Newer models might be fine but if I was doing it again I'd go for the garmin or other good brand.
 
Soldato
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I bought a cheapy Speed+Cadence one many years ago, think it was actually Decathlon for £8 and was better made than the earlier Garmin one. Lasted longer in the winter/wet/rain anyway and wasn't any worse on batteries.

I do have a Wahoo 'Blue' cadence one, it's attached to an old crankarm I've not used for 4+ years and I keep finding it still showing up when searching for devices. It can't have had a new battery in over 5 years so well recommended on that alone lol :cry:
 
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Soldato
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My missus is thinking about getting a Peloton.
She won’t want anything else, although there are cheaper options. The complete package the peloton gives appeals to her.
Does anyone have one and anything we should consider before pulling the trigger.

To me, it’s an expensive option and I think we’d be better getting a cheap exercise bike and the app subscription but she wants to go straight in.

She doesn’t really want to go to one of the shops to try it, I think she’s a bit intimidated as we’re not fitness people so trying to research online.

The £40 subscription seems steep but you have to pay it. Are there ever any discounts ever for it? I’d pay half which helps.

Im also reading about a referral code for a discount on accessories, unsure if this is US only but if anyone has one, that’d be handy!
 
Associate
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The basic peloton app is not great. You have full class access, but no data is taken from your bike even if available (no HR/cadence/power). So you can’t be on leaderboards or see your previous performance. For me that would be a deal breaker, but for others it may not be.
 
Soldato
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I don't rate the whole peloton concept but if it's what your Mrs wants to use then it's got to be done.

I'm setting my partner up on my old turbo trainer and she can log in on my zwift. She really doesn't want it posting to Strava or seeing other people around her or other people seeing her so I'll have to disconnect my internet.
 
Soldato
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Just pay the extra for a proper one you'll know works.

If you ever ride with me, that strange, annoying squeak isn't from a cleat or saddle rail, it's my wallet! :D

Problem solved though - when I swapped my Assioma PM pedals off the turbo bike, I forgot to put the magnetic for my existing Garmin chainstay cadence sensor back on the crank arm :rolleyes:
 
Soldato
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Did my first Zwift (sprint) race in about 10 months... I had climbed into Cat C, but felt with current form and recent illness that Cat D would be more suitable. Went well, me and 5 others led out in front (of 17 in total). Dropped 2 in the first lap (of 2) and the 4 of us stayed together all the way round. I'd picked up an aero boost finishing the first lap, so I've picked my point about 0.7 miles from the finish, where the road drops and I could make use of my weight (I was the heaviest of all Cats according to ZP :( ) and would then try and cling on up the 0.3mi climb to the finish. It worked well, I switched the camera round to see behind and I was just able to hold out to the finish to take the win. My HR averaged 160 and hit 186 on the climb to the end, which I'm not sure I've ever seen so high! :eek::cry:

I finished with 2.8w/kg, so I really should have gone Cat C, but it took a huge effort for me to take the win, so I don't feel too much like I cheated :p
 
Soldato
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I don't rate the whole peloton concept but if it's what your Mrs wants to use then it's got to be done.

I'm setting my partner up on my old turbo trainer and she can log in on my zwift. She really doesn't want it posting to Strava or seeing other people around her or other people seeing her so I'll have to disconnect my internet.
I don’t think Zwift will run if you disconnect your internet! You can opt to save your ride without posting it to strava at the end and if she creates a meet up via the companion app she can ride in a world without anyone else in it. Slight downside for her, and I assume you are a lot heavier than her, is when she’s climbing up hills Zwift will think she’s you.
 
Soldato
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Yeh it will.
It what some people do if they are Zwifting on data rather than wifi.
Start the ride while connected, then disconnect.
Zwift will still work, but you don't get achievements or xp etc.
Reconnect to finish and the ride will upload.
 
Soldato
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I don’t think Zwift will run if you disconnect your internet! You can opt to save your ride without posting it to strava at the end and if she creates a meet up via the companion app she can ride in a world without anyone else in it. Slight downside for her, and I assume you are a lot heavier than her, is when she’s climbing up hills Zwift will think she’s you.

It does run you're just alone in the world as @Shadowness says.

I dropped the weight for her to have a spin on it, which resulted in 200 yards down beach Island loop. Zero interest.

I then went for a group ride and changed my weight back on the companion app, I'd already opened zwift so it didn't update. I had a nice Z2 ride whilst keeping up with the group easy. 3wkg was actual 3.5wkg or 5wkg was nearly 6wkg with my kwikmaff.

I don't get the flyers that go off the front in these either. It's not a race so just stay with the beacon.
 
Soldato
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Did my first Zwift (sprint) race in about 10 months... I had climbed into Cat C, but felt with current form and recent illness that Cat D would be more suitable. Went well, me and 5 others led out in front (of 17 in total). Dropped 2 in the first lap (of 2) and the 4 of us stayed together all the way round. I'd picked up an aero boost finishing the first lap, so I've picked my point about 0.7 miles from the finish, where the road drops and I could make use of my weight (I was the heaviest of all Cats according to ZP :( ) and would then try and cling on up the 0.3mi climb to the finish. It worked well, I switched the camera round to see behind and I was just able to hold out to the finish to take the win. My HR averaged 160 and hit 186 on the climb to the end, which I'm not sure I've ever seen so high! :eek::cry:

I finished with 2.8w/kg, so I really should have gone Cat C, but it took a huge effort for me to take the win, so I don't feel too much like I cheated :p

I hate to break the news to you, but you were upgraded to 12th in C... Where you clearly should have entered!:cry:
https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=2564527

You did a 1hr51min ride on Xmas Day at 2.68W/Kg according to the Elevate (former Stravistix) plugin, based on your power and weight details, while only riding in your z4 heart zone for 2mins26secs.
https://www.strava.com/activities/6425391653/overview

I'm calling you out, sandbagger! ;)
 
Soldato
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I’d pay half which helps.

Do you want Peloton?

Anyone looking to do the Festive 500 this year? I know the purist will say it's cheating doing it on Zwift but it seems like a nice goal to finish the year with regardless.

Completed it today. Big jump on time in the saddle for me with 13.5 hours for the week. Left knee has been complaining on and off too (but didn't stop me putting power down, with a new 1 hour power record today). I'm looking forward to a nice rest before normal service resumes.
 
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