The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread
- Thread starter randomshenans
- Start date
Heh yeah. I saw that one but thought it's not really throwaway cheap and considering the construction it's pricey but I guess it is cheap relative to others.
I'd guess he means ANT+ USB dongle.
But yes at least for Zwift you can connect to the companion app on phone to serve the data to Zwift and essentially use the computer as a dumb viewing terminal. I think they call it something like "MobileLink".
But yes at least for Zwift you can connect to the companion app on phone to serve the data to Zwift and essentially use the computer as a dumb viewing terminal. I think they call it something like "MobileLink".
My apologies, yes, that makes sense. What app do you train with? Yes, there's a good chance they have a phone app so you can train using your phone. It's worth checking your PC or laptop doesn't have Bluetooth and you might be able to connect direct without the dongle?
Soldato
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- 23 Nov 2004
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I've used the app to pair the turbo when my BT was being crap on the pc. Works pretty well as long as you're on the same wifi.
I've been loving Zwift/the new turbo since the weather has taken a turn for the worse. Numbers seem to be pretty good for November but a proper direct drive turbo does give less power numbers and also makes inclines harder coming from a Tacx Vortex.
https://www.strava.com/activities/6326798479/overview
This was absolute carnage with all groups off at once, the whole circuit was littered with small groups everywhere. I managed to stay in the top 20 most of it until no power-up on the climb whilst other did(and my legs being gone) meant a small gap opened. Lap or so recovery and did a decent final lap or two almost solo.
I've been loving Zwift/the new turbo since the weather has taken a turn for the worse. Numbers seem to be pretty good for November but a proper direct drive turbo does give less power numbers and also makes inclines harder coming from a Tacx Vortex.
https://www.strava.com/activities/6326798479/overview
This was absolute carnage with all groups off at once, the whole circuit was littered with small groups everywhere. I managed to stay in the top 20 most of it until no power-up on the climb whilst other did(and my legs being gone) meant a small gap opened. Lap or so recovery and did a decent final lap or two almost solo.
Really starting to get into Zwift now. Been doing a minimum of 100km for each of the past 4 weeks and seeing a massive difference. This week I got my first non-default bike, the Aeroad and set a new 20 minute best power (+14w from my previous record in August). I would like to get a podium finish before Zwiftpower tells me to go into group B and watch the race run away from me off the start line again.
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.
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.
Soldato
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- 17 Sep 2006
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- 4,275
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Yeh it is cheating on Zwift. 320 miles is easy, just follow the C pace partner at 26mph and barely any watts and watch the miles tumble.
I was trying to see if anyone in our club wanted to do a slightly harder Zwift Festive 500. Completing it in one ride. So far, no takers
Wow, ok I'm well overdue a catch up in here.
Had been riding well, some steady quality progress and being a competitive cat C is loads more fun than a back of the pack B. Aiming to stay in C. Quite easy when I've not had a massive increase in power, just my recovery is good, my surges stronger and my sprints longer. All adding up and means when I'm riding tactically I can really dictate the race/group around me. Rode ZRL and then the second season of FRR, but had a bunch of technicals. Laptop playing up meant it dropping WiFi at race starts, then signal drops when switching bikes/wheels in the pen. Got sick of it and 'lost the love' a bit, although was riding well.
Ran a shielded CAT5 out the house to the garage, mini switch in there to connect laptop physically to (rather than WiFi), also put my hotspot out there so my mobile (Companion app) has a better connection. Works well and ruled out some of the problems I was having.
Then things came to a bit of a climax at the end of the FRR series when I noticed I'd also cracked my trainer bike at the seattube/toptube junction. Thankfully Giant do lifetime frame warranty so back to the LBS it went to be assessed then wait for the replacement frame. In the meantime a friend sent me the thru-axle kit so I can run my other bike on the Neo... Great!
Got an AppleTV in a BF deal (thanks @UTmaniac !). Have done 1 ride on it and it was good, would really recommend to anyone - certainly at £100 seemed a no brainer than trying to source a Geforce 1650 for £150-200 then building a PC around it. May still do that in future when GPU prices drop back normal.
Got ill with a horrible head cold/flu after riding in the cold & rain. Lost a week of riding which hasn't helped... 11 days later now and still not quite 100%. At least with the weather a little warmer a freezing cold garage won't put me off riding quite as much.
That ride was ended when I had a horrible clunk sound from the Neo and erratic resilience. I'd just surged to close a gap (easy group ride and doing some sweeping), at a guess the fact my Neo was back to using a standard thru-axle (and not the extra strong ReAxle I'd fitted), the spindle had flexed/moved (what the ReAxle fixes) and clattered one of the magnets to knock it off, then it travelled to it's companion and knocked that off too, into the next one which also came off...! Disaster!
Took the Neo disk off and 3 of my magnets had come away from the disk. Great. A tricky repair and after several hours and 1 broken magnet I've given up. Impossible to glue them on by hand without some 'guide' or spacer to use. They're really strong neodymium (where the Neo gets it's name from) and the magnets around the disk are alternate poles, so they're really REALLY REALLY friendly with their neighbours. My early Neo OG doesn't have a plastic spacer/carrier that is on many of the later models designed to stop this happening (and reduce strain on the bonding strips they used to fit them). Thankfully there's a guy on the FB Neo Owners group doing a bunch of electrical repairs and servicing on Neo's. He's replaced magnets before on his own and has a 3d printer to print the carrier, so sending it away to him for repair. Fingers crossed! Although he's got no way of testing it's accuracy, I will when it comes back, only 1 magnet being different hopefully it's still pretty close...
So at the moment I'm at the point of nearly 2 weeks down on riding, still not quite 100% myself and have a trashed trainer & bike. I still have my original Tacx Flux V1 I'd boxed up to send away for a service/repair and never got around to. So current plan is to dig that out and see if I can get it stable power wise and ride it. It needs a new bearing and I couldn't get the lockring out, will have another crack at it if I can't get it accurate.
Several Saris/Elite options with the H2 or H3 being quite well recommended if you're doing ERG workouts. Direto XR also is very good, I'd probably go that way (if the KICKR Core was too much) rather than recommend the Tacx Flux (after my track record with it). But then again if the Flux coming in quite a bit cheaper would also be pretty hard to ignore, as they'd really ironed out all the issues in the current gen I found with my v1.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/11/smart-cycle-trainer-recommendations-guide-winter.html - always been my 'go to' for recommendations and has been very spot on with all of my experiences. He tends to renew every season, the info in there some of it is 2 years out of date, but not much has changed...
@DireEmblem if you need any advice on anything then let us know. Most of us have been Zwifting for a while (I have from near the start).
Also while talking about Race3R/R3R, there is an 'Ultra Endurance Academy' setup and being run with weekly training and rides for all taking part in a 12h on 15th Jan and then a 24 hour ride in February. Not just for 3R club members. Think their plan is to build up to it and also cross off some of the longer route badges while they do it, a 'Zwift Audax Academy' of sorts. This past weekend was PRL full and 6 hours for most of them. Group of nearly 60 finished it.
https://www.strava.com/activities/6341996738 - leader Rob K is doing it. Bit of an endurance master riding in memory of his lost daughter so raising funds for charity in her name. They had Mitja along too, absolute beast and some Slovenian Audax nutter. Just casually did a 2 hour 'warmup' and then carry on for another 4 hours (after the others had finished PRL) to do 12 hours. Insane, but also one of the nicest & modest guys you'll ever meet.
Had been riding well, some steady quality progress and being a competitive cat C is loads more fun than a back of the pack B. Aiming to stay in C. Quite easy when I've not had a massive increase in power, just my recovery is good, my surges stronger and my sprints longer. All adding up and means when I'm riding tactically I can really dictate the race/group around me. Rode ZRL and then the second season of FRR, but had a bunch of technicals. Laptop playing up meant it dropping WiFi at race starts, then signal drops when switching bikes/wheels in the pen. Got sick of it and 'lost the love' a bit, although was riding well.
Ran a shielded CAT5 out the house to the garage, mini switch in there to connect laptop physically to (rather than WiFi), also put my hotspot out there so my mobile (Companion app) has a better connection. Works well and ruled out some of the problems I was having.
Then things came to a bit of a climax at the end of the FRR series when I noticed I'd also cracked my trainer bike at the seattube/toptube junction. Thankfully Giant do lifetime frame warranty so back to the LBS it went to be assessed then wait for the replacement frame. In the meantime a friend sent me the thru-axle kit so I can run my other bike on the Neo... Great!
Got an AppleTV in a BF deal (thanks @UTmaniac !). Have done 1 ride on it and it was good, would really recommend to anyone - certainly at £100 seemed a no brainer than trying to source a Geforce 1650 for £150-200 then building a PC around it. May still do that in future when GPU prices drop back normal.
Got ill with a horrible head cold/flu after riding in the cold & rain. Lost a week of riding which hasn't helped... 11 days later now and still not quite 100%. At least with the weather a little warmer a freezing cold garage won't put me off riding quite as much.
That ride was ended when I had a horrible clunk sound from the Neo and erratic resilience. I'd just surged to close a gap (easy group ride and doing some sweeping), at a guess the fact my Neo was back to using a standard thru-axle (and not the extra strong ReAxle I'd fitted), the spindle had flexed/moved (what the ReAxle fixes) and clattered one of the magnets to knock it off, then it travelled to it's companion and knocked that off too, into the next one which also came off...! Disaster!
Took the Neo disk off and 3 of my magnets had come away from the disk. Great. A tricky repair and after several hours and 1 broken magnet I've given up. Impossible to glue them on by hand without some 'guide' or spacer to use. They're really strong neodymium (where the Neo gets it's name from) and the magnets around the disk are alternate poles, so they're really REALLY REALLY friendly with their neighbours. My early Neo OG doesn't have a plastic spacer/carrier that is on many of the later models designed to stop this happening (and reduce strain on the bonding strips they used to fit them). Thankfully there's a guy on the FB Neo Owners group doing a bunch of electrical repairs and servicing on Neo's. He's replaced magnets before on his own and has a 3d printer to print the carrier, so sending it away to him for repair. Fingers crossed! Although he's got no way of testing it's accuracy, I will when it comes back, only 1 magnet being different hopefully it's still pretty close...
So at the moment I'm at the point of nearly 2 weeks down on riding, still not quite 100% myself and have a trashed trainer & bike. I still have my original Tacx Flux V1 I'd boxed up to send away for a service/repair and never got around to. So current plan is to dig that out and see if I can get it stable power wise and ride it. It needs a new bearing and I couldn't get the lockring out, will have another crack at it if I can't get it accurate.
Wahoo KICKR Core, or possibly a refirb KICKR. Pretty much the 'go to' at that price point.
Several Saris/Elite options with the H2 or H3 being quite well recommended if you're doing ERG workouts. Direto XR also is very good, I'd probably go that way (if the KICKR Core was too much) rather than recommend the Tacx Flux (after my track record with it). But then again if the Flux coming in quite a bit cheaper would also be pretty hard to ignore, as they'd really ironed out all the issues in the current gen I found with my v1.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/11/smart-cycle-trainer-recommendations-guide-winter.html - always been my 'go to' for recommendations and has been very spot on with all of my experiences. He tends to renew every season, the info in there some of it is 2 years out of date, but not much has changed...
I think I can genuinely say that is the first time I've 'gaffawed' in many years!better question structuring?
@DireEmblem if you need any advice on anything then let us know. Most of us have been Zwifting for a while (I have from near the start).
Good work. Keep it up! Also ride some of the popular/busy series to get some really competitive racing to see where you stack up. Getting a podium in a 8 rider race is one thing, but to take one in a popular race series with several hundred is something else...!
Join the WBR500 for it. There's also a 'Festive 500' group setup and a bunch of group rides lead over the period with some very experienced riders/leaders. Prizes and you can even 'win' festive Rapha kit for it by raising money.Yeh it is cheating on Zwift. 320 miles is easy, just follow the C pace partner at 26mph and barely any watts and watch the miles tumble.
I was trying to see if anyone in our club wanted to do a slightly harder Zwift Festive 500. Completing it in one ride. So far, no takers
Also while talking about Race3R/R3R, there is an 'Ultra Endurance Academy' setup and being run with weekly training and rides for all taking part in a 12h on 15th Jan and then a 24 hour ride in February. Not just for 3R club members. Think their plan is to build up to it and also cross off some of the longer route badges while they do it, a 'Zwift Audax Academy' of sorts. This past weekend was PRL full and 6 hours for most of them. Group of nearly 60 finished it.
https://www.strava.com/activities/6341996738 - leader Rob K is doing it. Bit of an endurance master riding in memory of his lost daughter so raising funds for charity in her name. They had Mitja along too, absolute beast and some Slovenian Audax nutter. Just casually did a 2 hour 'warmup' and then carry on for another 4 hours (after the others had finished PRL) to do 12 hours. Insane, but also one of the nicest & modest guys you'll ever meet.
Good work. Keep it up! Also ride some of the popular/busy series to get some really competitive racing to see where you stack up. Getting a podium in a 8 rider race is one thing, but to take one in a popular race series with several hundred is something else...!
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.
Thanks, I ended up saying sod it and got a neo 2 SE. It arrived today, had to go out and buy a chain whip and cassette tool. Got home and turned the entire house upside down looking for my adjustable wrench failed. Went back out to buy one!
Bikes all set up and I’ve just finished the zwift basic ride/set up. Currently have a trek x-caliber 7 on it, can see me switching over to an actual road bike for it in the new year. I’ll keep an eye out for some local 2nd hand deals on one.
Given my home gym setup no space for a tv sadly where the bike has to go so I ordered an iPad mount and I’ll run off that.
Any recommendations for heart rate monitors to link up? Or anyone recommendations/tips in general for a new zwifter
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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 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.
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 10,648
I had a Garmin one previously which started to play up, I just replaced it with a basic one from wiggle at £30. Cardiosport it comes up as on zwift.
Seems to read pretty well with my max HR being 199bpm on zwift earlier which is about right.
Seems to read pretty well with my max HR being 199bpm on zwift earlier which is about right.
Just get on it and put the miles in! I'm by no means an expert and a bit of a noob when it comes to races but I'm at level 24 with just shy of 4,000km and 150 hours
- Don't underestimate how hot you get sitting still on a bike, even if it is December in England.
- Do a FTP test early on in your zwifting career to help you measure progress better.
- Download and use the companion app on your phone.
- Join the Everest challenge straight away. I forgot to do this, would have had that super sweet Tron bike by now. (50km of climbing)
- Use the inbuilt training plans to keep it interesting, make you accountable and feel like some form of progression. Make sure ERG mode is selected.
- Change up your routes, you get XP for completing each one the first time. More XP levels you up, more levels = better bikes and wheels. If you are doing a training plan and it's an hour then chances are with warm up, warm down and recovery sections between efforts you may only cover 15 to 20km in the session - probably even less if you picked a hilly course. So bare in mind you wont get the XP boost if the course isn't finished. You can still finish the course once the training is complete though but who wants to do that?
- When you are a few levels in read this to decide what to buy with your drop points and when. https://zwiftinsider.com/what-to-buy-at-each-zwift-level/
- It gets boring at times, I'm not going to lie. A good podcast or an ipad running something easy on the brain on Netflix is great way to get through it.
- I know you say no room for a TV but I have just changed my set up, I run it through an Apple TV box plugged into a monitor I "acquired" from work which I will soon be fixing to the wall. It works a treat. You really don't need a big TV for it. I was using a 55" and its way too big.
- I use a Whoop band for HR as I like how it measures my other activities. Expensive - yes. The best - yes
Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Sep 2006
- Posts
- 4,275
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Have a TV nearby and the miles will fly by.
Soldato
- Joined
- 23 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 10,648
Well done lasting that long on the turbo. I'd be in a state after that, I need to try a more round saddle before I try that.
Fingers crossed I'll get outside tomorrow for the first time in over a month. Wasn't meant to be as I was getting a boiler fitted but the guy has covid so that's a no go.
Loving the Tuesday night critty critty bang bang races as they are mass start. Riding in the front bunch with A riders is hard work.
https://strava.app.link/RQX9XDQzZlb
Fingers crossed I'll get outside tomorrow for the first time in over a month. Wasn't meant to be as I was getting a boiler fitted but the guy has covid so that's a no go.
Loving the Tuesday night critty critty bang bang races as they are mass start. Riding in the front bunch with A riders is hard work.
https://strava.app.link/RQX9XDQzZlb
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!
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!