The Indoor Riding/ Zwift/ TrainerRoad etc. Thread

Roady · 14 Jan 2019 at 14:13

I'm knee deep in the Tour de Zwift at the moment. So February at the earliest I'm afraid!

Even have another project on the cards... Our old 38" TV is now free to setup in the garage so a bit of a reorganise is also needed (current 19" suspended on a monitor arm which is not strong enough for this 36"!) before I do anything. May also have an issue as my current Zwift PC ('meh' i5 laptop with a 740M connected on HDMI) not being beefy enough to run this 38" at 1080p. Think my current is running at 720p and struggles with single figure framerates at times (start of TdZ is close to 3-4 FPS!). I do have another PC I could use (old desktop) but need to figure if its worth the rebuild/reinstall hassle. Got an old AMD 7970 so if I can find benchmarks for one of those it'll decide it for me... :cool:

Berger · 14 Jan 2019 at 18:23

I saw you were in the TDZ with me but I must have started way down compared to you and wasn’t that fussed about killing myself and moving up. Rode 2.5-3w until the final climb.

How did you know the time splits to the guys in front? Did you start at the front so could see them or do you have another app?

Mine seems to limit number of riders on screen to maybe 100? and the mini map at any one time to help control frame rate.

When I upgraded my Zwift PC last year, graphics card made the biggest difference to frame rate by a long way.

Shadowness · 15 Jan 2019 at 08:56

I had quite a long day on the bike yesterday, and finally ticked off one of my cycling bucket list items - Everesting (albeit virtually)

I tried it once before on the other big climb in Watopia, but this was before Alpe du Zwift was released. I also went way too hard, and only lasted about half way up. Lesson learnt this time, as I was aiming to keep to a strict maximum of Z2 all the way, which is a comfortable recovery/endurance pace for me.

Surprisingly, the time went relatively quickly for the first half, as always Netflix was keeping me distracted.
For some reason, Zwift lost connection to the internet about a third of the way through, so I was riding alone (hence the KOM jersey). Thankfully the ride did save properly at the end!

(sorry I didn't resize the screenshot!)

I continued on to 9000m to finish on a nice even number. 10,000m would have been achievable but it was already getting late. Maybe next time!

Strava link too - https://www.strava.com/activities/2078732852

SDK^ · 15 Jan 2019 at 09:53

Shadowness said:
I had quite a long day on the bike yesterday, and finally ticked off one of my cycling bucket list items - Everesting (albeit virtually)

I tried it once before on the other big climb in Watopia, but this was before Alpe du Zwift was released. I also went way too hard, and only lasted about half way up. Lesson learnt this time, as I was aiming to keep to a strict maximum of Z2 all the way, which is a comfortable recovery/endurance pace for me.

Surprisingly, the time went relatively quickly for the first half, as always Netflix was keeping me distracted.
For some reason, Zwift lost connection to the internet about a third of the way through, so I was riding alone (hence the KOM jersey). Thankfully the ride did save properly at the end!

(sorry I didn't resize the screenshot!)

I continued on to 9000m to finish on a nice even number. 10,000m would have been achievable but it was already getting late. Maybe next time!

Strava link too - https://www.strava.com/activities/2078732852

I saw this on Strava - Super Kudos for it !!! I noticed your ride time and total time were the same (about 13 hours) Did you not even take a comfort break?

Shadowness · 15 Jan 2019 at 09:57

I did yeh, don't tell anyone but you get about 15 minutes of break on the descent, so I took the opportunity to quickly hop off the bike a few times then.

I've noticed many other people doing the same thing, so I think it's sort of acceptable

SDK^ · 15 Jan 2019 at 10:12

ahhhhh, yes, i see how that is useful

xdcx · 15 Jan 2019 at 10:14

Shadowness said:
I did yeh, don't tell anyone but you get about 15 minutes of break on the descent, so I took the opportunity to quickly hop off the bike a few times then.

I've noticed many other people doing the same thing, so I think it's sort of acceptable

I can endure mental torture on a bike with the best of them but I could not do what you done on Zwift. Massive kudos, well done!!

A picture on the Strava file of your avatar descending whilst you are off bike with feet up sipping a coffee would have been awesome though

platypus · 15 Jan 2019 at 11:59

Roady said:
Even have another project on the cards... Our old 38" TV is now free to setup in the garage so a bit of a reorganise is also needed (current 19" suspended on a monitor arm which is not strong enough for this 36"!) before I do anything. May also have an issue as my current Zwift PC ('meh' i5 laptop with a 740M connected on HDMI) not being beefy enough to run this 38" at 1080p. Think my current is running at 720p and struggles with single figure framerates at times (start of TdZ is close to 3-4 FPS!). I do have another PC I could use (old desktop) but need to figure if its worth the rebuild/reinstall hassle. Got an old AMD 7970 so if I can find benchmarks for one of those it'll decide it for me...

Do you want to set your old TV up in my garage instead? I can happily manage a 38" setup/desperately want a bigger screen.

Speaking of which someone at work happened to have a spare AppleTV (who has a spare?!) so I'm going to try out Fulgaz soon.

Also - can get you a decent spec PC from work for a £100 donation to charity (though seriously consider ~~giving~~ selling me your telly first).

platypus · 15 Jan 2019 at 13:37

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr fulgaz doesn't work with ANT2+ devices. PITA; I'll have to take the info off my garmin and manually add it to rides.

Roady · 15 Jan 2019 at 15:49

Berger said:
<snip>

When I upgraded my Zwift PC last year, graphics card made the biggest difference to frame rate by a long way.

Thanks, that helps

Shadowness said:
I continued on to 9000m to finish on a nice even number. 10,000m would have been achievable but it was already getting late. Maybe next time!

Strava link too - https://www.strava.com/activities/2078732852

Uttery utterly crazy but incredible ride! HUGE KUDOS really can't say that enough

platypus said:
Do you want to set your old TV up in my garage instead? I can happily manage a 38" setup/desperately want a bigger screen.

Speaking of which someone at work happened to have a spare AppleTV (who has a spare?!) so I'm going to try out Fulgaz soon.

Also - can get you a decent spec PC from work for a £100 donation to charity (though seriously consider ~~giving~~ selling me your telly first).

Hmmm, what spec? My old PC is a quad core Q6600 with 6gb RAM so it should be more than capable really. Even have a spare SSD.

Then again so many people raving in Zwift Riders about the AppleTV, at what? £150 or something for something that can drive 1080p. But factoring in the BT limitation (cadence from my Flux is screwy, so I run a separate sensor) and then adaptors needed to run HDMI I begrudge extra expense as I have the equipment just need the time. Also Apple. Don't have any iOS devices and moved away since 2011 as I'm not a fan.

platypus said:
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr fulgaz doesn't work with ANT2+ devices. PITA; I'll have to take the info off my garmin and manually add it to rides.

AppleTV also doesn't support ANT+, you'll need to use BT and then can only have 2 devices (so smart trainer & HRM).

Griffyn · 15 Jan 2019 at 19:39

Shadowness said:
I had quite a long day on the bike yesterday, and finally ticked off one of my cycling bucket list items - Everesting (albeit virtually)

Ride on! That is an impressive effort! What was your fueling strategy? As Strava shows an estimated 7.4k calories for that effort!

Roady said:
Big numbers, but take them with a pinch of salt with a Vortex! Calibration is key though, you're right about that!

Yep the Vortex over reads when comparing to other spin bikes/watt bike I use but what counts for me is that the watts are going up over time in Zwift and my weight is coming down so it gives me a way to track my progress. The biggest issue I find is the responsiveness of the unit to short climbs as that can cause some weird numbers for a few seconds until it stabilises but for the price very pleased with it as still "new" to getting back into cycling regularly.

Roady said:
I do have another PC I could use (old desktop) but need to figure if its worth the rebuild/reinstall hassle. Got an old AMD 7970 so if I can find benchmarks for one of those it'll decide it for me...

Do it! It sounds like you use Zwift a fair amount so sounds a worthwhile upgrade especially if you have a desktop/7970 spare.

xdcx · 16 Jan 2019 at 08:45

I got 3rd on TdZ stage this morning, it's died down massively. Front group was a snooze fest and numbers way down.

On the ZwiftPower site they have done away with showing who is CEVA verified on results etc? Anyone know why?

Also see on the TdZ stages it doesn't say what "position" you are in and doesn't show the race results style screen at the end either. I guess the softarses have all been moaning that it's "a race"....

platypus · 16 Jan 2019 at 09:35

Roady said:
mmm, what spec? My old PC is a quad core Q6600 with 6gb RAM so it should be more than capable really. Even have a spare SSD.

Hmm they're decent as they're dev machines, good processors (i7s) and lots of ram. The graphics cards are decent but not brilliant - enough to run multiple QHD monitors and some do have 4k.

Then again so many people raving in Zwift Riders about the AppleTV, at what? £150 or something for something that can drive 1080p. But factoring in the BT limitation (cadence from my Flux is screwy, so I run a separate sensor) and then adaptors needed to run HDMI I begrudge extra expense as I have the equipment just need the time. Also Apple. Don't have any iOS devices and moved away since 2011 as I'm not a fan.

Well its about 150 notes for 4k now; not just 1080p. In a box that small and cheap its easy to see why given the equivalant PC cost. I've only got an apple phone because it came free from my old job, don't particularly like Apple myself but the hardware does seem very good for its cost. No ANT2+ is annoying as you've said, but I always run my garmin at the same time when turboing so the data is being colelcted somewhere at least.

AppleTV also doesn't support ANT+, you'll need to use BT and then can only have 2 devices (so smart trainer & HRM).

Yeah I fired up Fulgaz last night; have to say it does look good (although on my scren its wasted - I think it needs a big tv (and 4k obv) to make it worth while. The lack of proper training programs might be an issue, but then having said that I can really see the benefit of running it alongside TR/SF and using it to do a big ride a the weekend in glorious 4k.

It's all moot; the commander in chief will never let me buy that sort of setup

.

Shadowness · 16 Jan 2019 at 10:42

Griffyn said:
Ride on! That is an impressive effort! What was your fueling strategy? As Strava shows an estimated 7.4k calories for that effort!

errr nothing special really. Eating something every hour, with a couple of M&S pasta salads for something a bit more substantial. And drinking a lot too. I tried to have a 500ml bottle every hour, seemed to do the trick!

Oh.....and a beer afterwards!!

merlin · 16 Jan 2019 at 11:18

Going to be switching to Powertap pedals shortly - will use them even on the trainer so I get consistency of numbers.

Q: Do I zero offset using my garmin then jump into Zwift? Is there even a zero offset function in Zwift?

Presumably with power pedals I don't need to use the Zwift calibration function?

TIA

Griffyn · 16 Jan 2019 at 12:47

Shadowness said:
errr nothing special really. Eating something every hour, with a couple of M&S pasta salads for something a bit more substantial. And drinking a lot too. I tried to have a 500ml bottle every hour, seemed to do the trick!

Oh.....and a beer afterwards!!

A well deserved beer!

Roady · 16 Jan 2019 at 15:31

Berger said:
I saw you were in the TDZ with me but I must have started way down compared to you and wasn’t that fussed about killing myself and moving up. Rode 2.5-3w until the final climb.

How did you know the time splits to the guys in front? Did you start at the front so could see them or do you have another app?

Mine seems to limit number of riders on screen to maybe 100? and the mini map at any one time to help control frame rate.

I see the splits by the rider list on screen, then also using the companion app if I'm mid-group and can't see the riders in front. When things are splitting like that I do tend to keep an eye on it, from other Zwift racing (with far fewer riders) as I like to bridge/chase!

I rode the early circuits in groups doing 3-3.5 but it obviously fatigued me as when dropping back to chase groups their average was still to much for me, so my average was dropping throughout. I then rode the final climb at around 3.25 (lower 3.5, middle below 3, top at 3.8) which I'm more than happy with as felt totally spent on the flats!

platypus said:
Do you want to set your old TV up in my garage instead? I can happily manage a 38" setup/desperately want a bigger screen.

It's taken me several years of bending the other halfs ear to get this!

I came close to pulling the trigger on an Iiyama Blackhawk 24 or 27" gaming monitor as they're great for the price. But for me ideally I want multiple HDMI inputs so a TV works better than a monitor.

Griffyn said:
Yep the Vortex over reads when comparing to other spin bikes/watt bike I use but what counts for me is that the watts are going up over time in Zwift and my weight is coming down so it gives me a way to track my progress. The biggest issue I find is the responsiveness of the unit to short climbs as that can cause some weird numbers for a few seconds until it stabilises but for the price very pleased with it as still "new" to getting back into cycling regularly.

I found the slow power curve of the Vortex influenced how I raced with it, I was able to overpower it so I could 'surge' on screen and nobody on a direct drive could stick with me. It became how I won races as I became a fairly competitive CAT B with it. When I switched to the Flux that went out the window and my racing/riding really suffered so much I'm now an average (sometimes competitive) CAT C.

The Vortex certainly overread most of the time, then underread on sprints, yet somehow surged. The Flux underreads. The more power, the more it seems to smooth and under read. Certainly don't get many big power 'peaks' on it like I do with my PWM outside, so my outside 800/900W sprints are closer to 500/600W on the Flux.

platypus said:
Hmm they're decent as they're dev machines, good processors (i7s) and lots of ram. The graphics cards are decent but not brilliant - enough to run multiple QHD monitors and some do have 4k.

Interesting, trust me as happy to pay a donation/your time in sorting something to get a more modern system than the old Q6600 (don't think the mobo even has USB2!).

merlin · 17 Jan 2019 at 09:23

Good fun on Stage 5 TOZ last night, I took the easy option of group B (20 miles):

https://www.strava.com/activities/2083499389

Didn't notice till afterwards Roady did the longer group A (30 miles), and Shadowness the group B (but I didn't spot him).

I will try to squeeze in the Alpe on Sunday but it's a case of timing, might have to go for a late evening slot. Great fun these TOZ stages. :cool:

Shadowness · 17 Jan 2019 at 09:33

haha yeh I chose group B as I'm still very much in recovery! Even keeping about 250W was tough!

merlin · 17 Jan 2019 at 09:46

Yeah I did figure your legs would still be sore after that big one!

I rode it at 95% intensity according to Strava, I kinda fluffed it up with a bit of soft pedalling mid way thinking it would charge the batteries - it didn't really work out, but it's fun trying different things.

I've never done the Alpe du Zwift (level 11 atm, guess it unlock level 12).