Zwift online cycling

[lilmira]

Just got my invite for beta. Too bad that I don't have an Ant+ dongle. I'll have to wait till they get it working with Ipad. Supposed to officially start some time in Jan. Judging from the one day wait time to get my invite, I say they are pretty close.

If you don't know what this is, it's sort of an online cycling game. You hook up your trainer to a computer, it interprets your effort and transforms it into your performance in the game. Bottom line, you pedal hard to go faster in the game. There are already quite a few pro cyclists signed up and online regularly. It should be 10bux a month. You can probably cheat if you really want to but it sounds pretty fun to me. It should work well with my kickr.

http://zwift.com/

[VTEXTC]

Can you participate if you have a spinning bike? Looks like a good way to get social and train away during the mid winter blues.

A

[bigboom]

You got your invite already? When did you sign up? I've been waiting since October...

[lilmira]

You can ask them. As long as they can calibrate the effort on your spin bike, I don't see why not. You'll still need a sensor to transmit your input, a cadence sensor on the crank should do it. For feedback like wind and gradient, you'll need a fancier trainer.

[nzwasp]

I wish it supported minoura trainers.

[msommers]

Man that's so cool!

[lilmira]

Originally posted by bigboom
You got your invite already? When did you sign up? I've been waiting since October...

I signed up like a few days ago lol. I think they are selective with your hardware. For some reason they thought that I have a Ant+ dongle.

Originally posted by nzwasp
I wish it supported minoura trainers.

They are just starting up. I don't see why they can't support Minoura trainers. They just need the resistance info from Minoura.


May be we can start a Beyond league in the future, loser buys a round of beers lol.

[msommers]

No, I'll be poor buying you guys beer

[lilmira]

Then you strategy will be to fatten up the leader with beer lol.

Just did my first two laps on Zwift Island. A bit over 8 min a lap for me. It had a hill section in the middle then down hill and sprint for finish. Saw quite a few people there and blue bots. Works well with my kickr. The resistance changes gradually with the gradient, I didn't feel like hitting a wall all the sudden. It's not a long lap but it got me sweating pretty good. It's quite interesting as there are people for you to chase or ride away from if you feel like. The founder Eric Min has the fastest lap time right now. Ted King is a min behind. I'm 30 sec behind Laurens ten dam, well he's probably on his recovery lol.

[msommers]

What kind of trainer do you guys have for this? I have my Garmin ANT+ for heart rate and speed/cadence but a manual resistance trainer from Kinetic. Do you guys have electronic ones?

[lilmira]

It says coming soon for kinetic. One thing I'm not sure about dumb trainer with manual adjustable resistance is that it wouldn't know which level your trainer is set at, so it may be a loophole for cheating. I don't really care personally, you don't win anything anyway. You'll need a dongle to transmit the signal from your sensors to your computer then to their server. I had to go buy one today. It says support for iPad coming soon but I'm not sure if it's running off iPad or just using iPad as accessory, I know they are testing an app for secondary screen on idevice currently.

Just did 6 laps, sprinted with some random guy at one point. I pulled up, accelerated and he followed, fun time haha. This is definitely better than looking at a wall.

[phreezee]

Anyone try this? Virtual training partner seems pretty cool and free for now. Would love a Kickr trainer with this, but poor.



http://zwift.com/

[lilmira]

Been on it since the new year with my Kickr. The latest update turned my Kickr into dumb trainer, they are looking into it and hopefully it will be fixed soon. Other than that, I like it. I've logged almost 100 hrs already. I can put in fairly realistic effort at the convenience of my own basement. I really like the combo of Kickr with Zwift, it's a bit of money but totally worth it.

This is the old thread.
http://forums.beyond.ca/st/388455/zwift-online-cycling/

[phreezee]

Crap, sorry I missed it... had the forum set to last 30 days.

[ZeroGravity]

bumping an old thread...

with the weather these couple of days, i guess bumping this thread about indoor biking isn't exactly right... anyway, who's still on this?

I got on about a month before the beta ended. Haven't joined a lot of group rides as I can only be on after the kids are settled in. Got in the group ride with Lauren Ten Dam a couple of weeks ago. Didn't even manage catch up to "see" him :P. Should have just let him lap me or something.

[BavarianBeast]

Isn't this the same thing as those expresso bikes? I enjoy riding them.

The only way you can get me to do cardio indoors is to chase dragons around in a chariot. Haha.

[nzwasp]

Looks like it supports my trainer now. Might have to try it out when I get my projector back.

[lilmira]

Yeah I'm still on. Finished the 12wk ftp program a few weeks back. My ftp is exactly the same as before lol, not getting worse during winter is good right?

I rode with LTD, T King, Fumi Beppu and few other guys on the Trek team. Even some of the regular joes on there are pretty fast. I watched them race on Tuesday while I'm doing my workout mode, I think I may be able to hang with Group B, not a chance in Group A.

[ZeroGravity]

Originally posted by lilmira
Yeah I'm still on. Finished the 12wk ftp program a few weeks back. My ftp is exactly the same as before lol, not getting worse during winter is good right?

I rode with LTD, T King, Fumi Beppu and few other guys on the Trek team. Even some of the regular joes on there are pretty fast. I watched them race on Tuesday while I'm doing my workout mode, I think I may be able to hang with Group B, not a chance in Group A.

I couldn't imagine catching up to any of the regulars. Some regulars, such as bath salt, who is apparently 90 kg, are well known even among the zwift people and some pros.

[lilmira]

I recognize that name, pretty sure he passed me lol.