Zwift spins

irishrover99

J Madone wrote: »

What weight are you?

About 73 kg

lennymc

fat bloke wrote: »

What's the story with using a semi smart turbo on zwift? I have an elite muin ii. I haven't really been ar$ed about Zwift at all, but I am slightly curious. But, as far as I understand it, on the likes of my turbo I can transmit power data via the turbo or preferably through my garmin pedals, but the turbo can't take any cues from the zwift software in terms of changing resistance based on terrain elevation or drafting etc. I also can't transmit any speed data cos there is no spinning rear wheel to put the speed sensor on and the front wheel is stationary.

So - how does that actually translate then for me compared to everyone else? Does it just flatten the course for me and negate any downhill /uphill advantage?

Would I be better off on a set of rollers where I could be transmitting both Garmin speed and power?

As long as your bike is clean it doesnt matter...

Anyway, if your turbo transmits via ant+ or bluetooth to zwift, zwift will make the calculation as to how fast you would be going based on the power number it is receiving. So, if you were putting out 200 watts on a flat, and came toa hill, you would slow down unless you manually increased your resistance to get the increased power.

I used my power pedals to transmit to zwift, and the trainer adjusts resistance as neccesary depending on what zwift tells it, so you could use your garmin pedals as the power source, and either rollers or trainer for sessions. I did a roller session yesterday, and was able to hold 300+ watts on the roller, but would struggle to get much more than than due to lack of resistance. For just spinning around, or doing sessions in particular zones, you should be fine on either.

fat bloke

Cheers Lenny. Might give it a go for the laugh. Though I barely have legs for light training these days, let alone racing.

lennymc

fat bloke wrote: »

Cheers Lenny. Might give it a go for the laugh. Though I barely have legs for light training these days, let alone racing.

you will be fine. At least if you get dropped, it's a short walk back from the pain cave....

Daroxtar

This is what you're now up against!!
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/de-gendt-pulled-from-zwift-race-for-going-too-fast/#disqus_thread

CramCycle

Doing Deeside at 20:25 if anyone is bored, short enough at 24km

Crocked

fat bloke wrote: »

What's the story with using a semi smart turbo on zwift? I have an elite muin ii. I haven't really been ar$ed about Zwift at all, but I am slightly curious. But, as far as I understand it, on the likes of my turbo I can transmit power data via the turbo or preferably through my garmin pedals, but the turbo can't take any cues from the zwift software in terms of changing resistance based on terrain elevation or drafting etc. I also can't transmit any speed data cos there is no spinning rear wheel to put the speed sensor on and the front wheel is stationary.

So - how does that actually translate then for me compared to everyone else? Does it just flatten the course for me and negate any downhill /uphill advantage?

Would I be better off on a set of rollers where I could be transmitting both Garmin speed and power?

Pretty much as you say, everything will work fine you just wont get any feedback on gradient. I used a basic wheel on trainer at first. You'll still go slower uphills and faster downhills, the system doesn't care what trainer you are on just what power you are putting out.

Only thing you'll have to watch for is when there are hills. Everyone will hit the power but as you won't feel you are on a hill you might not notice until you are dropping out the back on the climb. It shows gradient in the top right and a course profile to just keep an eye on that you can adjust your power when needed. Its good craic just dont take the races seriously as all sorts of messing with people sandbagging or thinking they still weigh the same at at 50 that they did on the first communion!!!

CramCycle

CramCycle wrote: »

Doing Deeside at 20:25 if anyone is bored, short enough at 24km

Boom, upgrade to 1st after the 1st place person was DQ'd. Also upgraded to B though for future races, so that's my fun for the year over

Crocked wrote: »

Its good craic just dont take the races seriously as all sorts of messing with people sandbagging or thinking they still weigh the same at at 50 that they did on the first communion!!!

Funny the amount of lads who are 30kg lighter than they were mid racing season last year, obviously a good winter regime was stuck too :pac:

Weepsie

Signed up to Zwift again, but havnt used it yet. Still going with Road Grand Tours at present. 2.5 laps of Pienza. You sit there, pedal away, take it nice and easy then they say here's a strava segment and trick you into bloody slaughtering yourself up some virtual hill.

woody1

working on a dumb turbo with speed and cadence and ant+ so virtual power

got an idea of how accurate / innacurate it is last night, did a tt with some people that i know and i would know how close or far away i would be , and i was miles off , my ftp is 220w ish obviously i dont have a power meter but its there or thereabouts .. zwift has it at 170 .. ended up over 5 minutes behind someone i know that id be between a minute and 2 minutes behind .. i used to think the likes of this wouldnt bother me, its still a workout, but its hard to let it go..
cant justify the expense of a power meter though .. or a smart turbo

Daroxtar

cant justify the expense of a power meter though .. or a smart turbo

Yet.... It's only week 1 of the lockdown

lennymc

Bargain power meter! 250ish for a 4iiii 105.

ratracer

woody1 wrote: »

working on a dumb turbo with speed and cadence and ant+ so virtual power

got an idea of how accurate / innacurate it is last night, did a tt with some people that i know and i would know how close or far away i would be , and i was miles off , my ftp is 220w ish obviously i dont have a power meter but its there or thereabouts .. zwift has it at 170 ..o

Mine’s gone the opposite way! When using PM my FTP was about 270 through the winter. Put my old bike back on the turbo, using the built in power in the trainer my FTP jumped to 317 after the second spin :0
Now I’d like to say that I’ve just become super human, but alas no, I’ll still struggle to keep up on the road, whenever that happens. I don’t take the numbers on Zwift to seriously, it does give a great workout though so happy enough to continue with it for the foreseeable future.

dahat

Anyone raced on a non smart turbo? How did you find the pace & gear changing whereas others have smart turbos doing the changes for them?

Power is fine as I've a power meter in the bike.

reg114

folks where are you buying an ant+ dongle ? I have a non smart turbo with speed and cadence sensor, just need a dongle.

CramCycle

reg114 wrote: »

folks where are you buying an ant+ dongle ? I have a non smart turbo with speed and cadence sensor, just need a dongle.

Youll get them on Amazon for under 20euro

CramCycle

I see CI have announced their second race, 10:05 Saturday morning 3R Sand & Sequioas Race.

JimmiesRustled

CramCycle wrote: »

I see CI have announced their second race, 10:05 Saturday morning 3R Sand & Sequioas Race.

Be better placed height doping than weight doping for that one. More aero apparently. There's a 2 minute 2% climb first and then about a 4.5 min climb thereafter. Aside from that it's all flat.

lennymc

at long last being a short arse is useful for something!

Macy0161

First event this weekend - Haute Route Watopia. Tried a group ride, but my connection played up, so no idea what to expect.

woody1

dahat wrote: »

Anyone raced on a non smart turbo? How did you find the pace & gear changing whereas others have smart turbos doing the changes for them?

Power is fine as I've a power meter in the bike.

did a tt race the other day, mostly flat, i wouldve thought the pace was a little low for the effort i was putting in, ive no power meter though so how accurate that is is up for question, but i would say it slows and speeds up accurately enough in relation to the slope your on, hard to know without having used a smart turbo to compare it,
how do you use a power meter and a dumb turbo, do you have to set the turbo to a set resistance still ?

CantGetNoSleep

Macy0161 wrote: »

First event this weekend - Haute Route Watopia. Tried a group ride, but my connection played up, so no idea what to expect.

That looks like a good thing for us non-racers / sportive riders. Three stages and all quite tough it seems

dahat

woody1 wrote: »

did a tt race the other day, mostly flat, i wouldve thought the pace was a little low for the effort i was putting in, ive no power meter though so how accurate that is is up for question, but i would say it slows and speeds up accurately enough in relation to the slope your on, hard to know without having used a smart turbo to compare it,
how do you use a power meter and a dumb turbo, do you have to set the turbo to a set resistance still ?

Power meter is crank based & would have to use gears for resistance as my turbo is direct drive.

monkeysnapper

irishrover99 wrote: »

Finished 5th in a crit race last night. Was in the hunt until my trainer came off the protective floor mats and I had to stop for 20 seconds.

Obviously the power is not probably accurate but is the speed?
It was the hardest indoor training I’d ever done and it was going like the clappers from the start so the effort was very very real.

https://strava.app.link/me3Uogvak5

I am using an unsupported turbo with cadence and speed sensor.

I did my 1st ever race today on crit race ..... I missed my 1st race then when I finally started my crit race my bike came off turbo and I spent minutes trying to put back on ....

Theres no limit to the amount of stupid things I'm capable of ....even falling off a bike on a turbo.....

This is the reason some cyclist need to stay off the roads during a pandemic....

I came 60 out of 113

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/3WKfgOJ7n5

Macy0161

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

That looks like a good thing for us non-racers / sportive riders. Three stages and all quite tough it seems

Tried and Zwift crashed. No idea was it my phone or zwift or a combination. It's a bit blurry on the more detailed routes anyway, so I suspect the phone just couldn't handle the mass start.

daragh_

Did the D race today. Was good fun despite spending the whole race relentlessly drifting towards the back. Nice to see some familiar names (passing by at speed).

fat bloke

Another general Q about Zwift if I may. - What's it like on Broadband resources? Is it hungry?

CramCycle

daragh_ wrote: »

Did the D race today. Was good fun despite spending the whole race relentlessly drifting towards the back. Nice to see some familiar names (passing by at speed).

Only arrived 3 minutes before race start so was near the back. Put the hammer down for the first 30seconds and then just struggled to hold on. It was hilarious bouncing off people for the first 30 seconds. Got up to 450th and stayed in or around there for most of the race, getting slightly higher over time as we overtook shelled riders. Got my A4 sprint in to pip a guy for what I think was 420th. At one point I seen a rider shooting into the forest on the climb and then bouncing back out through the bunch, for a minute I wondered were Lenny and RobFowl messing about.

deconduo

Did the ramp test last week which gave me an FTP of 195W, that put me in the C category for today. I think that was a very ambitious target - I managed to average about 160-170W for the first 40min and than ran out of steam, averaging 120W for the second half.

Was good fun though, just about finished in the top 1000 :pac:

daragh_