Finally got round to signing up to zwift. I’m on PC with a Garmin ANT+ dongle. My power meter has connected but it’s not picking up my Garmin HR monitor. Any ideas?
Should I connect it to my Fenix 5 and re broadcast it from there? Not tried that yet.
Not sure how many channels Your ant+ stick can handle as it’ll be picking up your power meter and also the cadence separately
Thanks apparently USB 2 can handle 8 channels. Tried it today and its picked it up.
Just going to try my first Zwift.
That’s why I need an ANT dongle with the Surface Pro, so it can connect to both PM and Tickr HRM ( they can broadcast using either, which is a bonus)
near trick I’ve just discovered!
Double tap your orange arrow whilst looking on the map on the companion app.
Gives out ride ons for all in close proximity
I’m using a dumb trainer currently. Is there much benefit to a smart trainer? I have power meter anyway so getting those metrics. Just means I have to manually adjust the resistance. Annoyingly I can’t find the mount for the resistance unit.
Appreciate finding one is going to be hard in this climate. But are they really worth the £700+ they are going to cost?
Having been a user of sufferfest on a dumb trainer, then going smart the difference to me was massive.
I used to hate it, admittedly I had no power numbers but guessing rpe.
Wifes been using the dumb trainer now with virtual watts… But she’s constantly having to tweak gears and cadence to match power.
Smart just lets you ride and not think.
Now on zwift, the few times ive lost trainer control so effectively a dumb trainer Ive hated it. Far less engaging. Im absolutely loving riding the hills.
Worth every penny imo.
Yes for me a smart trainer was all about ERG mode
Workouts are so easy now. The turbo does all the thinking, I just have to pedal.
I think SIM mode and Zwift obviously work very well together and I think as people have been discovering it’s quite fun!
Yes, I found it to be easily worth the cost. As others have said, I used to find dumb turbo training a chore. Inertia was also really poor, despite it being a reasonable fluid trainer.
On the smart trainer, inertia is way better (and is no doubt even better if you got one of the top ones). Direct drive takes all the guess work out of tyre pressure etc. No tyre slippage. Erg is excellent for proper workouts. And the sim mode for zwift is helpful to stay in touch with groups (right when you need to ramp Watts up a short kicker, the resistance will increase making that easy).
I couldn’t imagine going back to a dumb trainer now.
The only slightly annoying thing about direct drive is that I have an 11sp TT bike and 10sp roadie. I can still do erg workouts on the roadie as I just find a smooth running gear and let the trainer do the work. But couldnt use it for sim mode as changing gear would cause issues. And I can’t be bothered to swap cassettes on the trainer. Means I’m doing all my riding on the TT at the moment. The solution is obvious though, get another bike…!
On a meet up this morning, a club mate who’s spent a lot more time on Zwift than me, explained how you achieve an aero tuck and super tuck on downhills. Seemed like cheating when you stop pedalling on a turbo, compared to real life.
Mate of mine did a couple of reps of the Alpe the other day.
12 minutes to get down it.
He jumped off the bike had a shower and a change of clothes ready for the next rep up 
It only works on the really steep gradients. Otherwise you do lose quite a lot of time. And if someone puts out massive power they’ll still go faster. But I’d say it is reflective of reality. Past a certain speed there’s no point pedalling and I just get as aero as possible.
The key difference is on zwift you can literally get off the bike and have a stretch. On the road, you’re obviously concentrating harder than ever at 50mph. On the descents on the Etape, my forearms were burning by the time I hit the bottom…a different type of physical effort, but you certainly can’t just relax!
Fairly conclusive on the smart trainer then. Might keep an eye out on Ebay. Although suspect I will get my pants pulled down on the price.
Just bought all that gym kit so might need to leave it for a while.
If I stop pedalling and go into super tuck… My f&£king connections drop!
So no freewheeling for me 
When does zwift calculate your ftp, is it a constant rolling thing, based on some calculation within each of your rides? Or do you have to do a test first?
I’m thinking about having another couple of easy days and then trying a ramp test at the end of the week, in the evening when it’s cooler in the shed.
A good target for me right now would be 3 w/kg. That’s 219 @ 73kgs. I reckon I’m maybe 5-10% under that right now.
I think you can either do a formal test, or like training peaks, it will recommend updates if you do a really hard effort that suggests an increase. From what I can tell, it seems to take into account the duration of the effort, so not just 95% of 20min best.
219? You did 235AP for 51minutes on Sunday?!
Oh did I? You know more about me than me!.. So I did. So that’s about 3.2
I guess I should aim to drive up to 3.5 and then maybe genuinely participate in the 4 w/kg thread. Cheers!
I was pondering getting a turbo to get me through lockdown, but it looks like I’ve missed the boat on that one. Everyone seems to be sold out on smart trainers and dumb trainers with no stock expected until next month.
Same. I have a dumb trainer but looked to get a a smart one to make the Zwift experience better but no stock. Not even on Ebay really as a lot say collection only.
Would cost a small fortune to post I’d imagine - mine weighs a bloody tonne