School me on Zwift

I must say I quite fancy one now. But don’t think I’ve got much chance of getting a new bike and a smart trainer past the FD! :joy:

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Give it a couple of weeks until the end of lockdown and the 2nd hand market will be awash with nearly-new smart trainers :rofl:

(Then make a tidy profit by selling it on again when the prices spike because of Lockdown 2 :roll_eyes:)

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Yes when I mentioned it to the wife I was reminded of all the weights equipment I recently purchased.

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I almost bought a neo 2 the weekend before lock-down (they were 899 at the time) but thought given I’m a contractor, that being careful with money given the likely economic downturn was a sensible decision.

I should’ve realized that if I did get canned, the turbo could’ve been sold at a profit for food!

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The new world will be a bartering economy with the main currencies being toilet paper and smart turbo trainers :rofl:

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I do have a fair bit of bog roll :thinking:

I use a dumb trainer, and have never even tried electronic shifting; I do wonder if I’m somehow missing-out. But you don’t miss what you’ve never had!

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When electronic shifting first came out I thought, whats the point. Then I got it on my P3. Will never buy a bike that doesn’t have it now.

I think my mindset with it is ‘more to go wrong’. The apparent built-in obsolescence in a lot of electronic products these days does make me reticent to “upgrade” a lot of electronic stuff we have around the home; certainly when it still works.

The single battery on Shimano (think Campy is the same?) is a slight risk, but eTap helps that as you can easily swap batteries between mech’s or have a spare. Problem is if the clicks battery goes, unless you have a CR2032 with you and a coin.

Got to admit though it is brilliant and usually very crisp shifts, but if cables are set up properly they are still good.

Our team bikes this year have all got eTap. It took a little while to get used to the shifting, but I’ve changed it to sequential shifting now, which is pretty cool.

What I’m not so keen on is the idea of having to link your bike gears up to the app and having to update firmware.

I don’t know whether we’ve just had a dodgy batch, but half of us have had problems with mechs going to sleep. Mine was the rear mech and fortunately happened within sight of home at the end of a 140km ride. Others have had issues with the front mech. Whichever mech it is, it’s completely unresponsive to the reset protocols, but if you leave it for a day or two it mysteriously fixes itself and works again :roll_eyes:

Tried it yesterday.
Was ok

Reminded me of using my old Tacx back in the day with the virtual landscape. I even had had the steering unit for that.

If I didn’t already have Perf Pro and a big TV to show Netflix, then it would be worth the $15 a month, but for me there’s no need

I was sceptical for a long time. The value is not in just riding around and visual engagement (I still use trainerroad for my actual training sessions), it’s in the races. Unless you try a zwift race that you try your best in, I don’t think you’d ever get the point. I think even avid zwifters like @Matthew_Spooner has said he only uses it for racing

I haven’t done a workout for several years - just race on it. If I want an easier ride, I’ll sandbag in Cat D and just launch the odd chase-down.

I have done a couple of those ‘led’ group rides, but the leader was constantly having to tell people no breakaway; it was a joke really. Almost all group rides end-up being competitive in my experience. So either ride ‘alone’ or do a race.

I’ve quite enjoyed doing a couple of social rides on it, just to add a bit of volume. there’s now about 8 members in my club who do a meet-up and talk ar$e, while using the Discord app on our phones. Only done the one race, and enjoyed it, but like @stenard, I’m still doing a TR plan, so can’t do too much racing on top of that.

I do group rides more often than racing, the 3R 3w/kg is just at the right sweet spot for me (comfortably hard). I can keep an eye out to make sure I’m in the pack but still manage to watch Netflix at the same time. Can munch away 2-4 hour rides like this that I could never do at that effort on the trainer and keep sane.
Also started doing the 3R interval rides, similar effect to racing, it is just easier to do a hard effort when you feel like your keeping up with other people rather than just hitting the numbers.

I’ve cancelled my membership but can still use Zwift until May 11th. I then plane to wait a couple of days and then activate my gift card for a years membership.

I’ve never cancelled Zwift before but can’t see where I can remove my payment card details? I could see them as a member but now I’ve cancelled, it doesn’t show at all?

I just want to make sure I’m not being Direct Debited whilst using my gift card.

Perhaps manually cancel the direct debit in your online banking app also?

Yeah I’m going to check that later mate. If it’s still in there as active I will cancel. I have a friend who dips in and out of Zwift all the time, he reckons it goes pretty smoothly.

If you dip in and out does it keep all your ride data for when you sign back up do you know?