MyWhoosh vs Zwift

[CXRAndy]

Our Internet connection this morning is. We are not wired or fibre, instead we use 5g mobile connection to EE.

 

[ColinJ]

View attachment 774588 Our Internet connection this morning is. We are not wired or fibre, instead we use 5g mobile connection to EE.

I thought about going that route to save waiting for this part of Todmorden to finally get fibre but decided that I want the security of 2 ways of getting online and making calls.

I live alone, have an iffy health history, and am getting old (ish!!) so I don't want to risk being cut off if the local mobile signal has problems!

 

[Milzy]

If you buy a cheap button you can use virtual gears in MyWhoosh and stay in the same sprocket. Pretty cheap & easy enough to set up.

 

[Alex321]

View attachment 774588 Our Internet connection this morning is. We are not wired or fibre, instead we use 5g mobile connection to EE.

We struggle for mobile reception in the house, no way we get 5g, not even usually 4g. We will need to have a digital phone over WiFi when landlines are ditched next year.

 

[ColinJ]

If you buy a cheap button you can use virtual gears in MyWhoosh and stay in the same sprocket. Pretty cheap & easy enough to set up.

The bike is a singlespeed, I was using virtual gears, but felt overgeared in the lowest virtual gear on the steepest slopes.

I reckon that the spread of MyWhoosh's virtual gear ratios was optimised for a 34 tooth inner chainring and a 14 tooth Zwift cog. My bike has a 40 tooth chainring, which would work better for me with a 16 or 17 tooth cog. I will fit a 17. I will try a cog from an old cassette, if I have one, but will buy a new singlespeed cog at some point.

I am looking for a suitable Bluetooth button pad to use as a gear controller. It is annoying that I can't use my Zwift Click with MyWhoosh!

 

[Milzy]

The bike is a singlespeed, I was using virtual gears, but felt overgeared in the lowest virtual gear on the steepest slopes.

I reckon that the spread of MyWhoosh's virtual gear ratios was optimised for a 34 tooth inner chainring and a 14 tooth Zwift cog. My bike has a 40 tooth chainring, which would work better for me with a 16 or 17 tooth cog. I will fit a 17. I will try a cog from an old cassette, if I have one, but will buy a new singlespeed cog at some point.

I am looking for a suitable Bluetooth button pad to use as a gear controller. It is annoying that I can't use my Zwift Click with MyWhoosh!

Yeah little bit of a faff but worth it. Free riding around virtual you change gears like crazy compared to outside. Stretching my cables but at least they’re cheap enough.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

As another alternative to Zwift, I've been aware of Watt Games on Steam gaming platform for a while and it is now on early access promo. It's certainly different!


View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2782020/WATTGAMES/

 

[Legs]

Yeah little bit of a faff but worth it. Free riding around virtual you change gears like crazy compared to outside. Stretching my cables but at least they’re cheap enough.

For real?!? That's was TD is for - I have mine set at about 30% so that I have something to push against on the hills, but without needing to change too frequently. I can do entire Zwift races on hilly terrain without needing to change gear at all...

 

[ColinJ]

For real?!? That's was TD is for - I have mine set at about 30% so that I have something to push against on the hills, but without needing to change too frequently. I can do entire Zwift races on hilly terrain without needing to change gear at all...

Hmm... That's an interesting option that I hadn't considered!

I will do that until I fix my setup, but then I will go back to 100% for most of my rides. (I want steep hills to hurt, otherwise they might as well not be there!)

 

[Legs]

Hmm... That's an interesting option that I hadn't considered!

I will do that until I fix my setup, but then I will go back to 100% for most of my rides. (I want steep hills to hurt, otherwise they might as well not be there!)

Watts is watts. I did this yesterday evening (24 hours after running an unplanned marathon!), on the back of my Zwift fitness.

 

[ColinJ]

I missed this post earlier.

Isn’t the virtual gearing configurable so that the physical gearing doesn’t need changing?

It should be, but I don't think that it is. I reckon the MW team consider that the lowest gear is low enough and the highest gear is high enough for the range not to need adjusting. If anybody knows otherwise, please tell me how to do it!

Instead of changing the gear, how about just not riding courses that have 16% ramps in them (yet)? If you’re not racing, this doesn’t really limit your experience at all. It’s just really about turning the pedals to generate power, after all!

I was caught out by the 16% ramp! I would be okay with, say, 11-12% so many/most routes probably would be okay.

If I used a TD of, say, 80% I could cope with 16+% too. That could be a good compromise for now.

Most of my virtual riding is done as workouts in erg mode, wherein the terrain and scenery (and all associated statistics such as speed and distance covered) are completely irrelevant to the experience. You could do the same workout on a flat course or up Alpe de Zwift and, if you were blindfolded, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

I was actually thinking about this on my (outdoor) ride this evening. I want the big climbs to feel like big climbs!

I will probably try to beat my PBs on hilly free rides where I will look at the virtual scenery.

At other times I will be doing more controlled workouts where I won't be looking at anything other hitting prescribed power outputs at prescribed times.

I stuck YouTube on when I got home, and look at one of the first videos it presented to me...!



Big Google Brother is watching us!!

 

[Milzy]

For real?!? That's was TD is for - I have mine set at about 30% so that I have something to push against on the hills, but without needing to change too frequently. I can do entire Zwift races on hilly terrain without needing to change gear at all...

I know but I want it to feel like it would outside.

 

[Legs]

I know but I want it to feel like it would outside.

Surely you need to find some middle-ground TD setting so that you're not "changing gear like crazy compared to outside"...?

I don't change gear much outside either. I think it's a hang-up from battling with downtube shifters in my formative cycling years - and not wanting to drop the chain by shifting ring when the chain's really under tension. Since I bought my Cervelo last September, I've done one hillclimb race in the little ring (and others in the big ring), but otherwise I don't think I've touched the left-hand lever!

 

[ColinJ]

Surely you need to find some middle-ground TD setting so that you're not "changing gear like crazy compared to outside"...?

I don't change gear much outside either. I think it's a hang-up from battling with downtube shifters in my formative cycling years - and not wanting to drop the chain by shifting ring when the chain's really under tension. Since I bought my Cervelo last September, I've done one hillclimb race in the little ring (and others in the big ring), but otherwise I don't think I've touched the left-hand lever!

I have done a lot of singlespeed riding round here. The bike was great for the valley roads, and some of the easier local climbs, but I couldn't get up any of the steeper ones. Well, I could... by walking the bike up them!

In the end, I compromised, and turned the bike into a 1x6-speed. I still ride it most of the time in the original gear but I now have other gear options if desperate.

I will sometimes use greatly reduced TD for virtual singlespeed rides. The rest of the time I will set it as high as I can subject to still being able to get up the Victory's maximum gradient of 16%. If that suits me, I won't bother changing the Zwift cog to a bigger one.