Zwift Chat

[mjd1988]

Surprised so few people have had a bike fit (I also haven't to be fair).

I see DCrainmaker is following the rider changing weight story.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2022/03/zwift-weight-caught-cheating-changing.html

 

[Spartak]

Surprised so few people have had a bike fit (I also haven't to be fair).

I bought a Mason a few years ago and went down to their place near Brighton to be fitted and then test ride for one of their excellent bikes...

 

[steverob]

The only time I've had a bike fit was when I bought my current bike and the bike shop threw it in as part of the service. My previous bike I'd tried to do it myself and I think I'd got it kind of right (eventually), but it was nice having a second pair of eyes to watch me riding and then be able to fine tune it. And as I haven't made any adjustments since nor have had any problems, I guess he must have got it right!

 

[Aleman]

Surprised so few people have had a bike fit (I also haven't to be fair).

Me too👍 Although in my case I did have a bike fit to help relieve numbness developing in my hands. Also the standard setup gave me too long a reach so was hurting my back.

Have used same setup on all my bikes since and it works.

As for a sore @rse, and numb bits, can I remind you of rule #5

 

[Legs]

Did a second ride on RGT last night around the Durango course. My cough has gone away so I had a bit more of a push. Though I'm well down on power, it was nice to spin the legs around. My takeaway observations:

It's unbelievably boring. The scenery passes really slowly and, because a lot of the roads are straight, there's little sensation of speed.
Although there are bots around to try to chase down, they seem to be doing interval training; 'Harmon' was pootling along at 2.9w/kg until he hit the climb, whereupon he held 5.2w/kg for its duration. It's difficult to manage your expectations of whom you're going to chase down and catch if the bots are riding so inconsistently. I saw three real people out on course, one of whom was stationary.

The only other subscription-free course is Stelvio, which might be a little better, but I suspect it'll be a long, featureless slog. I'll give it a try if I get a touch of insomnia.

I haven't worked out the meaning of the colour-coded stripe under my name on the screen and up the sidebar. My wattage appeared a bit less consistent than when I ride Zwift - is it an instantaneous power, rather than a 3s average? I've got no idea what's going on with the in-game segment leaderboards - are they all-time, or today, or of current riders? Either way, it all seems a bit irrelevant if you're not near the top. Not sure why I need my time measuring to the nearest thousandth of a second... Oh yeah, I'm calling BS on the Czech guy who appears to have done the Shalona climb at 48.4km/h, too.

Races might be a different matter - I can imagine that, against IRL competitors, it'd be good for a change. However, I can't see any attraction in riding RGT over Zwift for free-rides or workouts, unless I were to be completely abandon Zwift and save myself the subscription fee.

 

[Peter Salt]

Haven't done my RGT ride yet but I was thinking of using it almost exclusively for crit racing. That way my ZP results (and category) won't get skewed by short races. I also heard it's a bit more realistic with all the breaking and accordion effect and whatnot.

 

[Joffey]

Haven't done my RGT ride yet but I was thinking of using it almost exclusively for crit racing. That way my ZP results (and category) won't get skewed by short races. I also heard it's a bit more realistic with all the breaking and accordion effect and whatnot.

Breaking?? How does one brake?

 

[<Tommy>]

Surprised so few people have had a bike fit (I also haven't to be fair).

I have had bike fits in the sense that I know how to set a bike up in terms of saddle position, stem length and height etc from reading and then trial and error to really dial it in. Its all out there on the internet.

On a side note I’ve met so many chancers in life I wouldn’t go and get a bike fit from a random who calls himself a bike fitter. I’d make sure I did due diligence first. Basically anyone can call themselves a bike fitter if they want to. There seems to be a few different methods and the conclusions are often contradictory. I’m not saying it’s a complete scam but I think it’s rife for abuse.

 

[bridgy]

Breaking?? How does one brake?

ON RGT you automatically "brake" when going into corners - you don't do it, the software does. But it slows you down, so you have to pick your speed back up as you exit the corner

 

[<Tommy>]

Breaking?? How does one brake?

You naturally brake when you go around corners or when you go into the back of someone.

 

[bridgy]

ON RGT you automatically "brake" when going into corners - you don't do it, the software does. But it slows you down, so you have to pick your speed back up as you exit the corner

You naturally brake when you go around corners or when you go into the back of someone.

Look at us two being experts on RGT - @berty bassett must be so proud

 

[bobinski]

There are , apparently, more bike fitters in the UK than the whole of Europe.

Lots of good advice above. FWIW my right side issues, knee etc , are made much easier by a 5mm longer pedal axle. Or moving the speedplay cleats to achieve the same fit. I only discovered that with a bike fit. Similarly, the knee over spindle bike fit doesnt work for me. My cleats are as far back as they can go and saddle set so the knees are a little behind that KOS/P point to open up the hip angle for more power and comfort.

 

[berty bassett]

In all fairness - the course you did is very boring , though I think that of any straight flat road ( I hate the fens )
I don’t do any free riding on there apart from the cape ride to try and beat my time each time , the racing is completely different and much the same as Zwift you don’t really pay too much attention to the scenery and more to your opponents
There is a way that I could set up a meet up for a certain time and we could have a race on either a different course or a magic road

 

[mjd1988]

Did a second ride on RGT last night around the Durango course. My cough has gone away so I had a bit more of a push. Though I'm well down on power, it was nice to spin the legs around. My takeaway observations:

It's unbelievably boring. The scenery passes really slowly and, because a lot of the roads are straight, there's little sensation of speed.
Although there are bots around to try to chase down, they seem to be doing interval training; 'Harmon' was pootling along at 2.9w/kg until he hit the climb, whereupon he held 5.2w/kg for its duration. It's difficult to manage your expectations of whom you're going to chase down and catch if the bots are riding so inconsistently. I saw three real people out on course, one of whom was stationary.

The only other subscription-free course is Stelvio, which might be a little better, but I suspect it'll be a long, featureless slog. I'll give it a try if I get a touch of insomnia.

I haven't worked out the meaning of the colour-coded stripe under my name on the screen and up the sidebar. My wattage appeared a bit less consistent than when I ride Zwift - is it an instantaneous power, rather than a 3s average? I've got no idea what's going on with the in-game segment leaderboards - are they all-time, or today, or of current riders? Either way, it all seems a bit irrelevant if you're not near the top. Not sure why I need my time measuring to the nearest thousandth of a second... Oh yeah, I'm calling BS on the Czech guy who appears to have done the Shalona climb at 48.4km/h, too.

View attachment 633611

Races might be a different matter - I can imagine that, against IRL competitors, it'd be good for a change. However, I can't see any attraction in riding RGT over Zwift for free-rides or workouts, unless I were to be completely abandon Zwift and save myself the subscription fee.

I definetly enjoyed the races more than free riding. Very very dull

Haven't done my RGT ride yet but I was thinking of using it almost exclusively for crit racing. That way my ZP results (and category) won't get skewed by short races. I also heard it's a bit more realistic with all the breaking and accordion effect and whatnot.

That is genius

There are , apparently, more bike fitters in the UK than the whole of Europe.

Lots of good advice above. FWIW my right side issues, knee etc , are made much easier by a 5mm longer pedal axle. Or moving the speedplay cleats to achieve the same fit. I only discovered that with a bike fit. Similarly, the knee over spindle bike fit doesnt work for me. My cleats are as far back as they can go and saddle set so the knees are a little behind that KOS/P point to open up the hip angle for more power and comfort.

I am definitely going to read more on cleat position with my for issues

 

[Peter Salt]

There are , apparently, more bike fitters in the UK than the whole of Europe.

Lots of good advice above. FWIW my right side issues, knee etc , are made much easier by a 5mm longer pedal axle. Or moving the speedplay cleats to achieve the same fit. I only discovered that with a bike fit. Similarly, the knee over spindle bike fit doesnt work for me. My cleats are as far back as they can go and saddle set so the knees are a little behind that KOS/P point to open up the hip angle for more power and comfort.

I am definitely going to read more on cleat position with my for issues

Yeah I think that stuff like saddle height, reach, drop etc. I got about right.

The cleats - my goodness it took me 4 months to get to a position where I'm OK with them. Mine are also almost completely moved to the back, on top of that I have quite a lot of forefoot varus and toes pointing out which is why it was so difficult. I also suspect that I might have a slight leg length discrepancy as one of my legs is always much more stressed.