Zwift, TR, Sufferfest etc

[Sandbox]

I’ve also gotten the green light from the better half to get a smart trainer and I’ve decide wheel off mid price.... wahoo kickr core or tacx. Only issue is that there are 0 in stock on basically any part of Canada. I think I’m leaning wahoo based on the multiple blue tooth connections, thoughts?


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[ticketchecker]

You can add Elite to the list as well. I'm on their Dureto.

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X2 on the Direto X, I think we scored ours for around $650 right after the virus took over the world



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[jackattack]

Yeah, definitely thinking wheel off trainer. I’ll add the Direto X to the list.

[Garth Bimble]

If anyone is upgrading to a new trainer please let me know when you unload your old one! Feel like I am a fraud running a trainer with no auto resistance and it's peak Zwift season.

Fair price for a used Wahoo Kickr? Dude on CL has a full setup and I am trying to get him to unload just the trainer.

Wahoo is selling reconditioned Kickr Smarts and Kickr Cores on their site for $999 & $799 respectively. Not sure how good of a deal that is but they are offering 12 month financing 0% interest. I don't know what you're seeing price wise for used trainers but the ones I've seen the sellers are awfully fucking proud of.

[buttahflake]

I've chased 3 of the 4 new route badges with the new connectors in Watopia. Nice routes with great graphics scenery. Today was the Serpentine 8 route in the jungle. A nice route

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Just knocked this one off, good call on the MTB. Makes a huge difference on this route.
New Festive 500 jersey!

[Iowagriz]

Buttah, I was surprised how nice the Tron rides. It seems to be better than average on the cobbles and dirt around the marina in Watopia. But, it was definitely slower in the jungle when compared to the MTB. I need to buy one of the gravel bikes and test it out in the jungle.

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[buttahflake]

The guys on Zwift Insider claim the MTB as the fastest in the jungle. I was looking at the comments on the Serpentine 8 description, it definitely feels faster, especially going down.

[Sandbox]

Is there any reason to get a kickr over the kickr core?? Only difference I see is the slight grade increase from 16 to 20, am I missing something?


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[EWG]

Is there any reason to get a kickr over the kickr core?? Only difference I see is the slight grade increase from 16 to 20, am I missing something?


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I chose the Core and am perfectly happy with it. The Core is better than the older full kickr was a few years ago.

[Sandbox]

I chose the Core and am perfectly happy with it. The Core is better than the older full kickr was a few years ago.

Well I pulled the trigger on a reconditioned core! There are none in Canada and even with exchange and shipping I’ll save a couple hundred. Pretty stoked!! Betting it will take a couple of weeks but looking forward to it.


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[VTskibum]

I'll add another +1 to the Elite Direto recommendation.

Also I really hope Zwift quits the gravel route additions, I may be in the minority, but IMO it is incredibly stupid and completely ruined Jungle for me. Love Gravel and MTB IRL, but it's a useless feature to have other than presumably pandering to bike manufacturers for more bikes in game. I don't even like riding the Alp b/c of the gravel section you have on the run in.

[huckbucket]

I'll add another +1 to the Elite Direto recommendation.

Also I really hope Zwift quits the gravel route additions, I may be in the minority, but IMO it is incredibly stupid and completely ruined Jungle for me. Love Gravel and MTB IRL, but it's a useless feature to have other than presumably pandering to bike manufacturers for more bikes in game. I don't even like riding the Alp b/c of the gravel section you have on the run in.

Just get an Aspero and switch when on the gravel. Switching it easy and the gravel bike will essentially have you rolling as though it's regular road. Only a minor annoyance. If you're climbing AdZ just suck it up on your road bike or switch back when you get on the pavement. Just don't be like me and forget to switch OUT of the gravel bike before the next fast group ride. That was painful.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Any other manufacturers selling reconditioned trainers?

[jamal]

I think at this point it's take what you can get. I probably would have gotten the saris H3 if I'd had a choice, or possibly the nicer kickr, as they both have better, more stable bases, and I get a good deal on them. The H3 I borrowed for awhile seemed a little nicer than my core, and was quieter, and my core has gotten louder since I got it. First it was just a slight rotational squeak, then some vibrations, now a loud knock. But I better make sure it's the trainer and not the bike before I get too bitchy. Looking around for descriptions on wahoo noises and how to fix them, it seems pretty common and I'm finding stories of people who have gone through like 3-4. So I guess they have a lot available to refurbish.

[Sandbox]

Just like Jamal said I took what I could get. Those refurbished wahoo’s seem decent. Lots of good reviews. The price difference between the core and the kickr was $300 canadian so not worth it for me. Was just happy to find something in stock that would ship to Canada!


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[kathleenturneroverdrive]

Just get an Aspero and switch when on the gravel.

Do you do this in races? I saw a couple people swap yesterday in the middle of a 30 mile race, and it looked like they all got dropped, but hard to say for sure. I wonder if Zwift insider has timed and tested this strategy at some point.

[buttahflake]

It’s been proven that the MTB is the fastest in the jungle. No need to waste drops on a gravel rig. I was punishing another (B) cat guy from France on the MTB while he was on a road bike. He could hang and pull hard going up, but going down I was putting 3-5 seconds on him with a medium effort.

[huckbucket]

Do you do this in races? I saw a couple people swap yesterday in the middle of a 30 mile race, and it looked like they all got dropped, but hard to say for sure. I wonder if Zwift insider has timed and tested this strategy at some point.

I do not change during a race. Can't see how it would be faster. In fact in the fast pavement-only group ride I was doing last week I started with a gravel bike accidentally and stopped after 30 mins to switch out and was never able to reconnect with the lead group despite going noticeably faster with the road bike.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

There are videos on YouTube about faster ways to switch bikes. Something about hitting the "A" key while riding takes you into the device pairing screen which allows you to switch bikes in half the time vs hitting brakes/coasting and stopping the normal way.

[VTskibum]

Pretty sure you still have to stop to change frames regardless, also running Zwfit from my iphone projected to TV so no shortcuts for me. I'm still just going to be annoyed at this whole thing regardless, even if all the suggestions are valid and have done the swap for Jungle before. /curmudgeon

[Dee Hubbs]

With a PC:
A is pairing screen
T is garage.
I’m on AppleTV so I didn’t pay to much attention to an article o read about mid-ride switches, but I kinda remember that before the ride you go to the garage, go to the bike section, hover over the next bike you want to switch to, then exit out of the garage.
When you switch to the garage mid ride, it’s on the bike screen and hovering over the bike you want, just accept it and exit back to riding.
YMMV

[ridinshockgun]

Ride this morning resulted in finally blowing through the casing on my trainer tire after 3 years. Whoops... I guess that is a good estimated life on the trainer tires.

[Dee Hubbs]

6 riders on the Tuesday TGR meetup.

Dee Hubbs
Wendigo
justcuz
vtskibum
grmountainman
elesquiador (first time joiner)

[Iowagriz]

I'll be back...

Completely forgot about this ride until after I did an afternoon ride.

However, I did do a bunch of reading on the pacer bot and gaining extra points (good for new to Zwift riders).

I rode with the D bot, but it was painfully slow. I'm 190 and was pulling away at 140w. So I went to the desert to find the C hot, and that was a good ride. Approx 180w if I paid attention and didn't get dropped from being lazy. A good way to get extra "drops".

For extra points and levels... I was reading up on doing 25 laps of the Volcano and found out that if you use the TT bike that you don't get the feather or other specials. Instead you get extra bonus points, I think it was 250 or more. By riding multiple volcano laps you get badge bonuses for 5?, 10? And then at 25. At 25 you've also gone over 100k, so that is another badge.

Total geek out, but easily many thousand points and a few levels by going 25 laps of the volcano on a TT bike

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[VTskibum]

I've done 10 laps of Volcano for the badge, not in a rush for 25 as it gets a bit mind numbing. If I ever get to it, I'll probably just put on a movie. Think the TT option adds ~250xp, but if you hopped on a group you'd likely be able to get it done faster.

Also mentioned this during Dee Hub's ride last night, but I recommend the Tour de Zwift event. Pretty fun and good challenge. Amounts to 1 ride per week through end of Feb with makeup days. Different ride length options/courses and depending on time in past years would jump around between A/B/C options based on what was available. It's a race, but also not. Even in the lower groups there will be all levels of pacing, usually found a good group to compete against or just ride along depending on the day. My fastest time of Alp de Zwift was during this using it as a race a few years ago, but have also just taken it easy too.
https://www.zwift.com/tour-de-zwift/ride