I was just wondering, when riding with any robopacer on an entry-level frame that has been upgraded to Stage 4 where you get a 5% drop point bonus for riding that frame, is that 5% still being applied in addition to the drop point multiplier when you are staying within the range of the robopacer?
It would be helpful if there was an addition to the post-ride progress report screen that gives how many drop points you earned during a session in addition your earned XP and frame upgrade status!
Having recently fully upgraded the Zwift Steel, I’m baffled about the order of the upgrades for the Steel.
What on earth is the point of giving 5% drops boost and especially 5% XP boost for upgrade stages 4 and 5 respectively?
When there’s a myriad of better performance frames, why on earth would you continue to ride the Steel once fully upgraded?
What’s worse, it looks like in situations where you have chosen a frame not allowed for an event and so are given the Steel, you don’t ride your upgraded Steel.
The drops and XP bonus should have been upgrade stages 1 and 2 IMO.
I’m not sure your logic works in this situation. If 5% drops and XP were awarded at level 1 and 2 (and the bikes perform badly at any further upgrade) why would anyone upgrade beyond levels 1 & 2?
If I want extra drops and XP at least make me work for it by upgrading the basic bike to levels 4 & 5.
In respect of XP there may be many who only change on to a fully upgraded basic bike a minute or a mile before they get route badges and 11,000 Tour de Zwift Ultimate bonus XP awards.
If you got the increased drops and XP rate early on, you would still be using the Steel to get to level 5 upgrade, so you could use that as one of three Zwift frames before upgrading the Zwift Tron.
Once you’ve reached level 5 on the Steel, why would you still continue to use it when it’s now fully upgraded?
You would either swap to another Zwift frame in search of three to fully upgrade before being allowed to upgrade the Tron, or switch to another frame brand entirely that is upgraded by distance.
You now have the stupid situation where some will ride say a level 5 Dogma F until ~100 metres from completing a route where they get the badge and bonus, or simply complete a tdz stage where there’s an extra bonus for say completing their 9th/18 tdz stage. Where they put the brakes on and switch to the level 5 Steel for a very short duration. If they remember.
It’s a convoluted mess.
5% extra is hardly massive and when there’s a huge array of bikes you can upgrade, are you really going to do whole zwift sessions of a level 5 Steel? Give the bonus 5%s while you still have other upgrade levels to chase on the Steel and other low end frames.
Or continue to give 5% bonus once achieved, while riding any frame.
Not that I agree with the upgrades at all, muddying races even further than the diabolical ZRS that does not allocate pens by 5mins ability because of the 85% seed score floor. While also putting newcomers to zwift at a disadvantage. Especially when those that cheated their way to upgrades early on did not have the cheating removed from their upgrade progress.
Doesn’t that assume I want the upgraded Tron? I don’t, I want the extra drops and XP.
Exactly, either you really like the old fashioned traditional look of an old bike or you want extra drops and XP. Level 5 is mostly only a means to an end - 1 of three basic Zwift bike upgrades.
No I’m not for the drops.
For the XP I think I might only have to be on the bike at the time the XP is awarded. Can I be bothered to swap bikes just before being awarded XP - I thought about it but no, probably not because I haven’t upgraded a basic bike to any level. However if I only had to upgrade to level 1 or 2 then yes I probably would upgrade over next week or two and reap the Ultimate 11,000 XP bonus and 5%.