I still think 50kg bots would be greatly appreciated by nearly every female on zwift
It was a quiet release in Watopia a couple of weeks back and since last week i noticed it in group rides also. Races are still not using it AFAIK.
I donāt know who in ZHQ is working on itā¦i have done a couple of tests myself.
Also done a test with 50kg bot.
I 100% agree! Please give us lighter riders a better option.
Explains the weirdness then over the past 6 or so weeks then on my weekly rides as a beacon noticing some things come and go or not be consistent world to world.
Couldnāt put my finger on it but didnāt want to assume it was PD specifically.
I second that! Andrew your still 10kg more than me⦠Iām winning in the āLacking in KGā competition ![]()
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At very least people should be given the opportunity to test these ideas. It would be great to try to settle some of these questions on the āroadā - maybe in private events or whatever but test different pacer weights, different power dynamics, static power, TT bikes, etc. All the testing they did is too old to be useful now, and appeared to focus on average rider experience and attendance numbers, which meant that lighter riders had relatively little influence over the design they are using today. They were concerned about issues like people riding away from the pacers but to me that is not very important since they can choose not to do it.
Have you tried just raising your in-game weight to 75kg for bot rides?
At one point they mentioned they could only support a certain number of pacers, which I presume is why they made the trade-off they did. What they did by putting all the pacers at the mid-point in weight range was make it more predictable how much additional power you would need in moving up or down a pacer bot, and I presume is an attempt to appeal to the largest amount of people.
If they move a bot to 50kg it will be great for light riders, but larger riders would see even bigger spikes in power needed to keep up on hills for a certain average pace on flat etc., (a 3w/kg bot would be going 150W on flat, but then break away from heavier riders at 3w/kg+ādynamic pacingā on the hills where w/kg becomes a bigger determinant in the dynamics) so with the way pacer dynamics works thereās not really a great way to make everyone happy.
Putting them on TT bikes might help a bit, though theyāve said in the past this was attempted, but I donāt recall what happened there. People have asked for individual pacers, but that also doesnāt really solve the problem if people want the social aspect of the group ride etc. They could reduce the dynamics to make them more consistent on power, but Zwift believe the current dynamic pacing is the right balance based on their futureworks testing etc.
They should still keep the 75kg Bots but add 50kg bots as well and they need to stop using the carousel landing page as a reason not to add more bots. Add another line.
That would be highly miserable. Increase weight by 50% - no thanks ![]()
Just make a new feature from scratch.
Put everyone on a row boat together and enable ERG mode ![]()
The RP can sit at the back and do the steering / whipping.
Then nobody can complain about being dropped (man/woman overboard???), and nobody can complain about coffee break! Win win???
(seriously though; Zwift but Americas Cup ⦠would probably do quite well!)
I agree that the pack dynamics make lighter weight riders work much harder for years. I was really confused and even demotivated by it until I understood how it worked.
I actually find it the most frustrating burning extra matches or getting dropped in races or group rides than with robopacers.
I wonder if the real ask here should be for Zwift to fix pack dynamics for lightweight riders?
I donāt think Id be able to even move the pedal even jumping on it ?!! 49kg to 75kg would require significantly more raw watts to just move pedal no? Itās bad enough being 49kg and bike to body weight ratio being higher than an avg 75kg rider ![]()
watts are watts. For your effort, you might be going 1km/h slower or thereabouts. So what, if weāre talking about only robopacer rides⦠ride with Bernie instead of Maria etcā¦
Cat had her own 300,000km event recently with the 300,000 on the road in the Zwift game, can you better that? ![]()
She rides a lot and notices everything.
You again with your tongue in cheek everyone all at same weight ideaā¦
I thought you got called out already in the racing forum about this.
This suggestion doesnāt respect the diversity of people, who want a decent experience without misreporting their personal characteristics, or risking accidentally forgetting to undo that manipulation before an event where it matters. Zwift asks riders to enter a correct weight. I am almost exactly the weight of the pacers and I have always known this was a nice advantage, being the expected average man. My wife is a 50kg rider who struggles in social rides. I suspect the problem is more complicated than just the pacerās weight but I would welcome an experiment so we can find out.
Thank you Paul for your sensible open minded comments.
Not at all. Completely over-exaggerating. I suggested a remedial action that these fine people could enact today, in case they werenāt aware this workaround existed. Iām not arguing against any lobbying for more or different robopacer variety. Knock yourself out, but it wonāt happen today.
I donāt think you have any bad intent here, and I often have the same urge to tell people to hack the game to fix their problems because I desperately want to offer a solution to everything, but this is a feature request that involves personal dignity which makes it more problematic to suggest workarounds that involve any kind of misrepresentation. Everyone should see themselves properly represented in the game and still have a good experience. Zwift should want that as well.
Iām guessing you might be closer to 75kg than I or Cat or most of the female zwifters to make this comment āwatts are watts- just ride with a slower botā that shows no understanding of the impact itās having on our experience. The demotivating effect it is having to have gone from pre PD5 and being able to ride 100km with Yumi with friends to now falling off Maria pushing 3wpk whilst the 75kgers ride at the advertised 2.2wpk pace overtaking you. Itās frustrating and demoralising. Itās not just with Pace Bots. Itās all group rides - so @50kg you join a 2.5wpk advertised ride and end up having to push 3wpk and still fall off the back. Itās a negative feature change not a positive one and we are feeding it back and asking for change