No, it does not - it would screw up your W/kg and you will have an even harder time to keep up. That‘s simple maths.
This makes it sound like it is an Ego problem… sorry… but if you are upset because you have to choose a slower bot to follow and that makes you feel bad because “I should be faster” or whatever, then I fail to see how a lighter bot will solve anything… as has been mentioned, heavier riders will still overtake you with less effort.
I guess it is worth an experiment though, maybe @James_Zwift at ZHQ will oblige?
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I think Zwift got it right with this one. In Western countries, less than 5% of women over 30 weigh 50 kg or less, and for men, it’s less than 1%. It’s impossible to create a pacer that fits everyone’s needs without implementing AI-driven individual pacer groups—which, honestly, I’d love to see!
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No real human needs (and emphasis on needs) to produce 3 w/kg to match Maria’s 2.2 w/kg. Even a 45 kilo, 160cm rider will be within 0.4 w/kg of that. Anything above this is simply wasted power and poor drafting mislabeled as the power required to remain in the bunch.
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Yes, your w/kg during the RP ride would not be what it normally is. If you ride at avg 150 watts, at 50kg that would be a 3 w/kg RP, and after changing to 75kg, you’d want to pick a 2 w/kg RP. In the second instance, why would it be even harder to keep up? In fact, it should be easier, as you’d have the same physics applied to your avatar that the RP is given.
I’m not against there being lightweight RPs, I just wouldn’t count on this happening real soon, so the above workaround is just a suggestion you may (or may not) want to give a shot.
One general question though, if they did introduce a lineup of 50kg RPs, do you want the same or lower wattage target range as the existing lineup? The current lineup runs from 83w to 315w. Do you want the same ‘flat’ wattages, or the same w/kg? If same wattages you’d have a spread of 1.67 w/kg to 6.3 w/kg. I’m guessing the ask is for same w/kg, so you’d want a spread of 55w to 210w. So maybe fewer bots are need to cover this spread?
I would also note that this as a solution COULD bring better balance; as of right now, at least what I experience US time zone, is Coco is absolutely smothered 24/7, and Yumi is… a handful of riders.
From anecdotal reference; I see more riders with Jacques than Yumi; and sometimes even more with Constance… than Yumi, through the weekdays.
And thus Coco’s paces get smudged with front runners; who could be better suited for Yumi… but don’t ride with Yumi for … some reason?
Bringing things down a little to spread users out would IMO, be greatly beneficial to the RP’s as it is.
Because right now, there is massive overload in the 2-2.7 range; which is the real culprit… too many people riding with bots below their range, causing these issues. (Which, I have had a thread on this not all that long ago): (… apparently not that long ago is a year ago … 
)
As someone that rides with Coco, Yumi, and sometimes Jacques I can say this is not the case in my timezone (at least not in general). You might have been looking at Yumi on a hilly route, not the flat route yumi.
Here Coco is more popular than Yumi who is more popular than Jacques. Right now currently there are 167 riders with coco on flat, 48 on hilly. Yumi has 105 riders on flat, and 34 on hilly, and Jacques has 83 on flat, and 15 on hilly.
Anyhow, I do think the pack dynamics are a part of the puzzle here, but with PD5 there’s definitely value in having a separate thread on PD5.
I know at one point James said there was some limitation in terms of number of pacers they could use which is why they didn’t add anymore, but I’m not sure if that is a technical limitation for some weird reason, or more of a policy limitation he was under at the time.
No, it doesn’t. Try to add 200kg to your body weight and then keep up .
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It’s 200kg now?
You will definitely agree that… stupidity should be painful.
I just did the math for what you are proportionally suggesting.
show your work… How is adding 200kg to anyone’s weight proportional to adding 25kg as proposed. Maybe if my real weight is 400kg, then +200kg is +50% lol.
Why is a workaround, or cheating for that matter, a first resort?.. when it’s the system thats not working correctly… the system we all pay for btw.
So… how did go?.. did you add a 75% to your body weight and smash it up?.. effortlessly?
Just said 200 kg for dramatical purposes… but… feel free to do the math and applying the proportional increase you are suggesting… 50kg should up to 75 … so … so 75 should be 105 … I don’t know your weight … but… feel free to do the math
St the time remember they were on different hardware (local computers if I remember right). Now they just add robopacers as they want without issue as they are in cloud (also going from memory).
It’s a first resort because it’s a ‘today’ resort. The feature request hasn’t been completed yet by Zwift. “Cheating”… well I guess if you consider making yourself slower is somehow taking advantage of someone else.
Im glad that you finally get it.
Great post Im a 68kg 62yr old male and have given up on group rides as I am pushing 0.5W above advertised and these old legs cant keep up.
Have you tried just dropping down to the next pacer to see if that works ok?