A couple questions I can't figure out

General Discussion
#1

I’ve been riding Zwift for about 4 weeks now and loving it. I’ve put a lot of miles and part way through Build Me Up workout, and have a number of questions that I just can’t figure out a solution to in Zwift. Try as I might as an engineer trying to solve their own problem, these I can’t get. Any insights would be great:

1.When a fellow riding (not Follower) sends a “Ride On”, how do you easily send one back their way? If they are within a few riders in front or behind you they are on the right side of the HUD and an orange thumbs up appears. Clicking that does it fine (I use a touchscreen laptop on a stand next to me so that is easy). But if they are not in the nearby Zwifters panel on the right, you can’t see them (so how did they see me, but that is another question) to respond. Tapping my screen in the top HUD area that shows they sent a Ride On does nothing. Looking them up in the Companion App is not feasible while riding. Is there something I’m missing?

  1. I’m running the Companion App on an Android (Galaxy s10e). When on the Zwifters tab, how do I lock the CA’s list so I’m in the middle or at least on the screen. When I see someone on the computer screen nearby Zwifters HUD that I want to give a Ride On or message, I look to my CA to do that. But the list of Zwifters on the CA has scrolled up or down and so finding my name in grey takes some scrolling around. Not the best while riding, specially in a workout. It would be convenient to be able to lock my grey name in the middle of the name list in the CA. Is that possible?

  2. I’ve seen a number of discussions on the forum searching through the past posts for what looks like years but it appears Zwift has done nothing about this obvious one. Am I missing something? When riding a Route, how do we get the Progress Bar to show our progress through the route and distance remaining as it does in a race? I get it that you can turn and break the Route, ok, if the rider does that, they would lose the progress bar in the Route. But as long as Zwift is controlling the turns, it knows I’m on Route. Did they not implement this obvious feature yet or am I missing a key to hit to enable it or something?

  3. Similar to #3 where it has been discussed a lot and I’m hoping I’m just missing some setup somewhere. How do we get the profile in the map portion of the HUD to show the profile of the Route I’m riding instead of whatever Zwift is thinking after then next intersection. Zwift knows what Route I’m on, show that profile, not the profile should I choose to turn off-route at the next intersection. It seems it is showing the profile for the wrong choice of direction more often the my route, and it knows where I’m intending to go. Again, if I break the route by making a wrong turn then all bets are off, but until then I’m still on the route with turns controlled by Zwift, this should be obvious. Am I missing something?

Thanks for reading through my longer descriptions and offering any insights.

#2

#1 I believe when you are in a workout, you can receive ride one but can’t give them unless you also have the Companion app.
I seldom use the CA so I’m not completely sure of this.

#2 I don’t think you can lock the list.

#3 yep, a route completion bar would be nice but it’s not there. I think there was something similar briefly but it didn’t last long.
I just look at the route length before I start so I have a rough idea.
Remember, the lead in may not be included and the routes almost always start and end at one of the banners.

#4 Another good idea that you can’t do

#3

Tap (or double tap?) the column heading near the top of the companion app to put your listing at the middle of the list of current Zwifters. (It wasn’t intuitive to me – a Zwift staff member on the forum had to tell me how to do that.) After that you can still scroll up and down. This won’t lock your listing in the middle of the screen, but it will return you to the middle each time you tap.

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#4

Sweet, thanks @Steve_1506, I’ll give that a try on my next ride. Glad at least one of these questions has a solution. 1 down, hopefully I’m missing simple answers like this for the others.

#5

#1- the people that are giving you ride ons are either people nearby or someone who is not riding giving you a ride on in the companion app, so you can’t always give a ride in back,

#2- what Steve said

#3 and 4- both great ideas, but Zwift has not implemented them into their system :frowning:

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#6

1# When your in a workout you will not be able to give other people a ride on unless they are close to you then an orange ride on sign will come up. Use the companion app to give ride ones to people who are far ahead of you or way behind you.

2# No idea whatever someone else said.

3# 4# they don’t have them

#7

If you are “free riding” and not in a race or in a structured ride you will notice that on the companion app you position is surrounded by a white circle. Press on this circle and the closest 5 riders will all get a Ride On. The circle then redraws automatically and you can repeat the process. However, you can not give multiple Ride Ons to the same riders.

#8

Fortunately, this is not quite right! As the OP already said, if someone sends you a ride on and they are close to your position, there’s an orange thumbs up by their name on the rider list.

If someone hits their time or distance goal, or sets a PR on a segment, or a handful of other conditions, an orange thumbs up appears by their name on the list as well.

Finally, while this may or may not be practical in the moment, you can actually click riders on the rider list. This takes you to fan view. If you haven’t already given them a thumbs up, you’ll be able to do that. Sometimes in smaller group rides or races (provided I’m not trying to maintain position in a group), I’ll hit the rider list, scroll back to find the people who are more at the back than I am, and give them ride ons to encourage them. You can scroll pretty far back. But yes, this is not always practical to do and it takes you away from your own view.

#9

Thanks for all the replies and great insights. I’ve learned something good on both #1 and #2.

On #3 and #4, is it worth putting a topic in the Feature Requests or has this been hashed so much in the past and Zwift is choosing not to do anything with the suggestions, thus not worth consuming more forum bandwidth again?

#10

Existing threads:
1: Keyboard shortcut for returning ride ons (and many others)
3: Progress Bar for Routes (and many others)
4: Improve accuracy of route profile (Top Right Corner Incline UI) (and many others)

#11

Awesome references @Anna_Ronkainen, I’ve added my vote to each.

#12

1#

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I’m in a workout but the person close to me gave me a ride on. So it will show a little orange thumbs up sign so u can give them a ride on too. It only does that when someone got a new PR finished a workout or doing a FTP test.

#13

J.Bennett gave me a ride on so it’s nice to give your buddy a ride on as well :blush:

#14

I think one thing hasn’t been mentioned: when you sign in to the Companion app and you aren’t currently riding, you can give Ride Ons to all the riders you follow from the Home Screen. I know it’s not real money, but I do make a point to do this. I pretty consistently get Ride Ons from some people when I’m not riding with them, so I assume they are doing the same.

After a ride, you can, if you choose, add people as followers. They get a notification that you added them or that you requested a follow. You can choose to follow them back as well.

If you don’t have a lot of people following you, then your only mechanism for getting Ride Ons is, I think, from people doing the aforementioned Ride On bombs on a ride, or who click their thumbs up button when you complete a workout/set a PR/finish a distance goal. Or, especially in races, I will scroll backwards and give ride ons, especially to lower categories or people at the rear of the race. Also, in chat on the Companion, you can click someone’s profile and give a ride on. That all takes deliberate effort, though, so I assume fewer people do it. I’ve given Ride Ons to people who say they are struggling to finish a few more km for the Festive 500, or who are riding a really long distance, or who are coming back from injury or cancer, or who are just being nice to others.

#15

Exactly :+1::joy::rofl: