Attempted a banded meetup around the volcano x25 laps with some friends on Wednesday. For the first three laps our speed output was under 20km/hr with 4 members of the band holding approx 2.0W/kg. Have done this course numerous times and not had this happen before. After approx 40 mins and only completing 3laps (~13min/lap) we quit it and it jacked up to 30km/hr + straight away. Just wondering if this is a common problem for any others?
I just reported the same issue looking for a workaround. Disappointed nobody from zwift responded to your report
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We do banded meetups daily and if the riders are of similar strength the speed is almost normal. The speed slow down if you have a slow rider in the group. I assume Zwift use the speed of the slower rider or some bias towards the lower speed so the the slower rider don’t set times that can never be achieved.
I’ve noticed that smaller meetups (5-8) are holding back the true speed with banding. This was infrequent, but now more common. Seems to be triggered when a single rider leaves. So last night, as an example, the blob was held to around 20k/ on the flats and that’s definitely slow from expected normal 30k/. Soon as the meetup times out, we all gained 10k/.
Is there a workaround for this bug?
totally! you’d think that the rubber band would keep you at an “average” speed for the group, but it definitely seems to favor the speed of the slower riders.
most of the time it doesn’t really matter, but it seriously messes with my head to be putting out 4wkg and only going 18kph. also, it makes group workouts really unattractive from a “logging kms” perspective – i try to hit 175km each week, and a rubberbanded group workout forces me to make up lost kms on a different day.
This a bit of topic but logging kms in a workout is a bit irrelevant. 20km in Z1 is very different from 20km in Z5. Also 9km up the alpe is different for 9 km on Tempus Fugit.
A better metric will be TSS tracking TSS per week will give you a true reflection of fitness/form over time.
totally agree, but i still hate to put in all that effort and not get the kms 
This is a recent defect. I have 3 meetups I host a week. Same routs, same riders. We are all putting out very close to same W/kg. Don’t dismiss my feedback request for help with general comments how the band works. I’ve hosted 1000’s of meetups and know normal from defective.
It was definitely a zwift flaw. As soon as we quit the meetup we all took off like weight had been taken off our legs.
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