Changes to Pace Partners [May 2022]

My eight year old son (35kg, FTP 70W) is looking forward to riding with Dorothy. Thank you for introducing these new PPs! :+1:

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Bahaha and all good

Hi Carl
Couple of points:

  1. I wasn’t being trying to be condescending but yes it can come over that way sometimes. I was just pointing out the correct manner by which units are expressed when written, which was your original intent when seeking to correct someone else. It’s just you had an error within your own correction (and who knows, I may as well).

Most definitely the unit “watt” uses all lower case, as do most units of physical quantities. They are treated as common nouns and so remain lower case except when used in a title or as the first word of a sentence, while the symbol is an uppercase W as you correctly noted.

Have a look at the formal style guides used by the published literature as well as stated in the SI guides. While Wikipedia is by no means a formal reference (always read with care), its article on this is pretty good and links to the formal guides publish by SI:
Can’t post links here so do a browser search for
Wikipedia International System of Units
and scroll down to section 4 Lexicographic conventions

  1. I have no association with Zwift other than as an occasional customer.

I hope you have a great day and take my comments with reasonable spirit. We all get bit snarky at times (heck I do) but there are no concerns from me. All the best.

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I think the reason Makuri bots have low utilization is because Makuri isn’t always available and people are stuck in their habits. I think Makuri should always be available as a world and they will get ridden there. I already miss the bots there. :frowning_face:

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In reading this large list of comments most people seem to be ignoring the importance of total watts and not just w/kg. Thank you for highlighting this important element.

Makuri is available to all Windows and Mac users (granted not iOS)

Watopia PP = 15k daily
Makuri PP = 2k daily

It is not the reason.

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I think you two are talking about different things. Makuri is always available for PPs, but it’s not a permanent world like Watopia - it’s on the guest world rotation. So, the ability to ride with a Makuri PP anytime is somewhat new and not maybe known by everybody?

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thank you for your efforts and patience with the repeated questions. i don’t envy your job :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: May I just say thank you for finally hearing the voice of the not so powerful riders. i love riding but the pacers were outside my league​:frowning: now i have dorothy and i will definitely be using her. thank you thank you thank you :pray:t5:

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Yeah I know that.
I was saying for Makuri :stuck_out_tongue:

I know :slight_smile: I have similar issues.

Those extra pace partners is truly filling up a long overdue gaps.
Me like a lot :heart_eyes:

I’ve added a couple of little weekend treats into Makuri for the (TEMPORARY) farewell weekend.

See if you can spot what I’ve done.

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I will try the pace partner, Diego Duke. But can we get the pace partners to have a personality, perhaps make bike jokes, or encourage you, or tell us something about their virtual selves. If you are riding with a person in the real world, they are communicating with you, that is the fun of riding with a friend. Friend rides are not always hard, but sometimes they are. Or perhaps you pace with Professor Dave, who is always talking about the history of bikes, and you set to ride for 45 minutes, 'Dave’s Bike Class", and at the end, you finish, and get this, there is a multiple choice quiz, and you get points for pacing closely and listening to Professor Dave who tells stories about Bike Development, like Dunlop or Eddie Mercks or the history of bearings, something that involves an aspect of bike history. Professor Dave could be an avatar that informs people virtually of events that are in the city area. You have everyone’s address, and you are biking with Professor Dave, and he says, “Oh, Gary, don’t you live in Palo Alto, did you sign up for the Marin Century, it is not that far, what are you waiting for, it is on August 6th.” The code is not that hard to write, you have a database of events, and you have their addresses, and Professor Dave always refers to you by first name, etc, etc, etc. Again, the avatar has to be personal in the metaverse.

Great ideas.

We are looking into the possibility of having an induction partner who will give newbies lots of information about the game, using the Companion App, selecting the Everest challenge and that sort of thing.

I’d definitely like to get a bit more creative with the messaging that we use but that’s something for the future.

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Nice one, James. :metal:
Great additions.

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From a financial perspective for module improvement, I think the question to ask:

  1. What costs almost nothing to build (low lying fruit).
  2. What can be implemented in a reasonable time frame (1 to 3 months).
  3. What will attract new users (recreational and amateur bikers).

Take a look at your Zwift store. I just purchased water bottles as a demonstration. Water bottles need to be front and center. Think about the users of your platform. The water bottle is tactile, they use it, it is personal. From my perspective what is $20? A few water bottles, sent to my house, not a big deal. I’ll use the bottles.

Then take a look at trainers. Do you know how hard psychologically it is to buy a trainer on line? Think about it, this is a financial decision between $600 and $1200. Those types of purchase decisions usually require:

  1. In person demonstration and trial
  2. Some type of store front for returns
  3. A real world relationship of some type
  4. Some type of bargaining conversation in the brain

I think smart trainers are really hard to make and sell. I purchased mine at Sports Basement in Campbell. It was a Garmin Tacx Neo 2, 40% off. I purchased a ton from that store, skis, boots, gear, etc, so I trust them. I was like, looks cool, looks like a fun toy, just put it on the credit card. I tried this trainer for 5 minutes at Mike’s Bikes in Los Gatos after work. Because I had the relationship with Sports Basement, I was like, well, they have done such a great job before.

I do not know the purchasing decision of new users. For the broad market, $15 per month is not a great deal as a subscription fee in terms of purchasing power, but psychologically, there is a real world gap, it is extremely hard to explain why. People will go out and pay $10 for a beer with friends, 2 beers, you are at $20, three beers you are at $30. But drinking a beer with a friend once a month in the real world is social. This socialization offers a direct sense of relationship security.

Again, to compete with Wahoo, the Zwift team is going to need to start really brain storming. RGT is not a bad platform, it is actually good in many respects. I tried it for 20 minutes, it connected well, but I prefer Zwift for many different reasons and I am completely new to this area, so I tend to raise completely different questions.

The defining aspect of RGT seems to be racing, specifically Criterion racing. Zwift seems to have far more potential in the market if it can cross the generalized user chasm.

Also, just from my perspective, healthy people in the real world compete to participate, even for a water bottle. It is classic in the kids market, everyone that competes gets something. Beyond that, Adults like to gamble. My brother plays golf, sometimes, they will play for a few dollars a hole, it is all token.

Perhaps part of the subscription each month goes to a winners pool, and randomly there is a power up for you crossing your personal finish line, etc, and Zwift sends you a real water bottle. You see, you won something on line, and you got a water bottle, you are a winner too, not the best, but still a winner, and never always in the back of the back or riding alone.

Gary

Gary,

What does this have to do with Pace Partners?

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Back on topic…

I enjoyed an hour with Denise Drops at her 2W/kg (35.4 km/h average with a group of about 20) on Neon Flats. A welcome sign of things to come in Watopia.

By the way, she’s throwing out a mix of English and French, while flying the stars and bars. Is she from Louisiana or thereabouts? :grin:

Didn’t try Charlie Chaser: looked like a fair step up from Ms Cadence. I’m sure there would be lots of people who will find that an ideal pace, though.

I copied the messages from Anquetil…

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Ahhhh. :sweat_smile:
Being both heavy and slow, I’ve only seen the red devil zoom by me. Never attempted to join that particular pain train so I haven’t seen Anquetil’s messages before.