Coast on trainer disconnect instead of slamming on the brakes

Feature Requests
1

Hey Fellow Zwifters,

I’d like to make a feature request that will hopefully only affect a few users, but would be an incredible QoL improvement for them.

Currently, when a trainer disconnects, your avatar will not coast, but they will immediately slam on the brakes and come to a complete stop. This doesn’t really cause me any problems in workouts - I can reconnect pretty quickly and in a workout I’m there for the pain. However, in a group ride, this basically ends your enjoyment, as you will be left behind and “struggle” (be completely unable) to catch up to where you were.

A prime example of this is in the tour of London ride yesterday. We all set off, and I was in position ~550. My trainer disconnected, and I reconnected it in probably no more than 3 seconds. By the time I’m back up to speed, 4 blobs have passed me and I’m in position ~750. Repeat a few times and I’m feeling thoroughly disheartened.

An (incorrect) argument I’ve seen against this is cheating, however this would NOT be a problem if the avatar was to simply coast, gradually coming to a stop as if they were not pedaling.

Changing it so that a trainer disconnect now results in the avatar coasting instead of immediately braking would be a significant improvement for those of us with connection issues.

Anyone else think this would be a nice change for us, even if you don’t suffer from this? I don’t see it that often, but I’ve seen it happen to at least 5 people per Tour of London Ride, myself excluded.

Thanks

2

I see the premise for your request, but if you’re having dropouts on your trainer’s Bluetooth signal, I’m going to suggest that reducing the sources of those dropouts at your location would have greater, more immediate improvements for your game experience.

3

Oh yeah, I entirely agree - this morning I used an ANT+ adapter on a macbook, didn’t have a single drop out and smiles all round (aside from the fact I don’t seem to have credit for Tour of London Stage 2 yet, but I figure that’ll come in time).

I see other people suffering from the same thing (or at least appearing to) though and they may not have the same luxury to swap their setup around.

Changing my connection method has fully sorted this but I still think it’d be a nice change.

Thanks for such a prompt response too!

4

Hi Andrew,

Zwift removed the option to change bikes while you are moving because racers would climb up the mountain then switch to TT bikes at the top or they would break away and then change to TT to stay away.

5

Gerrie:

I’m reading the request as the equivalent of “keep coasting in game though I’ve pressed A for the pairing menu,” not the equivalent of “keep coasting though I’ve pressed T for the bike and wheel menu and I’m switching bikes while still coasting.”

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