Hi guys, after using Zwift for couple of weeks I found it lacks a real sense of coasting which is not only un-realistic but it somehow hurts my training routine.
If you stop pedaling at a flat or small decline like -2 the avatar simply stops right away and you don’t have even a couple of seconds to rest your legs and breathe in some fresh air like you’re used to do in real-life.
Not only that but going downhill is so quick you go through corners at 40-90km/h so the period where you can stop pedaling are still quite short.
All in all if I do a 1h training on Zwift it feels like 2-3h outdoors but it still takes double recovery time because my legs were spinning 99.5% of the time which is insane and I feel like my legs are burnt even after a normal group ride where you can coast a little bit in the draft (still not enough coasting).
I am wondering why Zwift doesn’t introduce braking/coasting zones on downhill where all avatars would go through corner at 10-30km/h instead of 40-90km/h and with adding a screen notification we could have at least 5-15 seconds of coasting on slow corners.
The fact is that over 1h period I don’t actually need more then 5-10x of coasting and multiplied by 5-15 seconds you get to around 25-150 seconds of coasting total.
Once you can rest every 5-10 minutes it would a great help and we all know how legs can ,come-back" sometimes, well on Zwift they simply can’t come-back because there is no breathing/resting periods.
The feature of coasting in braking zones can be introduced or we could get a power-up COASTING every 5-10mins like we get other power-ups and before starting the workout/race/ride this feature could be disabled/enabled since I believe some users maybe prefer shorter but killer workouts while some like me would like it to be more realistic and longer.
So what do you guys think of this?
Am I the only one who feels legs burning too much compared to outdoors?
Hi @Trlajic_Petar, the breaking on corners is being tested and in development, not sure if it will ever be released, but it is being considered.
I actually like that coasting is near impossible on Zwift, I use Zwift to get in a workout in a much faster and more efficient time period than riding outdoors. There is a new feature that just rolled out called the coffee stop, while it isn’t available every 5 - 10 minutes, it is available every 30 minutes (and during the first 5 minutes of your ride) designed to allow you to hop off the bike and have a nature break, refill bottles, or whatever you need.
braking on corners sounds fun, hope they test it out and release it to the game.
Well I made a good point because some people like you don’t really need it and don’t care about coasting and some other would love it, let’s see if Zwift can fulfill both needs.
I did managed to use coffee stop couple of times but it’s useful to grab something I need or go to the toilet, 30minutes without having to stop the pedals is still too much, for me coffee stop is not a must in zwift, it rather reminds me while I ride outdoors and stop at the shop to buy something - which I don’t need indoors
Maybe you are riding at too high intensity? You should be able to pedal easily for 30 minutes at a zone 2 pace. What pace are you riding at that burns your legs up so quickly?
yesterday for example I had a 55mins training which was fairly easy, intervals between 1-2zone and then at 90% of ftp and back down to zone two, it was not burning but I still felt like I needed some coasting
if I do training and then easy group ride I feel like I am tired not because I used all my strength but simply because I wasn’t able to stop spinning, it’s so un-natural for me
If you’re doing intervals your recoveries will be more effective if you’re pedalling at 80rpm and 40% of FTP than if you’re coasting or if you get off the bike. Active > passive.
You didn’t get me, I don’t mind or find hard riding 2-3mins at my ftp and then couple of minutes in zone 1 where I barely put any effort, it does help to recover otherwise I would be fried
I’m saying that the fact I still have to pedal for the whole time is just un-natural and puts the new level of tiredness in my legs where they don’t really recover
Maybe I just need to get used to not having a chance to rest but I don’t like it at all
Perhaps solution for me is to pause the workout but that’s again far away from realistic way of doing it and additional time on the phone/keyboard
For me coasting power-up every 5-10mins would be amazing
I was thinking the same sort of thing that @Colin_Cadden mentioned. I don’t get to coast much in the real world because where I live, a highway overpass is a major climb.
That said, I know what the OP is saying, and get it. When I first started Zwifting, I thought the same thing. But I think the more you Zwift, the more you become used to the differences between Zwifting and IRL riding; they aren’t the same thing.
Stop signs / red lights (a little coasting, but a lot of restarting from a dead stop)
Traffic (get T-Boned at Sequoia Circle and you keep going, but getting T-Boned IRL’s going to hurt a little more)
You also get to know the routes, and where you can definitely coast for a bit (coming down from any of the climbs), or where you can at least back it off a little bit for a few seconds (coming down into downtown from the Esses, some of the descents into the underwater tunnels, or some of the underpasses around London, for example). That just comes with time.
Personally, I don’t mind the lack of coasting. As others have said, it does make for a better workout. It’s just matter of recognizing that it’s not exactly real life riding (and shouldn’t be, I don’t think), and to enjoy each one for what they are.
Well that’s also one of the troubles, here where I live it’s a constant change where you’re climb and then you go down, flat sections are rare so I can manage spining for 10-15mins on those cause I know what’s coming next.
I also remember I found very difficult riding one of the 100km routes simply because there was this major flat section where you can’t coast a lot or change the tempo but you’re riding and pedaling and it’s a leg snapper simply because of constant output that you need to provide.
Anyways aside from my personal experience I wanted to see how others feel about this, I see now everyone does notice the same just don’t suffer like I do.
From a fitness/training perspective I don’t mind it but in terms of realism in the game it’s very weird. You can stop on a -5% grade and not move. That would never happen on Earth.
You can have race starts on 15% gradients too. That would be quite entertaining to watch in real life (I think I might put my money on the cyclocrossers who are used to pushing and jumping onto their bikes).
I understood that in latest PD4 releases, the legacy auto-braking when wanting to coast had been removed, or at least set at a much lower threshold. It used to be whenever dipping below 27 km/h, but thought you could now coast down further now without being braked? I think there also was another separate 10w minimum threshold that also autobraked you if you dropped below this. Not sure if this was removed. @DavidP where did this net out?
There was an old auto-braking when coasting (when not in an event) that was removed.
What wasn’t yet removed is a slight auto-braking that happens when you are doing below 10w and below 27km/h (don’t ask me why that speed, probably some miles per hour conversion).
To be honest I haven’t removed this last case, because it got totally forgotten given the low impact it has and other important stuff to be done. I mean if you are doing below 27km/h and not pedalling the likelihood that you are travelling in a group is low, so most likely you do want to stop. This also doesn’t happen on uphills, so it’s not exactly a critical aspect to fix.
I don’t know about your conclusion, that coasting at a speed under 27 km/h means one wants to stop. Cresting an uphill IRL or in Zwift (at less than 27kmh) comes to mind and wanting a brief respite to coast on the other side is a fairly(?) common IRL thing.
If you want to stop, go to the menu button to save your ride anyway?
That said, what was the other (third?) type of auto-braking then that was removed?
