One thing I’ve always found a bit odd in Zwift is how little influence you have over how your bike interacts with different surfaces.
Once you’ve chosen a road bike, gravel bike or MTB, the rolling resistance characteristics are largely fixed. You can choose a different frame or wheelset, but the way the bike performs across different surfaces is mostly predetermined.
In cycling, there are always trade-offs to be made depending on the terrain you’re expecting to encounter.
Take the Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège as an example. Both are road races, yet I’d be surprised if riders approached their equipment setup in exactly the same way for both events.
One of the reasons those choices exist in real cycling is tire pressure. It has a major impact on how a bike behaves on different surfaces and often involves finding the best compromise for the terrain ahead.
That’s something I sometimes miss in Zwift.
Routes such as Yumezi Grit, Cobbled Climbs and Croissant could become much more interesting from an equipment perspective. Do you run a higher tire pressure to maximize your speed on the tarmac sections, accepting a disadvantage on dirt or cobbles? Or do you optimize for the rougher sectors and sacrifice a little speed on smooth roads?
Maybe you even choose a gravel bike for a mixed-surface route, but use a higher tire pressure to stay competitive on the paved sections.
Suddenly there are multiple viable approaches to the same route, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. To me, that’s where the appeal lies. Not so much in adding realism, but in creating more meaningful decisions before the race even starts.
Curious what others think.