Discouraged by my early Zwift experiences - so slow

Bugs and Support
#1

I’m on day four of trying to get my new Kurt Kinetic Rock N Roll 2 to work with Zwift. I am a recreational rider and just want to watch the scenery pass by while ticking the minutes away. I am not training or racing. I pedal at a pace and gear I would normally outside, again recreationally, and struggle to get over 100W. If I pedal in my toughest gear I can maybe get to 125W.

My Kinetic seems set up right with good tire contact and no slippage that I can detect.

I just want to see the route go by at a reasonable pace without every single other rider passing me. I am not going for “realism” I am going for fun and motivation. Are there settings that allow me to do that? Where to begin?

#2

Well. I mean you could make a meetup and not invite anyone but put it on “meetup view” (it’ll keep you from seeing other people while riding) :grin:

#3

Under menu there is a slider setting called “trainer difficulty” . Set it to 0% and see if your watts go up.
The only way you can go faster is to generate more watts either by pedaling faster or using a higher gear (smaller cog).
Zwift uses a proprietary formula to calculate speed, watts, height, weight, bike, wheels, and more. Make sure your bio is correct, set your trainer difficulty to 0% and try to spin about 80-85rpm in a gear that is not too easy and not too hard.

#4

Sounds like it isn’t correct if you can’t get over 125 watts.

What type of tire do you have, is it a trainer tire? Are you selecting the correct wheel size in Zwift?

#5

It sounds like you need to do a trainer calibration.
You don’t state how much you weigh or how tall you are.
This affects speed too but I’m assuming you feel the the reported watts are low.

Do you leave the roller pressed against the tire.
if you re tighten the roller against the wheel when you ride, the resistance will change and you will need to re calibrate.
I recommend that you not leave the roller against the wheel and just recalibrate the trainer before each ride.
The reported watts will also change according to changes in the room temperature.
This is significant if your trainer is in a garage.
The Kinetic app is only blue tooth so you want to be sure not to allow zwift to connect via blue tooth before you connect the the kinetic app.
You will want to ride for 10-20 min before calibrating to allow the trainer to warm up.
Then disconnect from the kinetic app and connect to Zwift.
You can connect to zwift using Ant+ and to the Kinetic app via Blue tooth at the same time.