Badge hunting is one of the ways us regular, daily zwifters keep zwift fun and entertaining. What is frustrating is when badge routes (such as the new Itza Climb and Itza Party) are made “Event Only”. I see no logical reason for this. Badges should be based on accomplishment. If you want to restrict a route until a certain level is reached, fine. This makes the route more exclusive to those who have reached the level but allows those riders below that level to work towards that goal. Restricting a route as an “Event Only” just limits ones ability to collect that badge by hoping a club decides to use it AND that you are available on that day and time. In addition, it interferes with some events that use the route. For the Mayan San Remo badge, I like several others, joined the race just for the badge. This artificially inflates the racing pool and gives the false sense of accomplishment for those actually racing. Imagine you were 20th place in a race of 40 racers only to find out 25 of them just wanted the badge and were not racing?
100% agree with this post. I too have four remaining route badges I have not completed, as they are “event only” and so I"m just trying to figure out how I can get them done. I also have joined races in the past, in order to get them completed. But I’m not racing. If you (Zwift) are trying to get people involved in other activities (through racing or club events), I’m fine with that, but I think a default should be to open these routes up after a month or so. Until then, I’m struggling to figure out how to complete them. I’ve gone on Zwift Hacks route finder and none of them have currently scheduled events.
@Mr_Deadpool
I respectfully disagree with your argument.
1 - If the badge is event only, this would mean the badge is harder to obtain. So you (said badge hunter) should take more pride in the fact that, you earned the badge 
2 - Your second argument has many flaws.
I don’t race all the time(semi regular), But I do enjoy the challenge, and is an amazing workout.
- Once a race is over, you can scan down the results. Pretty easy to see who was there to race, and who was just doing a ride. Then I will go to Zwift power and/or zr app. Anyone who isn’t listed on the results page there, doesn’t matter. Your argument about giving a racer a false sense of accomplishment is wrong. The only way I can improve my ranking, is by beating higher ranked racers. So any riders that are ranked lower than me, don’t mean much. As long as I’m ahead of them. Lol
. - The great thing about Zwift is, we are all here for different reasons. Take from Zwift what you want. This is just my two cents. Good luck with your badge hunting. Have a great day. Ride On.
I would, respectfully, like to disagree with your first point. The idea that the event only badge is harder to obtain and therefore something to be proud of is nothing I would be proud of. I did nothing to earn that badge other than be available at the time the route is chosen.
Regarding your second point, I have done a few races (due to badge hunting) and while there are some riders who clearly are not racing, there are a fair group of folks who turn in good times but were not racing that are not as easy to recognize in the race. Perhaps you may be able to differentiate those after the fact via zwift power, but it doesnt help when you are in the race. Case in point, recently I joined a race for the Mayan San Remo badge and decided to really race it. At the first climb, the group I was with had 3 other riders. One of them went all out on the first climb and I followed suit. After the passing under the banner, that rider drastically slowed. I ask what happened and he said he was just trying to get a better time on that climb and was going to go zone 2 for the rest of the race, as he just wanted the badge. Had I known that I would not have pushed. This impacted the rest of my race. Race startegy during a race is directly impacted by what others do. I am positive if that route was not an event only badge, he would not have been there. Another example, Zwift Worlds had a badge only route for the A and B racers. I am in the C category and joined a B race. I finished in the top 50%. However, did I really beat that many B category racers? How would this have been different if it was not a badge route? Would I have still beaten that many B racers? Lastly, you mention that you check zwift power and if they are not listed, you dont care. So following that logic, if you finish in 20th place but the faster 19 riders are not on zwift power, and thus wont show up on the results page, do you really think that you came in first place? Do you count that as a win? All that really means is that you were the fastest of those that are registered with zwift power.
I agree that one of the great things about zwift is that everyone is on zwift for different reasons. All I am asking, is that zwift not interfere with the reason I am zwifting.
Completely agree with DP’s comments. “Event Only” badge routes are nearly as stupid as Zwift’s idiot move to require steering to have obtained the “Repack Rush” route badge. A $100.00 investment, for a route badge. After pushback, they finally dislodged their head from their rear derailleur and removed that badge all together. Amazing how often this outfit seems to place their cranium in that particular place again and again (Zwift Ride anyone?).
The vinegar is not helping your cause. I share the OP’s desire for badge hunting opportunities and would love to persuade Zwift to badge every route and make every route available, but their decision to not do that (yet) isn’t stupid, it’s just not in line with my preferences, and abuse isn’t persuasive. It’s actually the quickest way to be ignored.
Just a little hack for you. Sign up to one of the hourly events. Click join between 30-60 mins out and free ride the route for the badge without doing the event 
Sadly this only works for some routes. In other cases it will say you’re riding the route but actually you’re on some other route. eg, you try to pre-ride Downtown Dolphin and it says you’re doing it but you’re actually on Bell Lap. I’ve seen that for some of the New York routes, and Seaside Sprint as well (where you go straight up the KOM when you try to pre-ride it - maybe Hilly Route?). You get to the end of the route and the game gets all confused about the finish line.
Yeah, I know. But it at least works for this one!
In order to earn the badge, you have to sign up for an event that has chosen the route. Therein lies the problem, clubs are not choosing the route. Perhaps I should look into creating a club for this purpose.
It would be easier to work with a club that already organizes events and has a relationship with the Zwift events team. When I search the ZwiftHacks events page for the word “badge” I see badge-hunter group rides from EVO, DIRT, and LEQP. Pick the one that has the ride time most compatible with your schedule, join the club, get to know the regulars, talk to them about routes.
I created my own club event in order to do these routes, but the problem is the “event only” routes are not allowable to use in these club events. So we are left to wait for a formal zwift sanctioned event to include them. Not the best option IMO
I tried but you cannot use “event only” routes in your club events.
That’s the reason for my last suggestion
As a badge hunter myself I kindly disagree with removing them all together and making them all free to ride. I think making a small percentage Event Only adds more of an achievement factor to them. Along with that one advantage Zwift has over other platforms is the community. By keeping some routes Event Only this keeps the focus on group rides and riding together.
I think Zwift could offer like they did the in the past Badge Hunters rides on the weekends. Rotate the routes each event.
If those times don’t work for you then ask Clubs to make rides with the routes. The most recent routes and Queens Highway After Party sadly are not Club available yet, but hopefully soon.
I only have 2 badges left to collect, one being a new route, the other event only. Every day I wake up and check Zwifthacks for that coveted Queen’s Highway After Party route 
Can somebody in Zwift HQ please create an event and let me know when it happens!!??
That ride is going to break up at the first intersection after the route finishes. Not a safe route for a 1 hour group ride. Of course you get the badge so maybe that doesn’t matter, but the event organizer should be wary of using a route like that. It’s one of the reasons why you don’t see a lot of non-race rides on that type of route.
But you can often just have your own club and create the event only route as your own private ride. That’s what I’ve done before on the ones where I was able to add them. The others still locked away aren’t important enough to worry about.
Locking them away just means that some people won’t ever ride those routes as they are sometimes very rarely added to events.
Lots of event-only routes aren’t available to clubs or meetups, or even to event organizers who have privileges to edit public events.