Hey folks,
I am running a MTB on a Elite Suito-T with an Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 to Zwift and am generally quite happy. The issue which I cannot find a solution to is that I am unable to spend enough Watts on the flat, since I am limited at 100rpm with about 200W on the biggest gear at around 45k/28mph.
Is there any solution to get more out of my training?
I figure that it might be a good idea to ride climbs more than on the flat in general, so that the issue doesn’t affect me as much, but is there really no way of scaling up the gearing ratio? Seems to be quite an easy thing to add a factor of 0.5 to 2.0 so everybody could match/fit their bike to the preferred bandwith of rpm to speed/resistance.
Other Apps surely do offer solutions to this - am I overlooking something here?
Thanks in advance!
No, unfortunately there isn’t. There’s a thread somewhere asking for the base resistance to be able to be scaled/adjusted.
The only thing you can really do is to change the gearing physically with a bigger chainring. Or probably better to get a cheap used road bike.
If you rode your MTB on the road you’d have the same gearing problem trying to keep up with road bikes on the flat.
Well yes and no - I can get to around 35-38k IRL and it’s actually better in Zwift, might be because my MTB is 27,5" still, so Zwift might already be upscaling to bigger rims, theoretically speaking.
Well, I guess I will just tend to ride on the flat less, so it’s possible to live with.
I will nontheless check other Apps, like RGT, FulGaz and Rouvy once again, because IIRC they offer better adaptability.
I seem to recall that Zwift’s “solution” was to add 20 kilos to your weight…
So that would mean, that I am going slower on flat surface but am exponentionally affected on ascends, while having to output a higher wattage to achieve the same speed? Therefor effective speed would not be affected in ceteris paribus, but would effectively be even lower, to compensate for the higher total effort?
Well if I understand the latin correctly…yep. There might be some benefit to flat speeds because with the added weight, more watts should be available. Faster on the descents but going up will be a slog.
Welcome to my world.
I have exactly the same setup. Old MTB on Suito. Due to gearing you will spin out in high 40’s, same as IRL.
Only workaround I found was to decrease the “realism” slider, which will mean your incline and decline will feel less severe, but you still need to output the same to get to the top… and you can at least pedal! But even so, it is so marginal that if I have just the slightest hickup on shifting and cannot select the highest gear, I have to wave goodbye to whoever is in front of me on flats.
All of that said, this is only relevant in free rides and races and I tend to do intervals mostly, where gearing is irrelevant (in ERG mode).