It does only show when you are close to it.
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Thanks for confirming that. I was pretty certain that is how it worked. I haven’t done a group ride in a while, 5am EST to 6am EST is not a popular start times. LOL
You can be close to the ride leader and still be close to the fence if the time distance is set short. There should not be a problem to stay close to the fence.
Particularly on lower paced group rides.
Surely that’s a problem with the ride leader setting the fence at 5 seconds or less and not the fault of the fence. I don’t see the fence at all when set at 10 seconds
It needs to be an obvious barrier and anyone who doesn’t like the view shouldn’t be that close to it anyway.
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What if the fence was obvious and at the same time less annoying to ride behind? It should be possible to have both.
Again, why are you riding so close to the fence and not with the ride leader?
If it’s annoying to fence-lickers, good. It should be.
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As I see it, being on the right side of the fence is where the ride leader wants you to be. If he wants you to be closer, he should have the fence closer.
Huh? 
I’ve never known a ride leader not give instructions to stay as close to the yellow beacon (them) as possible. I’ve never had a ride leader tell the group to sit on the fence. Which group rides are you doing where the leader is telling you that? Which group leaders are aiming to ride on their own while everyone else in the ride is told to ride as close to the fence as possible?
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I think you are misunderstanding. AFAIK the fence is there to hold the group together. Think if the ride leader didn’t have to give instructions to stay close all the time. Think if the fence could have that job. If the distance to the fence is small enough there should not be a problem, should it?
Often the only thing I hear from the ride leader is to stay close.
the fence is ok as far as i am concerned, but I do like riding close to it rather than in the group by the ride leader. I do this because the group is close to my limits as a rider and by being close to the fence i have a chance to pick up the pace if for some reason the group starts to go faster - which does seem to happen from time to time. A few times it bought me enough time to get going fast enough to hang on to the group.
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Sometimes I wonder if anyone here has been in IRL 100+ attendee group rides. ‘stay close to the ride leader’ to avoid looking at a fence that might be equivalent t0 20 yards in front of the leader, but which is probably still visible anyway? Some leeway has to be provided IMO for uphill and downhill vagaries in what people will. Real ride leaders aren’t pace partners and as predictable as such. More leniency for going on ahead and regrouping on the flats makes more sense.
If there was a suggestion I’d make, is that kick mode shouldn’t exist unless fence is a set at a minimum of 15seconds in front of the leader.
No!
(+ 8 more letters)
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Sure, why not. If concern is ‘flyers ruining it for everyone’, 15 second max separation is really nothing over an eg 15 mile course, and that way nobody wants to stare at a red glowing fence across the scenery that Zwift designers spent some time making look nice.
Look at a group ride that has no fence and the separation between first and the main group can be 5 minutes or more. 15 seconds is diddly.
Set them as workouts at the event description pace, perhaps with a a bit of deviation say +/-10%. Rubberbanding on, bingo, all stay together!
no way, leaders have the freedom on how they set the fence in terms of time and kick mode on or off i’d hate to see zwift trying to enforce how a club ride is lead
15 seconds is a massive gap over a kom that would only result in more people getting kicked. From experience on a kom you want the fence as close to you as possible to keep the group together.
I personally don’t like kick mode for my rides so have it off but can see why some big group rides use it.
If you want a static group ride where everything is the same then i’d suggest pace partners could be the better answer for you.
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Ride leaders have control over the fence and can alter the distance/turn it off for certain sections of a course freely ingame. They can also see how many people are ahead of the fence for whatever reason (the leader has a dropout or there is a descent into a sharp incline) and adjust accordingly
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I agree with this post. I was on a ride yesterday and the leader twice reduced the fence gap to 2 sec. Each time I tried to drop back to rejoin and then got completely dropped. Good leaders aren’t tyrants and shouldn’t use the fence to punish.
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Hi @shooj
Thank you and ZHQ for making this function work. Really useful one.
As an event leader I can enable fence while zwifting, but could you advise more detail how to enable the “kick mode”?
I may miss something but still can’t find the way to do it.
Thank you.