General problems with Zwift

General Discussion
1

Hi,

I have used zwift for about two years. And I am still experiencing issues like it seems I am running on a poor Beta version. The software is poor on so many levels, and it is a struggle every time I try to use it.

  • E.g. Cannot connect to the power source(wahoo kickr snap). I try unplugging the Kickr, I try to pedal. Sometimes I just have to restart. It takes another 10 minutes and then the start on my race is gone.

  • HR is there during start up, but the signal is gone when I start to ride. I will say it is more frequent to loose the signal than to actually keep it while I ride. And offcourse; it is not possible to connect to the HR once you are passed the log-in screen. Why not?

  • Just starting the program takes forever. I had 30 minutes to prepare, but I still had to just skip the race just now.

  • When I am lucky enough to actually get in. Zwift does not take into account that I am actually going to a race in e.g. Innsbruck. It spends 5 minutes to send me to London(Innsbruck is not always an option to choose). Once in London I can go to the race, but it takes too long to change world. The start is history when I eventually reach Innsbruck.

  • Updates are so frequent that I basically have to account for a major update every time I ride. It is extremely annoying. Just starting with no update takes more than 10 min. With an update we are looking at maybe 30 min. And today I was not even able to connect to the Kickr. I had to just skip the whole thing.

  • Lately(2 races the last month) I have been disconnected about 30 sec in the middle of the race. I loose my group and is left in nowhere. This actually never happened before.

I am running bluetooth connection on a quite old PC. (Yes, I turn off bluetooth on my phone to avoid connection of my Wahoo Kickr and HR strap to my phone.). I have a slow internet connection, but lately I have connected using my phone. A speedtest gave me 40 Mbps. Does not seem to be any better.

Right now zwift gives me far more frustration than fun. It is a pain to even think about going into the garage and not know if this will work or not. And it has gradually turned worse and worse during my time on zwift. Do I need to just change from PC to something else? I could use my Iphone instead, but the graphics are very poor when shown on a big screen.

Any tips?

(And a little bit on the side: I am a B-rider, but if I enter a very short race or the calibration is a little bit off and I manage to get more than 4.0 w/kg I am automatically kicked into Category A. It does not matter if I only manage 3.0 w/kg in the 20 next races. I am kept in the A category until I contact support. Why can I not choose my own category? I am being disqualified if I overperform anyway, so what is the big deal?)

2

There is your problem. What are the PC specs.

Because there are a set of rules that we all have to follow.

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Zwift power use your best 3 races over a 90 day range. You are currently a B (Almost A). Looking at your last race you did 4.11w/kg in a 28km race. So I would say you are a A already.

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3

BT on Windows is a nightmare. BT on an old Win PC laptop is worse. If you have a 1st Gen Snap…BT is even more worse. Get an ANT+ USB dongle and see if that helps. Assuming your laptop is new enough for USB…

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4

Get an Apple TV. A lot cheaper than a new PC, and more stable too. Updates in 30 second or less. Unless you were thinking of getting a new laptop anyway.

5

You can, hit the A key on your keyboard and you go to the pairing screen.

You just need a better PC with an SSD hard drive. I bought a used one off Ebay for $90 and then put in a GTX 1650 video card for $180 and now I get ultra graphics and very quick startup, less time than it takes to put on my shoes, HRM and turn on the fan. A new Apple TV 4k is $200.

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6

Thanks Gerry, I did not know how they calculate. It seems my Kickr gradually gives me more watt over time. And then I calibrate and get down to earth again. And one race I was in it was impossible for me to get down to zero. I stayed at minimum 30-40 W with no pedaling. Regardless; I will try to calibrate more often. But if I am put up in A again, will I be put down to B if I do three races below the B limit? Or will I have to contact support? I feel that it is very hard to get to B if I am once in A. And I try to do races above 40, then keeping the watt up is more difficult. 28 is short for me.

7

Thanks Mike!, I think I will go for Apple tv. I guess I do not need 4K to get a good result. A 32GB version costs 130 $ here. Thanks for the A-key tip. But how is it done on apple tv?

8

Thanks Steve, will do. But I do have an issue with the internet. I zwift in the garage, even when my cell phone is connected to the wireless wifi I get very low speed. I think I have to pull a cable from the house to connect to apple tv to get this working well.

9

Thanks :slight_smile:

10

Best 3 races in 90 days. So you need to wait 90 days. You are currently an almost A rider.

11

On the Apple TV, press the menu button and then navigate to the ‘Pairing’ icon. You also get to the garage, challenges, workouts (if you didn’t pick one at start up), and other options from this screen.

12

Got an Apple tv installed. Up and running in seconds. Amazing :slight_smile: Even with my slow internet it was working right away.
Thanks for all help.

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