Half pedal on Zwift dumb trainer

I just had my left knee replaced. And can only generate about 20 watts on my dumb trainer. Can i still use Zwift. When I try the cyclist starts but then stops and won’t start until the watts are about 50. I can’t get that high using a half pedal.

Hi Bill!

The Megathread of resource links may just be a springboard to some resources of interest.

The specific section I’m thinking of:

If you decide to try any or all of these approaches, we’d love to hear how it works for you.

I’m not sure how a dumb trainer works on Zwift, but if it was a smart trainer i would reduce my weight. e.g. at half my weight I would then produce 40 watts instead of 20.

Your weight doesn’t impact your power.

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thanks James. please explain because I don’t understand. If I cut my weight in half and double my watts per kilo I go faster, but power stays the same?

Yes, your power is determined by how hard you stomp on your pedals.

If you change your weight to half of what it is, that doesn’t mean you generate more power.

Your w/kg will be higher, but that isn’t power, but you will move faster.

I’m not sure at what low threshold Zwift puts a rider at a standstill, and whether it’s by watts or calculated speed. A quick experiment on my setup, it appears that 10+ watts will start me moving – registering about 1mph. 20 watts should have you moving at some speed, unless perhaps you’re on a steepish hill and/or your in-game weight is high. You may want to check that your in-game weight isn’t off by a couple decimal points – there was a little bug related to that.

Other than that, in your case setting trainer difficulty to 0% might be helpful.