How is everyone doing "Ride Ons" so easily?

I don’t get it and I’m wondering if I’m missing something. When I ride on Zwift I’m basically a huffing and puffing sweaty mess. I never message because it wouldn’t be the easiest thing to do while cycling, but I’ll save that for another discussion. This time I’m only focusing on “ride ons” because I really don’t get how so many seem to do it so effortlessly, and again, I wonder what I’m missing.

When I ride I get a number of ride ons. I might want to return the favor, but they typically don’t show up on the right side of my screen and I somehow have to hunt them down. All this while attempting to ride a bike, vigorously I might add?

So how do people do it? I find that I don’t really do them because I find it so clunky to do so, but then I feel guilty that I’m not returning the favor. Am I missing something?

Do you use the companion app while you ride?

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Understand how you feel, especially the messaging.

Just hitting the where you are indicator on the companion app map is all I can cope with when pushing it. So if I’ve ridden with someone and want to say thanks, drop back and hit the map until I see a ride on drop on them.

Worse in races where that function doesn’t work. Wanted to say thanks to a D.Mathews with who I shared a lot of work the other day. Moment you cross the line you shift from only seeing racers to seeing everyone else and even though you’ve stopped too late to find them on the list of nearby Zwifters.

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I have no idea but I’m right there with you huffing and puffing. I MIGHT be able to do a ride on very occasionally but I absolutely could not message. I feel badly about not giving others ‘ride ons’ too but I just can’t. Maybe Zwift could come up with a jersey that says something like ‘Dying here - RIDE ON to everybody’ on the back LOL

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I do. I’ve seen the link you passed on before. It doesn’t provide all that much help since I think you can only provide multiple ride-ons at once if you are the group leader of a ride.

lol…yea, I need one of those too. :slight_smile:

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For group rides, yes. In a free ride, you can use the ride-on bomb.

Also if you lead a Meet-up, then you get the Ride-On bomb reset in about two seconds. In free ride it takes about 10 seconds. I LOVE hittin’ that button when I’m riding through a big group and it’s rainin’ blue thumbs!

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Yeah, that should be available all the time, in races, events, and free rides.

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I usually give a few ride ons each session, but they tend to go to the people who happen to have the thumbs up button appear by their name on the right side. I think that usually happens when they level up, complete something like a sprint or climb, or when they give me a ride on. If I see the button, I’ll usually reach over and tap it unless I’m in the middle of a super high-intensity interval (and even then I sometimes do).

Funny you put it that way. I feel this is part of Zwift’s allure and its downfall. That is, I find Zwift sort of confusing and “busy.” There are so many times I’m saying things just like you are, “I think it works this way.” :slight_smile: I even left Zwift at one point because there was so much I felt I didn’t understand and was a little frustrated. Other platforms were extremely straight forward. But here was the rub, that straight forwardness led to boredom for some reason. I found that I missed the complexities that exist with Zwift. So you want the Tron bike? Well, you better go do your research.

I’m still new at this though, but I’m not sure for how much longer I can say that. I think I’ve been on it about 6 months. I’m sure I’ll become more proficient over time, but do I really want to? :slight_smile:

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I agree that they don’t explain things all that well. You get that tutorial on your very first ride, but I feel that was almost too early in the process for me to get a lot out of it. In the end though, I guess it doesn’t matter that much for me. I’m primarily here to get some riding done without having to go out in a Minnesota winter. I just find that staring at a Zwift screen makes it go faster than watching tv or something like that. :slight_smile: If you haven’t tried any training plans yet I highly recommend it. They keep you busy enough that you’ll barely have time to think about how the other things work. :slight_smile:

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That is an interesting one, because I really enjoyed the “pick it up as you go along” nature of learning how to “do” Zwift when I started (and I am still picking up the odd new thing three years or so in which keeps it interesting).

I understand others don’t like doing things that way and would rather have everything more clearly set out right from the off … and I think there is definite mileage in allowing you to re-run the tutorial after you have been riding a little while, so you can get more out of it.

And GCN (among others) do some excellent YouTube videos along the lines of “X things I wish I had known about Zwift”.

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I’m trying to give ride ins but when I press the thumbs up… nothing appears… I feel I’m being very rude… and in today’s ride… I couldn’t find it… what am I doing wrong?? Have given ride ins before but since restarting… seems not to work… could it be that I’m in a free months trial??

Sorry David. Think I’ve replied to you but it’s a general question… as you can guess… never used this forum before :woman_facepalming:t3:

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Welcome to Zwift, Fiona! The thumbs up button in the Zwift Companion doesn’t give Ride-Ons for some reason I’ve yet to fathom. As far as I know, there are five ways to give R-On’s:

  1. Click on a name in the leaderboard and click on the orange R-O button.
  2. If someone gives you an R-O during an event and they’re on the leaderboard and the R-O button will appear next to their name.
  3. Hit the circle on the Zwift Companion app map. This is the R-O bomb button that gives the five nearest riders R-O’s.
  4. Go into the nearby Zwifter list in ZC and select the target rider and the push the R-O button on their profile.
  5. From the home page in ZC, select the Zwifters you follow tab and give all of your friends R-O’s even when you’re not logged on.

That’s all I know but I’m sure there’s some deep dive knowledge I’m unaware of. Hopefully someone will clue us in.

Enjoy your time in the Virtual Cycling World!

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Click that button, and your avatar says, “Ride On!” It just triggers the audio, like “Hammer Time,” and “I’m toast.”

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I have no idea what I am doing with Zwift, other than connecting my Saris H3 smart trainer, choosing a course, and riding. I am using my laptop, which is out of reach when riding and I can’t read the names on the screen clearly, so the idea of texting and giving ride ons seems like far too much effort. Also, like the OP, I am usually too busy huffing and puffing, and trying to mop up the sweat pouring off my head.
I never got any training instructions, but that’s probably because I signed up a year before I actually had a turbo trainer.
Are there any guides for new users?

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See

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Thanks, I will check that out!

I only ever ride bomb by tapping the circle around me on the companion app. I use an Apple TV 4K, and using the remote to try to navigate over somewhere and click another rider is out of the question while riding. But tapping the ZCA, no problem, and I do that whenever there’s a bunch of riders, I pass them on a climb, or they pass me. Why not; even if they don’t care it doesn’t cost me anything.

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Having failed to find a way to easily give multiple ride-ons at once during a group ride, I found - what I think is - a simple way to achieve this for the people around you one-by-one.

For my solution, you need to be running the companion app.

  1. As you ride along in the group, select the ‘Zwifters’ tab from the bottom menu.

  2. Make sure you are on the ‘riders near me’ tab at the top of the screen - this sounds more confusing than it is.

  3. Select a rider from the list.

  4. Hit the blue ‘Ride On’ button on the screen that opens up. Note that the button will be greyed out for a second or two at first.

  5. Use the back button - top left - and select another rider.

I can rain ride-ons to those around me quickly using this method, but I’m still stunned by the number I get post event and haven’t worked out a way to respond easily.

If an easier way is found, please let me know. :slightly_smiling_face:

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