Did the power profile get changed for the Click gears. Cruising flat in gear 18 was not something I could easily do last week.
Hi @Steven_Lyons welcome back to Zwift forums.
Shuji at Zwift HQ here. I peeked at your server logs for clues, nothing super obvious stuck out.
Could this be rephrased as “I can ride more easily in a bigger virtual gear than before?” Can you provide more context of when / how you’re riding when you noticed this change?
Were you in a structured workout (ERG mode) or doing a free ride (SIM mode)? Your activity history indicates you do both types of rides. I noticed you achieved an increase in your FTP on Sept 26 (congratulations!). This will mean that you’ll feel a proportionately greater increase of resistance in a structured workout.
An increase in your FTP number should not affect the resistance you feel in a free ride however, especially on a flat route. Maybe you’re just stronger than before? 
FWIW, I am also a Zwift Hub user. We have not updated the firmware for this a long time, and to my knowledge, nothing on the game software side should have affected the resistance you’d feel using one. I have not noticed it, but that’s one other data point.
Other factors that might come into play are what physical gear combination you’re using on your bike. Also the Virtual Shifting settings in your game settings. Can you tell us more about those, and if you made any changes recently?
Regarding the physical gears on your bike: did you used to keep your bike on the big chainring and now it’s on the small ring for example? If your Hub is set up with a multi-speed cassette - is your rear derailleur set on the same rear cog as before?
Thank you! Here’s more detail:
Settings are default.
Trainer difficulty is default—set in the center of the slider.
Click settings are also default—the first setting: all around (1-24).
What I am experiencing (just today) is that, on a free ride, I have to use a higher gear to achieve the same watts as previously. It’s about 4 gears off. So in the past where I would cruise a flat route at 18-20mph, the gear I would be in was 14 or 15. Today it was 18 - 19. The difference is not subtle — to the point that going downhill I could max out to gear 24 and not even be working very hard. Never had that happen ever.
Thanks for your attention to this.
@Steven_Lyons
Thanks for the added context. I can’t unravel the mystery of why the gearing feels different all of a sudden. It really could be that you’ve gotten physically stronger, and should be choosing a virtual gear range that’s better suited to your abilities on flat terrain.
In your game settings, you can adjust the virtual gearing range. Try changing that to the Flat (53/39, 10-28),and give that a shot? This is analagous to putting a larger set of chainrings on your bike, and should provide more resistance. You should not feel like you’re spinning out in virtual gear 24.
Let us know if that solves the issue for you?
Thank you for spending the time on this Shuji. Switching to Flat gear range seems good and I will experiment with the others as well.
You might be right that I am a little stronger (thought that was hard to do at 69, but I will take it!).
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Steven,
Did you happen to change your front ring gear? I know that when I switch between my largest front ring gear and the middle one, it’s about a 4 gear difference in swift to get the same power output.
Cheers
Thanks David. I use the smallest front ring only. (Recommended in the Click instructions)