You see a nice group ride zoom by, you catch up with them, and you ride with them for the rest of their ride. Possible in the real-world, currently awkward in Zwift.
Your chat’s don’t go through to the group, so you just look like this outsider hanging on.
What if when you ride with a group for a minute or two, an option pops up that says, “hey, looks like you’re riding with the Slowtwitch B group, want to join them?” Click yes, your jersey changes, and boom, you’re part of the group.
It will help people learn about rides they wouldn’t otherwise know about.
Also - related to this, the ability to change groups mid-ride would be nice too. For example: I joined C group, but I’ve been hanging with B group the whole time so far - I could just switch to B so that I can see the ride leader, etc.
I think this is a really interesting idea. But I also have a question: how often do you actually see a group ride go by that you could actually join? My experience is that group rides, for the most part, take place ‘separately’ from the rest of the world and the riders in that group are generally the only people you see. (Today’s Vatterrundan was an odd exception not only because I could see everyone else on Zwift not on the ride, but also because we overtook a HUGE Pride Ride peloton toward the end of the event, making things a bit confusing.)
If there is a group ride going on ‘in public,’ though, I do think it would be great to be able to join up.
I heard that while a lot of Group rides are on their own “instance” of a world - or they can pick a world that isn’t currently in rotation - that Zwift is encouraging group rides to not have their own world instance.
As a rider leader, whenever we do a Watopia course, I’ll have people join on for a few miles. It’d be nice to let them join the group. If nothing else, it could grow the ride as people become aware of it.
But I think organizers can set it so that they are visible. I think most group events prefer to be on their own , it makes it easier to manage the group and to interact with the riders in the group it makes the group more sosial.
Also means the rest of us don’t have to put up with all the group chats “slow down at the front”, “fliers suck”. Why can’t group chats be limited to groups?