Junior Rider Weight- Needs a lower minimum

Do we have anything like “Zwift User Champions”? Who are representative to the Zwift team? Kind of like the school Parent-Teacher-Association?

Otherwise, at some stage, do we all just reconcile ourselves to the fact that no-one in Zwift product management either reads this… or they just don’t care enough to even respond?

:frowning: (Level 24 zwifter)

Hello I have a 7, 9 and 11 year old that are passionate about cycling and Zwift. They are way under 99 pounds. Is there a way this feature could get fixed? They all have free child accounts. Thank you!

They can have the correct FTP.
FTP is based on 95% of their average power over 20 minutes.

Oh that’s right thanks Gerrie for catching that! I just meant they want the weight to be correct so their speed and power ratio would be appropriate. :slight_smile: hope you are doing well my friend!

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There’s some old threads mentioning this issue but I’ll bring it up again in hopes that it’s closer to be dealt with. Zwift is encouraging kids to ride and offering them free accounts but then enforcing a minimum weight of 45kg. My 9 year old daughter is 32kg. This makes group rides too difficult for her and even makes it more difficult for the two of us to ride together because it’s way easier than it should be for me. Imagine if when you pedaled at 2.0 w/kg, you were only credited for 1.42 w/kg or you pedaled at 3.0 and were only counted for 2.13. This is what’s happening to my daughter and it’s obviously frustrating. If Zwift is going to be kid friendly, this needs to be fixed. Junior accounts are already flagged as free so it seems like lifting this limit for kids should be possible.

I understand your point, but I’d be quite surprised at most 9 year olds keeping up with a group of adults anyway. I think that even with her correct weight, she’d be quickly dropped from the group. On the flat for sure. W/kg isn’t the only factor to be considered, the raw power output matters too. At 2 W/kg she’s doing 64W, which won’t see her keeping up with adults doing 140W, say.

I’m not suggesting she shouldn’t be able to input her true weight, but even if she does you’d need to manage her expectations. It’ll be doubly disappointing to ride at the higher power to weight ratio yet still struggle to keep up.

Of course, if she’s riding with other kids it’s probably not a problem.

In the meantime, you could ride together using the meetup feature with the “keep together” function enabled.

You may be right regarding the overall watts issue - either way I appreciate you interacting with me on the issue. I will say that she completed a ride up the EPIC KOM and radio tower with The Pack last Sunday on 100% trainer difficulty. It’s too bad she had to carry an extra 30lbs up, though I suppose that helped her speed on the descent.

I know I’m in the minority here with a 9 year old on a road bike with a direct drive smart trainer. I wouldn’t care if I had to pay for her as long as it worked right.

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Chapeau!

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Hi @Andy_Linquist and all parents reading along

We’ve heard you loud and clear, and know that we can make the in-game experience better for young Zwifters. We are actively working on the minimum weight issue, but don’t have an ETA to reveal at this time.

We appreciate your patience, and hope you’re stoked when we can announce progress.

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Thanks for the response. I’m obviously a big fan of Zwift if I’m encouraging my kids to do it too.

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I would love to get my son on and try Zwift. He is 37kg now… lower the minimum please.

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I’m glad you’re working on this issue. Meanwhile I think you have a huge misconception about what a 10 year old kid can accomplished on a bike.

My son is doing competition and the difference between kid and adult is mostly toward endurance.

When doing crit the average speed is 35kph for 30 minutes for 10year old kids on road bike.

I now can barely hold on his wheel when going on 10% climb , yes I’m 100kg but my FTP is 300 watts.

These kid are for real, I think that’s the main problem with this issue, you have a misconception of these kids.

2 years ago , the average speed was again 35kph on his competition but could only hold it for 20 minutes, this just a matter of endurance.

Ride on !

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Just to be clear, I don’t work for Zwift.

Some 10 year olds might be able to hang with adults, sure. Andy’s daughter might be able to keep up with adults, but plenty of 9 years olds wouldn’t be able to, so I was just highlighting that power-to-weight isn’t the only factor at play.

But I don’t think I’m under any misconceptions regarding the typical 10 year old. I used to coach at a Go Ride club, and I coached that age group amongst others. While some riders are strong, others are not.

Apart from other factors, at least for racing in the UK Under 10s and Under 12s have their gears restricted. Max 6.05m (on a rollout) for Youth C (U12). That can also have an impact on top end speed. Whether any restrictions are applied for a child outside of competition is up to the parent, but it’s another factor to consider when a child is Zwifting.

Your point about endurance is also worth considering, of course. A 9 year old who can do 20mph or more might still only be able to hold it for a relatively short time. I’m not trying to say no kids can ride fast or strongly, just as I said that fixing weight might not be a magic bullet when it comes to keeping with a group ride or race.

I absolutely support that kids should be able to ride at their true weight though.

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Yes! I just signed up my daughter for Zwift as she’s been asking for ages. Bummer that she’s way below the minimum weight at 27kg (8 years old) though. I’m new to Zwift so I’m not sure why there is a minimum for kids accounts? Are they just “free” adult accounts so there is no way to allow a lower minimum weight without affecting all accounts?

Hi @Danielle_D-M
Welcome to the Zwift forums.

There’s not currently a separate minimum weight for kids accounts - there’s a weight minimum for all riders set so the game physics work realistically.

The minimum weight setting is one of the things we’re working on so the in-game experience is better for flyweight division adults and children too. We appreciate your patience as we work out the all the issues.

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Do you have a time-scale for this? It would be nice to manage expectations!

We are actively working on it, but as mentioned upstream, we don’t have an ETA to reveal at this time.

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Good to hear that, my 9 year old and 30kg daughter waits eagerly for the implementation!!

My three kids tried to do the tour of Innsbruck today and only one of them could make the climb due to the minimum weight issue. Zwift please help! Willing to pay for kid accounts if this makes a difference! Literally my kids want to ride cycling pro that is their dream indoors with ecycling. Please help them accomplish this!

Hi Peter, I do agree that all riders should able to ride at their real wait.

I am not a dev but do like math, what I think is the reason is that current formulas was developed from real world data and that data had limits of use so over x weight it is not accurate and the same with minimum weight.

The other thing is can the kids climb a hill like that IRL. That is a hard hill even for adults.