I’ve looked high and low here in the forums and elsewhere to see if there’s any recent discussion on failures in “keep together” in meetups but I’ve come up empty handed. So I’ll post here with the question - are there any known reasons why “keep together” may fail in a small meetup of, say, 4 people?
We’ve had recent experience with a weekly meetup where it’s a small group (3-4 riders) and the “keep together” feature doesn’t hold us together. The ride leader has confirmed that he has ticked the box, so to speak, for each ride. We have riders with disparate power levels that range from mid-3w/kg to high-1w/kg so it’s pretty noticeable when it’s not keeping us together. We are all running the most current version of the app.
Are there common known causes for this? The only discussion I’ve been able to find on issues with “keep together” seem to be from its first launch in 2020 and 2021 - there’s been no recent chatter since then. We’re baffled.
Been having the same issue for about a month. Our “group” is two riders. Doesn’t matter which one of us sets up the meetup, we don’t stay together automatically.
My group of friends has been having the same issue. Seems like it has been occurring since the latest Makuri islands addition. Seems to happen most if someone “joins late” to the meetup. We have a workaround that works from time to time - join another world, and then join the meetup. But as i mentioned, this is sporadic. Today I joined on time, and was connected to the band…but then I got dropped.
I’d love to hear if any other folks are seeing the same issue. My emails to Zwift support on the matter have not really resulted in anything helpful.
Seeing the same issue. People join, usually it only happens if you late join but not always, and Zwift either can’t find the group on the route or it adds them to the group but the “rubber band” doesn’t keep them attached and they end up way off the front or back.
Meetups with keep together is something that my workout group uses almost daily, and it happens on all operating systems and to different people each time. We haven’t found a pattern.
Also having this issue, including this morning’s meetup. I was dropped in with the front group but the band didn’t hold. This has been happening since the release of the Makuri world extension in mid-November.
It is wildly frustrating! Whenever Zwift makes a significant change to the software, basic functionality in meetups suffers. And support is not helpful, telling us to set meetups with a band and that we can’t join after half an hour. Duh.
Edit: seems like this was an issue with the June ‘22 update as well.
We haven’t been able to reproduce this yet in our tests. If you notice a common cause for this, please reach out to me or feel free to open a support ticket.
Wow I am so surprised to hear this because it happens with every late join to a meetup when a group has already been riding. Will post here next time it happens!
Hi, so this happened on our 5:45am meetup to me twice today. Both times I joined after the meetup started. One time the find riders function didn’t work and I didn’t even get placed into the group. Second time I was put into the group but the band did not hold and I was dropped within a minute of riding. This is a significant problem for our group meetups, which we always set with banding, because we have members who ride at different power levels, and members who do workouts Bs free ride. We have been holding meetups for 3 years now and this is the longest running issue we’ve had. Please advise.
Thank you for reaching out. Can you describe more about what happened the first time you tried to join? Also, in the second late join, were you in a workout or free ride?
I really appreciate the feedback. I am sure there is a variable that will help us find the root cause. I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been having this issue for so long.
Sure. On the first, at about 5:47am, I joined the meetup from the home screen. It put me in the world (NYC) and said finding riders. I was stuck on that view for a while and then it dropped me on the route but not near the group that was already riding in the meetup. I could chat with them though.
I left the ride, went back to the Home Screen, and joined the meetup again. That time finding riders put me down with the other three riders in the meetup. However, I was doing about 1.5 w/kg whereas they were doing at least 2.0, and I was dropped from the group and then the chat, as if there was no banding enabled.
Both times I was free riding. However, I have also been dropped from the group recently many times when the band was supposed to be on while running a workout. Thanks for your help!
It’s happened to me twice - perhaps under slightly different circumstances than above, but this is what I have come up against:
We’ve typically had group meet ups with a dozen or so riders. It’s all good on the starting blocks and, in my case, when the clock counts down and we’re all pedalling off, my avatar stays on the blocks. No matter what I do, I can’t start. I have to resort to exiting the meetup and trying to join again, but late.
Yesterday I was dumped back into the ride, perhaps a minute into the event and it was hopeless. I suffered a two hour ride where, if I matched the host in w/kg, I stayed with him. That is, until some rubber banding took place and I was shot all over the place. No matter what I did the clock was off by about 40 seconds and I couldn’t remain within the rubber banded group for long. Interestingly, if I maintained the w/kg of other riders who were not in the meet up group, all was fine.
The previous time that this happened, perhaps a month or so ago, the clock showed me to be aligned with the group but it was really hard to catch the group and stay with them, even though I was kicking out more w/kg than many of them.
I’m running the latest version on an ipad using a Kickr bike - there are a variety of operating systems and trainers used within the meet up group.
Thanks Ian for chiming in - glad it’s not just our group! Our 5:45am EST meetup was a huge mess today. A big group, 6 then 8 then 10+ riders. On my first join (late on purpose for testing) I was not placed with any riders. On the second join I was dropped in with the lead riders but the band did not hold. Other riders who started on time were dropped - band not holding even though it’s enabled. Other riders who joined late rode solo. Help!!! This really stinks! Our group is wonderfully diverse in terms of riding styles and we just want to ride together.
Has happened to me several times in the last week, and yes I think there was late joining in all of them, in once case we all waited and the late join was only a few seconds.