@Daren@Wes (or any other Zwift product manager willing to listen)
This is a long thread that has been going on for 17 months / > 5k views, with many frustrated Wahoo Kickr Climb owners (including myself), and without a resolution. Can you please help here ?
In summary:
Zwift is not sending gradient data to the Climb in ERG mode / workouts
This has been a big surprise / WTF for purchasers of the climb
Climb users want an option / toggle to have this data sent (regardless of whether a minority of folks feel it is “realistic” or not)
The response we have received this far:
from @Gerrie_Delport : It is a Wahoo issue (untrue, and retracted - confirmed that Sufferfest and other apps sends gradient data while in ERG)
Zwift support: " I don’t believe we have any plans on changing this soon, because it’s just not how the Climb was meant to operate"
Observations and Questions
Climb users are likely more advanced / serious as cyclists as they are willing to spend a good chunk of change on this piece of hardware. We want the product to work as expected
As product managers / developers, I hope you prioritize features though lenses like CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score), and NPS (Net Promoter Score). Climb users are most likely huge influencers into convincing people to use Zwift etc.
The comment about this not being an issue affecting many people, so who cares is really obtuse. There are over 80 responses to this thread alone of which 90+% of people passionately want/need this feature
What is the engineering risk in adding a 3rd mode / toggle for climb users ? Users without a Climb will never be negatively affected by this addition…
How can we as users affect where this sits in the backlog of features ? Can you post a poll / vote and get a sanity check on how many Climb users want/need this feature ?
Rant over, but would REALLY like a proper response from someone at Zwift…
Just to put this in the correct context wahoo in Nov '18 said it was not supported and it was not until late in 2019 that other software supported the Climb.
Also I don’t work for Zwift just a passionate customer and moderator.
I don’t think they’re necessarily any more likely to be influencers than other Zwifters. I’ve personally brought loads of people to Zwift over the past four+ years, and for more than three of those years I was a Vortex user. They in turn will have brought others. All without a Climb; which is a relatively niche item due to cost.
Thanks - I appreciate you are are both moderators. My hope was that you likely know the right folks at Zwift to uplevel this to more than I.
@Gerrie_Delport - Sorry if my reply made it sound as if I was placing blame on you. My intent was to give a quick summary of the history in this thread and the answers given
In regards to influencing, I believe a beginner user is likely going to be happier as they “only know what they know” . Unhappy influencers can have a WAY bigger affect than the more silent neutral / happy folks.
The key message I am trying to get a across is that there are a lot of passionate Zwift users + Climb owners that have no way of using the combination in the way it is expected
And what gradient should Zwift report to the Kickr Climb?
In ERG Zwift says 250W. I can produce this with 50/12 at 90rpm at 0% gradient, or with a smaller gear on 3% gradient or with an even smaller gear at 6% or 9%…
I just don’t understand the concept.
The Wattage you have to produce for workouts in ERG has nothing to do with gradient.
When you are outside, the hills don’t flatten out for you to recover either. If this bothers you, you can always just disable the Climb, whereas those of us who do wan’t to keep the angle, can’t.
And why would you do a recovery on a 15% grade when outdoors? You would pick a flat course. Or just disable the Climb while in Zwift.
Zwift should enable us to ride like IRL by modeling outdoor terrain and not just visually but physically as well. That is the #1 reason we bought the Climb.
I’m happy to manually change gradient during the ride. That way I can bring in different muscle groups when doing reps. Sometimes at max gradient, sometimes at 2-3%, sometimes simulating going down hill.
The only downside is there is nothing to say what gradient the Climb is set at.
For me it would be nice on some erg rides to follow the terrain but tbh get my needs met by manual control better than having to follow the terrain
I am not sure what the value of folks adding “I like to ride X way” (ergo the request is invalid). Keep riding the way you like to! No one is trying to convince you that you have to change the way you enjoy Zwift or riding IRL.
What we are asking for is for Zwift to add a capability to let folks experience their workouts / ERG mode with the Climb in another way.
Adding my request for Climb functionality during ERG workouts as well (instead of just lurking and hoping). The same as many others here, I’ve been focused solely on ERG workouts for the last couple of months.
Only reason I haven’t bought a kickr and climb yet is because of this issue of the grade not changing when in ERG mode. Please add to ‘improvements’ list Zwift.
I’m a software developer, if Zwift would let me (highly unlikely) branch from their repository to implement this I’ll be more than happy to give it a shot.
I understand this also probably has a small update on the companion app as well but it shouldn’t be too bad to put something together to test.
Ooooooor Zwift could also have their dev team do it and make us all very happy!
. Unhappy influencers can have a WAY bigger affect than the more silent neutral / happy folks.
