Making Zwift More Accessible to First Time Users or Travel Workers in Gyms

Feature Requests
1

I recently watched a video of the CEO of Zwift talking about the difficulty of getting a user to try Zwift for the first time.

I ran into this issue before I bought a smart trainer. Paying for a bike, shoes, pedals/cleats, smart trainer, and subscription makes this very niche and elitist sport to get into. Especially if someone wants to just try it out to see if they like it.

Here are a few of my product ideas/roadmap - yes I work in the product side of software

Commercial Gym Use:

To get your mind ready for this, think Walmart or McDonalds game cube demos where anyone could walk up to the console and play a game if they wanted too. No configurations or profiles, etc. Just hands on controller and play. If the idea is to be able to bike inside anywhere you travel/visit, a really good market option would be to redesign the Zwift bike and sell it commercially to gyms/hotels. Peloton probably ran into this issue, but their costs are too high and doesn’t have the market dominance that Zwift has.

Hardware (Zwift Bike): Imagine zwift makes a workout gym version. They could sell a commercial Zwift bike version to gyms, add easier pedals, and easier adjustability. I would also enhance the Zwift bike to make it easier to adjust - this could be the commercial version. I would go either two routes; mechanical adjustability or electronic. Electronic adjustments for your handle bars, crank length, seat position with tactile button options: a,b,c,d. Or imagine scanning your QR code with your profile settings, so that it auto adjusted to their fit (think car fobs that auto adjust your seat/steering wheel position). Probably first release would be an easier mechanical notch system. The current at home version has an issue with loosing the tool too easily for commercial use.

Software: Have a basic easy to start riding gym software version/world. This could log all your efforts/stats. Maybe at the end of the session, a user can scan a QR code with their stats and post to their strava/socials etc. For more advanced/regular gym users, they could create a basic Zwift profile, where users could scan a QR code to begin and log their gym miles and take their profile with them to any gym/zwift bike they go to. Imagine going to any gym that has Zwift bikes and you can continue to log your miles and stack up your profile.

Feel free to critique or add your further ideas or thoughts.

2

Indoor riding doesn’t need to be expensive to get into, when I first started, I started with a wheel on trainer that I could use my normal road bike with, with a cadence and speed sensor on it, so probably cost me about £60 in hardware costs

3

The whole thing totally ignores the original starting place for smart trainers and what still is a significant component. That is, existing cyclists wanting something more stimulating for winter training that rollers. People who already have the bike, the shoes, etc.

4

Yeah this isn’t for replacing your at home indoor training setup. This is an expansion for travellers or those who don’t have any existing gear, but want to “play the game”. I have friends that want to try Zwift, but can’t because they don’t cycle. They also can’t use my bike because it doesn’t fit them, nor have the clip in shoes.

Imagine they could go to a gym and Zwift there, or if you travel lots, typically you don’t bring your bike with you, so you could go to the hotel gym or a gym in the city and use their ready to go setup, log your stats to your profile (optional) and go from there.

5

Correct, it doesn’t need to be expensive, but still probably a minimum of 500 to get into it, just to see if you like it. I’m thinking more from the starting point of going from 0 to start Zwifting. Friends or family that are interested, but don’t cycle outside or cycle in general.

Used bike, cadence/speed sensor, subscription, hardware, bike shorts (optional, but helpful)

6

As I said, when I first started it cost me about £50, no need to spend £500

7

right if you have the base items already. I was more so meaning, if you are starting with nothing to wanting to Zwift, it is higher upfront costs. bike, trainer, etc.