Hunh? In any real life race, or sports with age categories, this is serious cheating that results in disqualification and even suspension!
6 Likes
There are parents faking birth certificates to allow their children to play down ages in competitive youth baseball. Definitely cheating.
3 Likes
As a non racing zwifter I like this feature. It works on my stages SB20 smart bike. I use it if I need to quickly adjust a fan or if my bib shorts are creeping up my legs. I can microburst and pause for 3 or 4 seconds and I won’t get dropped in a group ride. Doing this technique repeatedly to cheat seems pathetic.
1 Like
Now it’s a feature 
6 Likes
A feature that does not exist 
4 Likes
No doubt you are using it for comfort in group rides. But imagine how easy it is for someone with not so good intentions to use such exploit
2 Likes
Definitely some trainers are susceptible to this and some aren’t. I’ve personally reproduced this (on a free ride for experimental purposes in a past forum discussion on this) on my Direto XR. I can quickly accelerate the trainer to an unrealistic power that I can’t normally sustain for long, briefly, but if I stop pedalling for a couple of seconds and repeat, then it will hold this power. Someone else tried on a Kickr and couldn’t reproduce it. It’s not just my own Direto either. I have never used this technique myself in a race.
Thete might also be a Zwift factor combining with the trainer anomaly, I can’t be sure on that. But it’s definitely not only a Zwift software issue, if it’s one at all.
I definitely can’t reproduce this on a Kickr Bike (it drops the power quickly) but I also at the moment can’t push more than 480w maximum with my physical limitations at the moment.
My power output isn’t the smoothest these days either with one leg being much weaker, but I don’t get anything like this effect.
[quote=“Aaron Bleakley[NZBRO] , post:45, topic:598905, username:Aaron_Bleakley4665”]
I would love @Eric_Schlange_ZwftIn to do a variety of tests and see if he can find the Sweetspot and expose this in a quantitative way, but I am sure he has his hands full
[/quote]
He already has and found no ‘free’ watts. But the myth lives on…
Can anyone point to the supposed best example of this? The bottom of the Castle climb pointed to in the video it seems like he’s doing an excellent job of responding to the small bumps. Putting on power when it goes up and reducing when it goes down. If anyone is pedalling unusually surely it those who just keep a constant as the terrain fluctuates?
Source?
You won’t be able to reproduce this, and therefore might think it’s a “myth”, if you don’t have the right trainer.
2 Likes
Sure, seeing as you pass it off as a myth when you can’t see the wood for trees, I’ll do the work for you. Watch from 32 minutes and tell me he is reacting to bumps in the road
2 Likes
He posted it in the previous mega thread on this topic. As it reached over 900 posts I won’t be going through it, but I’m confident if he turns up he’ll confirm.
Before I do, can you confirm that 32 mins into this video is the best example of this. The reason I ask is I don’t want to watch 100s of ‘what about this, what about that, etc.’
And that previous mega thread has been hidden and is now inaccessible. I wonder why, if it’s only a “myth” 
3 Likes
Because it got personal and was an enormous waste of human endeavour for anyone to read, I suspect.
1 Like
There are examples littered throughout, and demonstrated with the power profile shown in the OP, but from 32m it is undeniable.
2 Likes
And the accusation is that he is using an unusual pedalling style to gain an unfair advantage by exploiting something unusual in the Zwift physics methodology?
I can’t find it on Zwift Insider. I suspect that if there was an article on “no free watts” then Eric S removed it, because it’s been proved that there definitely are free watts if you have the correct equipment.
2 Likes
I hadn’t watched the video before, and not that you need the validation James but yep, that’s exactly what I can reproduce myself too.
1 Like
He posted it the the previous mega thread, saying he’s found nothing.