Hello everyone,
So after sorting out some technical issues which originally left a bad taste in my mouth about Zwift, but in the end with some patience from people here on the forums and support guiding me in the right direction, technical issues resolved!
Looking at Zwift after buying my IC4 bike, as the wife wanted to do Peloton, but I was not willing to cough up $2800 CAD for a subpar bike with a screen that can only be used for their app and pay $50 for that a month ,which the screen becomes a paper weight if you do not pay…I settled on the Schwinn IC4 because the price was right, it had BT and everything else I wanted and could be used with various apps so not tied down to just one, and Peloton only cost $12 for the app (so i miss out on an instructor maybe calling out my name or being on their power charts in a spin class… Zwift is more fun anyways…)
All hooked up today, got into my first event (went smooth as butter!), something i thought would be nice to try. I am not in the best of shape, work in IT, can not get out to Hike (live in Calgary Alberta) due to Covid requests and parks closed, so was going stir crazy and weather here is all over! (Snowed today… spring my butt…)
224 people by the end of it, my little Lenovo M93p SFF with an i7 / Intel 4600 IGPU /8G Ram / 120G SSD was flawless, smooth and looked great at 1080p. No lag or stuttering off the start at all.
Solo rides, the 3 I did, nice, but…lacking…you don’t get that drive to push your self when your alone, at least I do not.
So the event it was, VietVelo Weekly Social Ride , I have to say, once i got it all running, TV going, the companion app on a tablet showing information, a larger map, chat, I have to say I really enjoyed it and am liking Zwift. I can see what the addiction could be. Being in IT, i like gadgets, stats, numbers. (Hopefully mine are accurate and I do not need to calibrate my IC4 like some have had to…)
I have read over almost all the various topics last few days, the short comings of the app, the features missing and ignored for years (save and exit to main menu) and yes, the UI, is cumbersome for new people, which should not be the case and does cause frustration, hopefully small things can be changed. Having been in charge of a Dev team, Zwift has several things that you could say are “designed by a developer” vs a UX Designer…
1hr later (still have no idea how i finished it when 15mins in i wanted to drop dead…)…my legs left somewhere along the course…having other people to ride with and play little passing games back and forth is certainly fun, that competitive side starts to come out real quick! I can see my self trying events every day now to get this old man some endurance!
So, if you are new to Zwift, give it a chance, and let er rip!
Not sure if any of my numbers mean much, but I am sure i have some way to go to improve on! (sure getting my heart rate down may be good, but i also think the IC4 HR monitor is not too good, so need to find my Polar chest strap one of these days)
I mean, i would fall into the Fair cat, 2nd last…so maybe they are not off…