I think 39 KPH, even in a pack online, would be difficult for big ole me to maintain for a 60 minutes…much less 5 hours At the time I was recovering from knee replacement and trying to build for the tour so doing a lot of LSD rides. I can hold the 2.1 bot for awhile now but trying to complete the TdZ and have the 6 biggest rides left. I have not done a lot of big climbing since getting the Tron…most of the upgrades are on distance and not climbing.
Set your trainer difficulty lower and you won’t feel the gradient as much. That may help with some of the longer TdZ rides since you won’t be as fatigued by the climbing.
I forget that some people either didn’t select the Everest right away, or just ride flat routes all the time. If you’re trying, you should be able to unlock Tron long before you can get the SL8 or Aethos.
But Tron is 8000km to fully upgrade to level 5, and those halo bike upgrades are really expensive. That might catch a new user who doesn’t have tens of millions of drops.
Buy and ride what you like best. I prefer the Dogma for racing and the Cadex of course.
However, my favorites are the Canyon (with custom Academy paint) and the Diamondback time trial frame because it has a custom color option like the Trek Madone. Sometimes the cost isn’t justified, ten million for a Tron upgrade? No way, not me. I’ll spend my drops when there’s something I really want..(White Campy disc wheels)
Mind you for certain courses a particular bike is just about mandatory.
I have a fully upgraded Canyon Aeroad 2024, and it just doesn’t get near the Aethos at level 5 on the steep climbs. Same wheels on both.
Did the those halo bikes ever go through that wind-tunnel testing experiment? I wonder how cutting edge that Cannondale R4000 is compared to the latest of modern road bikes, same with the Pinarello Espada.
If the aero testing shows them being slower, could be time for a performance adjustment to those? (I’ll take shelter in the air-raid bunker now).
You can select a course, ride it twice. The second time use a different bike and follow your halo. In various selections, you may fall behind on the climbs but start to catch up on the flat sections.
Unlike in reality, there is no “feeling” of riding a lighter bike in Zwift. You just do the same power numbers and get a slightly better or worse time. It does matter, though the differences start getting smaller as the bikes get better. Exactly how much better on long climbs will also depend on speed since there can be some aerodynamic gains if you are fast enough. You can program zwifterbikes.web.app with your personal stats and expected power to get a rough idea.
Upgrade level can also shuffle the outcome. At level 0 the S-Works SL8 outperforms the Aethos on the Alpe segment (for my stats). With both at level 5 the Aethos is faster.
I don’t much look at the Zwift Insider site or those tables.
You could do a little comparison, join me on ADZ next week, do the same two laps per day I’m doing this year until I reach my target.
You are best to try it for yourself. A week should be ample for testing .
That’s a good guide, but I think Alexander should do in depth testing himself. He seems to think I only read Zwift Insider tables, so better he rides it himself just to be certain.
I my case the bikes I use are all at level 5, excepting the Project 74 which I haven’t used much, 2000km to go to get it to level 5.
No, I wouldn’t say that I think you only read the tables, I was just curious about how you “feel” it
Totally believe you that there are differences in the outcome, no doubt about that!
At the time I was recovering from knee replacement and trying to build for the tour so doing a lot of LSD rides. I can hold the 2.1 bot for awhile now but trying to complete the TdZ and have the 6 biggest rides left. I have not done a lot of big climbing since getting the Tron…most of the upgrades are on distance and not climbing.
(I’ll take shelter in the air-raid bunker now).