I know he is not Zwift. But neither are the examples Matt gave. I just reacted to that, that not everyone is on the same page here.
My point of view … if anyone cares …
Note beforehand. I do not have a Halo bike and it will take me many more months before I can even start to think about having one.
1 - The TT loophole is a bug imho and should be fixed. When the bike is not moving the timer should not also.
2 - Would I have prefered to see the distance challenge different. Yes, of course. I would have prefered that Zwift thought of this before they started the event and found a way to prevent it.
But they didnt or think of it like Eric from Zwift Insider who said ‘A legal loophole that is here for 2 years now’.
But do I care ? No I dont. if people want to ride down the Alpe for 74 times a day, be my guest.
The Halo bikes are nothing special and the gains made in racing for the normal frames are so minimal it wont change the outcome of a race.
If people want to spend days riding down a mountain that is fine with me.
To me, that is a self-correcting problem. As a 61yo struggler with a 455/B, I would not want to get promoted to 800 and attempt to survive a race at that level. But then, I don’t race with a team, so I have no idea why someone would want to do that.
Late joining to get the BMX is also not affecting anyone’s racing. If the Big Spin was giving out bikes that would give racing advantages, that would be something else.
If that was all they could upgrade–i.e. if it didn’t lead to the Halo Tron which will be used in racing–yeah, I don’t think I’d care. If Zwift said “do XYZ and the Buffalo Bike will be marginally faster, with no other changes to anything else occurring”, and people gamed that system…would you care?
As it is, upgrading the Buffalo is one step towards the Halo Tron, so it is very different than someone gaming the Big Spin simply to get the BMX. Getting the BMX has no effect on anyone else.
Than why were there massive complaints in those Big Spin events about those late joiners ?
And another question. Has it already been tested how much we are in disadvantage against upgraded frames in a race ? Those solo bot rides ZI does are nice, but tell us exactly nothing about how it is in a race.
We could very well be drafting an level 5 SL8 on our level 1 Canyon 2024 and due to the draft still have to put out less wattage.
We didnt win every race before this and we wont win every race after this. All we got is an extra excuse why we didnt win.
And even that is a guess since we can not see the opponents frame level.
One, you’re conflating the late joining with the getting of the BMX. Someone who thinks someone else getting the BMX is affecting them is wrong–they are affecting themselves. Someone having the BMX doesn’t affect anyone else’s riding or racing.
Two, the late joining itself wasn’t affecting anyone’s performance in an event that was intended to be a race. This is the same argument that has been done to death–Big Spin is not a race, no matter how competitive someone might feel about it. You want a race, where sympathy will be had for your finishing position? Do a race. But someone late joining in a non-race does not affect your ability to ride in that event, and can’t affect your racing, because it’s not a race.
So yes, both very different from non-intended usage of the system that affects people’s racing.
Yeah I’ve got no problem with disagreeing, and I don’t mind a good discussion like this.
It’s not the 100 downhills that I really care about, it’s mostly the affect on the racing. I liked this whole bike upgrade thing when I thought that it would translate into racing. But either it will–in which case this unintended usage of the system disappoints me and is different from Big Spin type stuff because it does affect racing–or it won’t affect racing because races will be neutralized because of this. Which takes away the part that I thought would be fun.
It’s a case of ‘this is why we can’t have nice things’, as I see it. It could have been a cool part of racing, but a bunch of knobs decided selfishness was more important than a cool thing for everyone to have. That sucks.
In a few of the big spin rides I’ve done there have been some legitimately big-mad people about the late joiners getting to spin. Nothing to do with “winning” the ride, just being there and getting a spin without doing the full 35 minutes of riding.
When I was very young, it was common for parents to be upset that kids were listening to heavy metal. It wasn’t the kids who were causing those parents to be upset, it was the parents causing themselves to be upset. Same operating principle here
I couldn’t agree more. It’s all about INTENT. It goes for anything, in life. There will always be people, that try to cheat the system. It’s so disappointing.
As someone quoted Eric Minn yesterday:
“It doesn’t mean anything, if you didn’t earn it”
If you are embarassed or ashamed, to stand up and tell everyone you did it, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. Can’t we all just be honest with each other, enjoy the platform for what it was intended. Community, exercise and some friendly competition. JMO
It’s almost as though Zwift needs to place these bike upgrades in some sort of virtual bike shop that uses an in game currency earned through calories burned (i.e., actual effort) rather than distance, elevation, or time. If only Zwift had considered implementing a currency system like this before the release of upgrades. And maybe, just maybe, there could be riders who have an abundance of this currency from years and years of riding and have nothing else to spend this currency on. Hmmm…
If anyone is riding a halo bike everyone will look at them negatively and wonder… those bikes will be something like the halo of shame as I read one person call those bikes.
Yeah I’ve got no problem with disagreeing, and I don’t mind a good discussion like this.
That sucks.