Nope it is not anymore. Best thing you can hope for is an new Halo bike with can be only obtained by climbing, just like the Tron. Something like a Halo MTB which can be only obtained by leveling up current MTB, and those need climbing.
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Agree. Itāll be the Halo of Shame! I do have my lightning socks from the Factory Tour though which you could not get by parking on the side of the road or dropping from ADZ.
I really hope Zwift learns a lesson from this.
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Impressive numbers.
So makes a bit sense for ZRL Finals to neutralise frames, but I guess all frames will be allowed after that in races at the end on this month, since everyone who cares a bit about racing will have upgraded a frame to level 5. In Ladder and ZRaces they are already good to go.
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Steering has been out for 5years? Still not allowed in all races.
What I find interesting, the MTB appears to be the easiest to actually level up, at least at the Entry-Level
- Road bike is 800km total, for me thatās at least 20 hours of riding
- TT bike is 20 hours total
- MTB bike is 7,500 meters total, 7.5 trips up the Alpe at 2.5hours/trip is 18.75 hours (not including earned ācoastā time, and it moves you closer to Masochist (if you donāt already have it). If you do it all in one go, add another 1.5 trips and get the Everested badge
I hope they donāt neutralize frames.
The upgrades arenāt that significant.
The biggest differences come from frame/wheel choice and race craft.
Good drafting and hill performance seems to trump all.
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Two years and you can probably come up with some reasons why they arent allowed if you give it some thought.
Most of the complaints I remember seemed to involve riders with steering feeling disadvantaged.
I havenāt used my controllers yet but Iām not unhappy without steering
I will only use it if it improves the experience and is not too finaglly. (Not sure thatās a word)
- Itās āpay to playā, since you have to buy a steering system
- The Zwift Play steering system is garbage, since they are āwater resistantā but not to the level that you can sweat on them (currently my left controller is toast).
Level 85 gets a big discount.
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Agree to disagree.
According to Eric Sā testing on Insider, a fully upgraded bike is worth 7w @ 300w.
Which is far from insignificant.
Thatās nearly 0.1w/kg on his testingā¦
And thatās only on the flats.
On a climbing stage, itās double that!
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You forget one, that should be #1.
Zwift doesnt ship them to every country in the world.
I didnāt know that one. My guess is that until they do ship everywhere steering will remain disabled for their races
But none of the halo bikes are going to climb better than the SL8, correct?
7 watts at 300 watts for an hour, I donāt know know how to quantify that.
300 vs 307.
The guy in the draft is doing 265.
Iāll agree to disagree but I might not know what Iām talking about.
Iāve never been beaten, or won, because of .1 w/kg
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Mostly flat races with a big pack - probably not a lot to gain. Races with significant climbing or breakaways or very long events, I would happily take those modest gains. My ladder races often involve breaks or sitting on the front. I avoid the big pack short & flat events because they are boring but if Iām riding for 90 minutes those gains are more interestinig. Even on a moderate length climb I would be happy to save a little energy and spend it later.
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But those numbers are only true between a level 1 and a level 5 bike. Level 1 upgrade is only 200km and with two weeks in now, I guess every rider who thinks of himself as a serious racer should be at level 1 at least by now.
Those numbers Zwift Insider has tested were only true for the first two weeks we had. From now on the influence the level 5 have will only get smaller and smaller if they are even significant at all.
Off-topic maybe but George Hincapie got a 6 month ban for his participation in (and facilitation of) the USPS / Disco doping shenanigans in the Armstrong era. The Tron doping guy can feel a bit hard done by, I think!
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To quantify 7 watts @ 300 watts, just try and increase your FTP by the same proportion. I think that will quantify it quite quickly!
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Iāll get back to you in another yearā¦ I hopeā¦ 
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but that 7 watts is done by a robot in a steady pace all alone.
In a race we have draft and group speed where you can easily save more than those 7 watts.
But lets forget the draft and group speed for a bit.
Its 7 watts between a level 1 frame and a level 5 frame. Lets assume all upgrades are the same (I know they arent but for easy calculation lets assume they are) that is 1.4 watt less every upgrade.
With level 1 being only 200km which every self respecting racer should have done by now there is only 5.6 watts left. And that is in an hour race, which 80% of the races dont even last.
And that is without draft and group speed taken into calculation.