Turn trainer difficulty to 0, problem solved.
just saying, there are more opportunities to do long zone 2 rides on flat routes other than robopacers, lots of community events do them too. Or you could just ride tempus fugit anytime you want.
Less drops, though.
No, the issue (again) is with dynamic pacing there are power swings on the hills with pacers. Those power differences still show up regardless of trainer difficulty.
Of course people can always ride on their own, but if they want an always on social group ride at a relatively consistent pace, then a pacer on flat can be much different than a pacer on a hilly course, particularly if you are much heavier than the pacer.
Zwift needs to bring back steady power / speed robopacers (of lighter weight too). This would help.
We got another robopacer added recently so UX concerns mentioned before are obviously not an issue now.
But on your own you cannot do almost 120km in 3 hours at 2.5w/kg, while with a robopacer you get this elevated pace. Itās all about distance for some riders who must have 2500km/week. Folks even teleport still to top of the mountains to get free fast distance just for the sake of getting more distance fast.
I think this is the real reason people want their pacer bots on flat routes⦠the inflated ego of seeing they did 120km in 3 hours, when in reality they didnāt go anywhere while riding indoors on a trainer. Iām sure this is an unpopular opinion, but distance doesnāt matter inside, only time in zones matterā¦
Today you can find Bernie on Big Flat 8, Miguel on the Fan Flats in Richmond, Maria on Wasted 8, and Coco on the Magnificent 8. While there are a few areas with climbs like Jarvis on Wasted 8, and the reverse Hilly KOM on Magnificent 8, the rest of the route is basically flat (they even go through the desert). Over 90% of the route is āflatā in the case of Magnificent 8⦠so what is the real problem???
On hilly bits, the problem is the robopacers still get dropped- so the power increase needs to be much, much greater.
(Cue protests)
Or, the folks zooming in front of the robopacer all the time get a countdown timer for 30 seconds before they are zapped over to the next faster robopacer. ![]()
You watch, pace will be much more steady. ![]()
this⦠all of this
How about elevation only counts if you did it in sim mode?
(ie, erg mode doesnāt give elevation gain).
While people are pushing unpopular opinions and all that⦠Or is that a different case? ![]()
I see your wink.
Would you suggest that elevation gained should be proportional to Trainer Difficulty setting then?
Speed/distance in ERG mode still depends on gradient.
These new Robo routes are terrible in my opinion. Weāre moving so far away from group rides that most people would call enjoyable and now into the realm of miniature constant attacks with these hilly routes.
I hate to say it but ZHQ is getting further away from what I feel like we all wanted.
It would be fine if these were endurance climbs; but Ocean Lava Cliffside? Rooftop Rendezvous? Titans?
Iām either on power or off power, pushing the bot, getting dropped by the bot.
This is made significantly worse by the botās inconsistent power.
It needs to be one or the other; not both. Iām sure many are appreciative of the new scenery, but the on/off power is REALLY outshining the change in routes. For example with Yumi on Rooftop at the moment, and Iām either tickling sweetspot, or Iām in Z1ā¦
Who wants to do that in a group ride outside? Iād argue ⦠nobody I know enjoys this.
I used to be able to join middle of the week americas time with Yumi and be surrounded by 50+ people. At the moment thereās 6 people with me.. And itās been like this since the new routes.
This is my trace for trying to sit next to Yumi on Rooftop. If I rode up front like this outdoors with my locals they would all slap me.
If the routes have to stay, then the bots need to be looking at the average gradient over the coming 1km, not the CURRENT grade; the on/off here is whatās poor.
Totally agree. Itās now impossible to do low intensity training with robopacers. It was my favorite part of zwift and itās gone. Bring back flat routes or turn off dynamic pacing, one or the other!!!
What exactly IS dynamic pacing? I feel the pain myself, but I donāt know what they changed in the botsā programming.
Apparently the complaint was the bots were too slow uphill, so they tried to fix that. But they still get dropped uphill so maybe they need to be even faster?
Ah but Zwift isnāt supposed to be real, so they say. And they probably would also tell you to just ride with a slower robopacer?
Meh, I remember when it was fixed 3.2w/kg (uphill and downhill) with Bowie and the group would thunder downhill at massive speed. All the B riders would do sub 4:00min KOM times as well.
3-4 laps of that was fun!
Then Anquetil would go up the epic KOM and radio tower at fixed 4.2w/kg also, that was a good workout. Sadly we arenāt allowed to have that anymore.
Iāve been quite enjoying the new bot routes, especially the ones with a bit of climbing.
3 hours with a bot that ticks over 1000m of EG is a good route imoā¦.but appreciate some people just want pan flat but pan flat usually equals Fuego desert which is the worst part of Watopiaā¦..so boring
That does sound like āfunā ![]()
Anyhow, my point was that itās not impossible to do a solid Z2 ride with a RP on hilly-ish terrain.
*if youāre 70kg
*if you steer into the wind a bit
*if you have and use brakes very occasionally
![]()
I will repeat my unpopular opinion, YOU CAN RIDE TEMPUS FUGIT ANY TIME YOU WANT, YOU DONāT HAVE TO RIDE WITH A PACE PARTNER
Currently Zwift appears to have little interest in Static Robopacers or Robopacer weights to suit light and heavy riders - that is their decision.
But knowing the issues they read almost daily about Robopacers I wonder if they could ensure the information they provide, in game, was more helpful.
Yumi currently:
Or
At first glance which one are light, heavy and Z2 riders going to choose? And what will they get for 40 minutes of riding?




