I too think the rolling resistance change should be OPTIONAL. I have many 100’s of hours on these courses (I am embarrassed to admit that I have ridden Road to Ruins 137 times) and train often on them. I use my time to help gauge my efforts and since I have ridden the courses so many times, I have plenty of rides to compare my effort. This update has effectively destroyed my history on these routes, especially Road to Ruins which was my ideal morning training route. PLEASE make this optional so my history on these routes isn’t rendered useless.
10 Likes
Yes, make this optional. For races/group rides this should be a per event setting. This is a virtual world, not a real life thing. When I choose a course I choose it for the climbs, length and I don’t want to have to take the pavement into consideration. There are nice rides on Watopia, but with this “feature” I won’t be doing any at all. I don’t even want to consider getting the Zwift mountain bike. With my front wheel is static on a training block, steering is out of discussion.
2 Likes
All I want to do is free ride without all these extra “features.” I don’t care about workouts, training plans, racing, leader boards, or complex rolling resistance changes based upon virtual tires.
Sigh. “The Road to Ruins” really is ruined now; rode through the jungle today and it was horrible. Never again unless they change it back. All the dirt areas now, which I’ve always though should be paved as we’re on road bikes, frankly, suck. Why screw up a great idea, indoor virtual riding, with all these unnecessary complications?
To pile on, why put steering on a static indoor trainer? Such stupidity. If I want to steer, I have 4 (real) very expensive bikes to choose from to ride outside! Same goes for the braking in the corners idea(s) and so forth.
Anyway, if Zwift continues down this rather horrible development path, to be clear, I won’t pay for the service anymore.
There is much more I’d like to add, but I’ll just end things here by saying how sorely disappointed I am by the direction the developers have taken Zwift in these past few weeks.
7 Likes
Why not putting asphalt on these segments (f.ex. jungle and everywhere else) and use sand, gravel and what not else for the CX MTB courses and new courses but not for existing courses?!
3 Likes
I rarely race (one in Richmond just to see what the experience was like, and one TT in Bologna just to ride Bologna) and use Zwift through the winter because it helps with my training and fitness and it is fun when I can’t get outside.
I see why some people are celebrating this, but for me the Jungle Loop is juts not fun anymore and it has always been one of my favourite rides.
I rode Bigger Loop last night, setting a new PB on the Epic KOM by over 4 minutes (using Zwift has massively improved my climbing ability both virtually and IRL) and then slogged through the Jungle Loop section just wishing it could be over.
I don’t ride to power and don’t really care that the numbers show it is not that much different than it used to be, it feels like a slog.
I would hate to see Zwift become a platorm geared around the needs and wants of those wanting a more serious/“professional” virtual world to ride in and marginalising those of us who just want to get on and ride and have some fun when “outside” is out of the question.
5 Likes
you can flame away after I’ve said my opinion.
I love the change in resistance. but I had no recorded times in the jungle. I opened level 10, which opens the jungle circuit the day of the release of the resistance change. I found riding on a tacx neo that although I could feel the road, the resistance never changed which was kind of weird. so I enjoy the change in resistance with the changes in road feel. makes it feel very real which I like and that’s why I have a neo and use Zwift. as soon as everyone is using the same version of zwift it’ll solve 95% of the complaints. as soon as everyone has the"best bike or wheels" for this area it’ll solve the rest. over time people will have “numbers” for the jungle circuit and everything will be just fine.
again, I love the resistance change, times and speed sucks, but overall I like it! now I need a computer, mine crashed the day the mtb course opened, so I can ride and get the mtb.
2 Likes
so i ran into the weird “sensation” that i could go little over 30kph when going 3% down and wonderered what the hell is going on and then realised that this was the infamous dirt effect. And i really DONT like it.
I guess all software companies try to create new stuff to get more customers but in the case i think it will just scare away existing ones with this in my opinion “horrible addition”.
i think it would be a good plan to remove this and/or add new dirt roads for MTB’s. But not changing existing roads.
and as someone mentioned above. It ruined junge loop.
7 Likes
Make it optional. What’s next? Random cars turning left in front of me?
5 Likes
I hate this new effect. My solution is convert the jungle loop (and other parts of Watopia) to pavement. If they want to add new mountain biking and dirt course with different parameters that’s fine but don’t change the current courses.
7 Likes
I think it should have been tested/tried out on Richmond cobbles or anywhere other than Watopia.
PS I like Richmond, but I love Watopia!
1 Like
I know this had been a hot topic…
Can anyone from Zwift help me understand why a MTB would be faster than a road bike on the jungle circuit? This seems like an unrealistic gameification. It could be the jungle circuit appears to me more tame than Zwift intends it, but I don’t see rocks, roots, technical sections, etc - stuff a full suspension MTB is made for.
I have a local towpath that is dirt, some gravel, some wooden bridges. I can push 20+ mph without much effort on my road bike…
3 Likes
Based on forum comments over the past few weeks I would say that most Zwifters, myself included, are in agreement with you. The dirt sections are more like riding through sand than the hard-packed dirt that they appear to be graphically. I find it very frustrating and tedious. On a group ride the other day where we usually get back to the marina before time runs out we didn’t even make it out of the jungle. Crazy.At some level I wouldn’t even mind it if the resistance increased in these sections (for those using smart trainers), but instead it just seems like the avatar slows down without any different ‘feel’ from the trainer.
6 Likes
Count me as another person who is fine with new routes with dirt/rocks/whatever, but messing with existing routes is disappointing, and makes old data and new data on segments/routes non-comparable. From all I’ve heard I won’t be visiting Jungle Circuit in the near future, given that it’s almost all dirt, and even the short sections of dirt are annoying on Volcano Flat.
9 Likes
I have to add my voice; I appreciate what Jon and the team are trying to do BUT this seems to have been gone about in a really bad way. Killing the speeds like they have on existing routes? Not such a good idea… especially with no prior notification on this - it’s certainly ruined my love of the Jungle Circuit and I am now a lot more picky about where I will ride in Watopia, which is a shame.
I’d suggest significant changes are introduced much more carefully, and initially only to new routes/features, with feedback sought from the community before a full release across the existing maps. Don’t alienate your support base by changing the rules on us!
8 Likes
On what roads are full suspension MTBs significantly faster than road bikes? None that I know of.
Have we seen anyone at Dirty Kanza, for example, ride full suspension MTBs?
Is the jungle circuit much more gnarly than it appears on screen?
A gravel bike would definitely outpace a standard road bike on dirt/gravel. But Zwift unrolled this change with a MTB, not a gravel bike. Maybe even a hardtail would make sense.
I’m perplexed.
3 Likes
Hate this feature that I don’t think anyone asked for. Want to get on and ride not sit down to workout which setup works best on each route and surface.
In Australia it’s starting to warm up and better outside and canceling and checking back after summer to see if if its been dropped or a sutable solution added. If not I may not return because of this. Better previously and unnecessarily complex now.
3 Likes
Like most who have posted here, I think this whole idea is/was stupid. I have ZERO interest in trying to steer my bike. ZERO. I have ZERO interest in mountain biking, both IRL and in Zwift. Sorry, just don’t care to do it. As others have said, add all the MTB courses you want, just leave the road courses alone. Make an entire new world that has nothing but trails, whatever, but don’t piss off the rest of us.
I use Zwift to easily train my ROAD BIKE ability. Hop on the trainer, ride for an hour, just pedal hard. I don’t want to think about which bike to use, which wheels, which tires. You have now ruined about half of the Watopia courses for me. It’s sad and unbelievable that a company would just not care about the impact on this many people who are paying them money.
2 Likes
For all those that hate on Zwift for the gravel resistance, please remember there is another side. I like the resistance change. I like the fact I can ride and feel the road change just like in real life.
I also can’t wait for the ability to steer my bike on Zwift no matter where I want to go. Tacx had steering built in using a Tacx steering unit and it was a blast. Added more realistic to my workouts. It made it easier to draft, easier to take corners, etc
To each their own. But there is another side to the haters.
2 Likes
Given that I would think the majority of Zwifters are roadies I honestly don’t understand why Zwift has stuffed up their experience with this. Fair enough if they want to introduce mountain bikes have a free mountain bike available in store and have courses and events for them. Don’t penalise the road people. Often ride my road bike with road tyres off road but don’t have the unrealistic amount of resistance that Zwift has.
2 Likes
Please remove this.
I am a mountainbike rider, but this is just plain silly. No way a road bike would loose that amount of speed on a hard packed gravel road.
A lot of routes are ruined by this change.
If you want mountainbiking in zwift create seperate tracks that can not be joined by road bikes.
Just like in real life. I have never seen a road bike on the trails…
Just remove this. Or at least change it so that you only lose a small amount of speed like in real life.
6 Likes