It would make sense to built-in balances in smart trainers with the data automatically syncing during the ride with the app to avoid cheating during one-time weigh-in. Only those riders with confirmed weight would be eligible to claim prizes.
But that would shove the price of trainers up, and why should the majority who donât race have to suffer with a price hike just because of the minority who do race
That is besides my point, Martin, which was to address the problem of cheating in races. I donât race and I donât care about those who cheat. Their loss, not mine. But, generally speaking, it is not such a bad idea to incorporate mass detection in a smart trainer - considering the obsession of most riders with power numbers, proper watt to kg values would be a boon rather than a distraction. It is often recommended to weigh in before and after a workout to determine proper post-ride hydration. Cheers.
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But how do you ensure people donât find a way to dupe that as wellâŚ
I donât race but the amount of 35-39kg riders on ADZ is amazing.
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Itâs my impression that most Zwift cheaters are low effort types. Itâs super easy to type an 8 instead of a 9, etc. Itâs a bit harder to put a hand on the counter while you video your bathroom scale, but still a low effort cheat. Itâs harder to use software to hijack your trainer output, for example, and report a fake wattage to the game.
If a trainer or smart bike had built-in weight measuring, and was tracking it throughout an event, it could eliminate the low effort cheaters, or many of them. Putting your hand on the counter would be a lot harder if you had to do it during the whole race 
There would absolutely be ways to cheat that system too, but it could easily cut down on the number of cheatersâthe ones who are happy to type an 8 instead of a 9, but wouldnât go through the effort of hacking software/firmware/etc.
Itâs like locking your car door. You still have windows that can be smashed, but the common low effort thieves go away.
unfortunately it would cut down the number of entrants to nearly zero too, since nobody is gonna pay the r+d premium that is gonna be reflected in the price tag of that trainer, and for those who canât, theyâre gonna be excluded or ostracized anyway. either for being unwilling or unable to buy it. personally i think the old digital calender, digital scales, 5kg gym plate and gopro method outlined in the esports pdf works well enough at a community level
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Chris,
as I said earlier, I care less for cheaters. There is always someone with an issue in their skull that no one would be able to address. My suggestion relates to improving the experience of riders by providing them with additional and important information that could help them to improve their performance. I hope that this gets implemented as it will provide up-to-date, correct info on power output per kg.
Instead of developing complex and expensive hardware and/ or software to enforce accuracy for all users while only benefitting a minority, we need Zwift to stop treating most races as all inclusive events.
Sure, have introductory races for the masses but then have most races be behind an agreement firewall where all participants agree to have all data visible to all other participants, pre race entry restrictions and real time exclusions for exceeding limits and wt changes that are monitored and restricted.
This could further be extended to races with hardware restrictions.
It would all be voluntary.
I think most racers would agree to this.
No reason to charge more fees
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This is a nice idea but I think itâll be unpractical for many years yet. To see why, try stepping onto some digital scales and rocking from side to side - to simulate what you do on your trainer - and see how easy it is to take an accurate measurement. Then think how advanced (and expensive) a weighing system would need to be to overcome this rocking motion with a good degree of accuracy.
Why not have it the other way round - where most races are all-inclusive and those with multiple restrictions are reserved for those who are happy to jump through multiple hoops?
Also, what do you class as âmost racersâ - anyone who enters a race, or only those who race regularly (in which case how regularly)?
This could be done the same way as power calibration - when coasting without rocking. Also, the measurement will not be detecting individual feet but the overall weight at the center. I am not an engineer but it would exactly 1 penny or cent to through in a calibrated piezo pressure sensor. I see no reason (cost, time or anything else) that should preclude further improvement of the platform. Finally, UCI is now thinking very hard about starndardized features for race-quality smart trainers. Cheers!
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It would be pretty easy to build a weight sensor into a trainer but youâd also have to factor in the front wheel since different set ups will affect the weight distribution between the rear axle and front wheel.
@B-Jimmy Good point, but smart bikes will be OK and feature will add a measly change to their already insane cost.
Thanks, Gerrie! I think this features should be achievable on smart bikes that donât have the issue of the front wheel.
Thatâs a good point about measuring when coasting; I hadnât thought of that and am always happy to have my thinking expanded. Iâm still not sure it would be easy to gain an accurate figure, and to keep the scales accurately calibrated over time, but happy to be proved wrong.
I think it wonât make cheating any harder.
Lets start with the simple checks.
if 2 week avr weight change by 10kg flag rider.
There are other cycling apps that does this already, they event check for suspicions power performance.
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I think we are in agreement.
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Not just races, but riding in general.
I donât want to be doing maths to work out the weight of a suspicious rider ahead of reporting them. And put the height of a person for everyone to see as well.
Although someone will quibble about it, I always have heart monitor when riding.
I want honesty here and a way to weed out the dodgy performances.
I think we arenât complaining about weights being off 1-2kg, we are annoyed about 20kg+ differences. That should be possible to weed out.
Nobody is going to drop 10kg+ overnight. At most Iâve lost maybe 2kg due to an extremely long and high intensity outdoor ride.
For general riding it doesnât really matter I would think given the variety of trainers and wheel-on non-controllable trainers that are allowed on the platform anyhow if someoneâs weight is accurate and the trainer is throwing out insane numbers etc⌠For racing itâs different.
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It absolutely matters to me. Iâm fed up with the dubious riding performances. If Iâm smashing myself on ADZ or Ventop then I donât want my time being smashed by about 5 totally dubious ones.
What is effectively being said is that you arenât racing so your max effort doesnât matter.