Doing a recovery ride at the moment (0710 BST) and Bowie just went past.
āA smooth pedal stroke is an efficient pedal strokeā sounds very Orwellian.
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Had an interesting bug today. I joined CoCo in Watopia (got promptly dropped and had to hammer to get back on, maybe the pedal assist needs to be a bit longer) for a warm-up before joining a group ride in London. Finished the group ride in London and tried to save the ride the ride. The training partner survey appeared and I tapped NOT NOW and Zwift threw me out to the desktop (this is on iOS by the way, do we call the desktop the desktop on iOS?). I was able to restart Zwift and it recognised that I hadnāt completed the ride yet so I wasnāt able to lose anything. I donāt know if that was just Zwift being Zwift or if the survey caused the crash to desktop.
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Have to say the couple of times I jumped on, catching up to the BOT was interesting. And fairly sure I witnessed someone that tried to join Bowie but couldnt hang on.
I use the survey to remind Zwift about the Fiji flag and my minimap issue so will ensure I keep doing them 
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Did a quick ride with Dan. He went at a constant 1.4 which felt odd on rolling hills.
Iāve had surveys crash on me before. Makes me less willing to fill them in.
Okay, that makes a bit more sense with what I saw from riding with Coco last night.
Iām borderline C/D category, so though that riding at 2.6 w/kg (which is exactly what she did) would be a really good test for me and help me push my limits. Trouble was, I was able to keep pace with the group around her at just 2.1-2.2, which is more like my long ride pace.
I figured either that Coco wasnāt programmed to get any draft effects (the group around her was 20 strong, so we all had a massive draft) or was set to a very low weight and therefore wasnāt actually putting out all that much wattage on a flat course (unlike me at 30kg heavier!)
āA smooth pedal stroke is an efficient pedal strokeā sounds very Orwellian.
lol, What might Huxley-chat look like?
āHIITā and āRaceā are out of place,
I ride with Dan and only am.
ā¦people would be annoyed if they suddenly disappeared.
On that note, has anyone been riding with one of the Partners when their time slot came to an end? Do they announce that theyāll be disappearing? Or do they simply vanish?
They announce at 10, 5 and 2 mins that theyāll be leaving
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It would be great to reduce the downtime between changeovers. If thereās only the B or C pacer at any one time why does it need to be two hours between them finishing and starting?
It reduces the fantastic flexibility they give riders to jump in with a moderate paced group at anytime without worrying about events.
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They typically announce a farewell before they go ātake a breakā. Yesterday, they started announcing āless than 5 minutes before my ride ends.ā for 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and 2 minutes.
Iāve ridden with both Coco Cadence and Amelia Anquetil a couple of times this week and its been really good. There werenāt any group rides or races available at the time I was riding so this was perfect.
My only minor complaints are:
- The inane chatter from the bot repeating the same āmotivationalā slogans all the time
- Ameila Anquetil at least has a very low cadence of 60rpm, or maybe even less. Iām probably being super picky but when you are riding at 4.1 w/kg at 90 rpm or more it messes with your perception and rhythm having the bot next to you pedaling at such an unrealistic cadence for the effort.
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I was hoping to ride with Coco Cadence this evening but, instead of Amelia and Coco, the only two pacers are the male ones. Oneās too easy for me, the other too hard.
Is there a schedule as to when A+C ride, as opposed to B+D? Can we not have all four, so I can organise unofficial group rides around the pacer bots?
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Agree. Would be useful to know which days which bots are going to be scheduled as found myself in similar situation on Friday.
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I am hoping Diesel Dan will be around once England have scored the runs they need at Old Trafford ā¦ would love to see a schedule published!
Another request: can the bots have some consistency from one day to the next?
I saw Diesel Dan at 2.0w/kg earlier today; when I joined, he was at a mere 1.4w/kg.
Such variances make it very difficult to plan or rely on pacers, especially at times when there are no suitable rides or when rides have notoriously bad leaders.
I would suggest the pacers ride in the middle of their ranges: D at 2.0, C at 2.8, B at 3.6, A at 4.4 (even spread with 0.8w/kg between them)
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If you want middle of their ranges technically D would be 1.7 (1.0 - 2.4).
The problem I see with that is the inherent problem of Cat D: it is the biggest spread of w/kg range of all categories. So by keeping the pacing bot at the middle or upper part of the range you are excluding other Cat D riders from using it who are not at that level yet (or who are coming back from injury/illness). Not sure what the right answer is though.
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Good point. I hope the differences in speed are because Zwift HQ are testing the responseā¦
Unfortunately Zwift doesnāt communicate with us (the community), so I guess weāll never know until they change things.
But I hope in the future there will be more bots, with different speeds. A low category bot and a middle category bot for example. Weāll have to wait and find out.
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Easygoing Ewan would be the solution, riding at 1.0w/kg for a Cat E pace.
Or perhaps, as Rob suggests, even more bots at different paces. Maybe one at every 0.5w/kg
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