Does anyone KNOW how the escalators on the new NYC routes work? In the last 2 weeks, I’ve done a number of rides in the Zwift Unlocked series, and I keep having the same experience where people who start behind me (both individuals and groups), put out fewer W/kg than me (I hit them at 4-6 W/kg and get passed by people in the 2.5-3.5 range) and easily fly by me and end up 1-3 seconds ahead of me at the top. Are these assists adding just a set number of raw W (so my larger weight - 106 kg - is a disadvantage)? Is the assist somehow based on how fast you went through the power segment? I’ve tried hammering the power segments and got in the top 5 for the ride and still been passed by people putting out lower power (in W/kg anyway).
Still a work in progress for me, but it does seem better to go into it at higher speed. Last few times I have used an aero powerup with enough time to increase speed before hitting it and that works pretty well. I am also increasing power but not full gas on the approach, then be prepared to raise power on the escalator and maintain it for a few seconds on the top. Speed going up is high so draft and draft powerups also help a lot. Feather seems to be the least useful, not like what you would expect since the climb is effectively shorter than it looks. I don’t want to lead a group on an escalator going either up or down.
If’ it’s like a real life escalator, I would suspect that it would be pure watts applied to each rider.
I can confirm that the feather does not seem to be helpful at all. Was using it when I got passed by someone with less power and no power up.
Hitting the bottom at high speed is something to try next time.
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I’m not sure… and I know Paul is a big guy so pure Watts are going to be quite high relative to most people
Going up it, I am moving from back of group to near the front in the last few seconds before it starts. Going down there is a massive accordion effect at the bottom, so that’s rest time at the back.
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Lots of experiments for @Eric-Schlange-ZI 
Is there a fixed speed the elevator moves at? If two riders who have different weights approach the escalator at a crawl (eg. 5km/h) and then drop power completely, what’s the time difference to the top?
If two riders approach the escalator at different speeds and drop power immediately, what’s the time difference then?
etc
106Kg is a nightmare in Zwift in general, practically nobody rides at that weight.
The escalator is a 19% gradient, you need to drop a gear and hit it with 700 to 800W and be prepared to drop another gear near the top, its like hitting a brick wall otherwise.
I’ve found that going hard to the bottom of the escalator, stopping pedalling on the up and then re-starting pedalling 2 seconds over the lip beats the weird ERG interference I get if I keep pedalling all the way ( Saris 2 user ). I can confirm this isn’t the fastest way up as I get dropped and have to sprint like buggery when I restart at the top.
I also think that the setting of your Zwift trainer level which is normally 50% has an effect as well.
When I was set at 100% it nearly killed me and I can’t to a virtual stop near the top.
Changed the settings 25% and it’s a lot easier to get up and at a faster speed as well.
Check your setting level and then ride the escalators and change down 1 or 2 gears and power up.
You should see a difference.
No luxury of those settings with a WattBike, its 1% accurate as far as power goes, you just have to suck it up and ride. The best I can hope for it a feather power up I can hit before I start the sprint for the climb.
You can still set your trainer difficulty on a WattBike.
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It’s a Zwift setting not Wattbike. Any trainer with controllable resistance supports it in the game. You can also change it during a ride to do some comparisons. Default is 50%. Anyone racing with the objective of winning should set it to something low IMO.
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Edit: Found it in Hardware, sorry missed that slider mine is at the 50% default, just going to leave it there.
My guess is most people on Zwift have it at the default setting.
Don’t fully understand the setting to be honest, even after reading up on it. 200W is 200W so bike speed is unaffected, I guess it may come down to gear range, climbing the Alp when my legs finally got tired I was down to 1st gear so there was nothing left at that point and I still had to keep the cadence up so technically it could have got nasty if I ground to a complete stop.
Right, it just scales what the gradient feels like (both up and down), you still need the same watts to do the same speed etc.
TD was more important before virtual shifting. Now you get 24 separate gear ratios and it’s not as necessary.
Right, but not everyone has virtual shifting.
This matches my experience, more testing needed to confirm. Unless someone at zwift just wants to say how they work.
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You can probably understand it if you experiment with the settings. Do a ride with short laps and a climb (eg, Glasgow Crit Circuit). Pick a spot on the flat part to stop and change Trainer Difficulty. Move it through 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% and see what happens for one lap, then change it. Lower values result in less resistance on climbs, and more resistance on descents, compared to higher values. This also means areas with rollers like Titans Grove are highly affected by it since the gradient changes frequently.
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