I do like the simplicity of this idea, but, then you have people who decide to upgrade their bikes by just pedaling to one and then writing a macro to ride it 90% of the way up, u-turn, coast 90% of the way down, u-turn, ride 90% of the way back up, u-turn coast down, on an infinite loop while they go about their day.
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Cheat sheet for Zwift developers and feature leads:
- How does this feature affect…
- … a median rider?
- … a very tall rider?
- … a very short rider?
- … a very heavy rider?
- … a very light rider?
- … new riders?
- … racing?
- Can this feature be cheesed?
- If yes, what is the impact?
Questions that appear to be asked far too rarely at ZHQ.
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Would that perhaps be caught by the fix Zwift did for the “descenders” that progress only counts while you’re earning drops? I haven’t seen anyone trying it in a while, it might not work unless you’re pedaling up. Which isn’t a huge time saving over just climbing in Z2. Might not be a time saving at all in upgrading, in fact.
that’s what I think too.
if should just be like a moving bit of tarmac, if it is going at 10mph then you just go 10mph quicker than you otherwise would have gone, so if you stop pedalling you’d just travel up at 10mph.
you’d still feel the gradient.
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Why not turn it off until they can get it fixed. At least then it’s the same for everyone.
I’ve done a bunch of races with these the last couple weeks, and I found that if I come in hot at the bottom, drop to my smaller chainring at the middle, and spin to win to the top. I’m on a Wahoo KICKR Bike. YMMV
If you don’t weigh 90+ kg then sure. Us heavy riders will get dropped there every time unless we do double the power of something. Read the article at Zwift insider.
What would you do if the escalator didn’t exist at all?
Just make them the same as in London. Those have worked for years now without issues afaik. I don’t get the need for “powered” escalators in a cycling game. Isn’t the whole idea behind Zwift that you pedal your bike?
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It’s actually somewhat amazing that the Epic KOM, the Radio tower, ADZ and Ventop ever got made, considering the need for escalators on short little hills like these.
It would have been a lot simpler to just not have the escalators and have a 9% gradient, which for 100m isn’t the end of the world.
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The NY world is set in the future and has flying taxis etc. Why not a powered escalator? London is set in the present day.
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lets have flying bikes too
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Now you’re talking!
I’d prefer that to when I see my wheels 1/3 buried into the tarmac.
I can confirm that London in 2025 has access to “powered escalator” technology.
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At 17mph? 
I dislike the new escalators intensely.
I’d rather pedal up a longer 10 pct ramp.
I’ve searched as much as I can. I’ve now done 4 rides and 2 races on courses with escalators and every time I hit one my Stages SB20 bike unpairs with the “game” until I’m back on normal road. I’m then spinning to change back up gears once it’s reconnected and I’ve lost the group I was riding with. Very frustrating but no other issues. Is this anything anyone has seen before?
I’ve ridden the escalator plenty of times on my SB20 with no issues. I’ve got my trainer difficulty set to 100%.
I have a teammate with an SB20 and he has no issues on the escalators