I have a NeoBike with a motorised flywheel, and when you stop pedalling downhill the flywheel keeps spinning. It’s a trainer restriction not a zwift one.
Zwift only cares about power, nothing else. Some trainers keep reporting power for longer when coming off the power. This is (part of) the microbursting problem. The other part is when climbing. In real life if you back off the power, gravity quickly takes over and the amount of torque required to overcome the inertia is significant. On zwift, especially with some trainers, this is not the case.
@gloscherrybomb - I was talking about the sudden braking effect downhill and in the flat sections where in real life in group or just alone that doesn’t happen.
The moment you try to coast, boom, brakes go on and you slow from 43 to 35 or less very quickly.
IRL on a similar downhill at 40km/h if I stop turning the pedals I’ll actually increase speed slightly even at my low weight.
That’s the case on zwift too. At least in my experience. The only abnormal braking effect is on the flat, and that’s deliberately due to an assumption that a rider is meaning to come to a stop.
I got what Chris Denton has. Things would be better if Zwift had some base standards for trainer response that the trainer companies would have to program for. To stop all this dealing with different trainer responses to similar rider inputs and debating what’s cheating versus not.
Personally I’d call it an unfair, untrue to life advantage, so cheating to my mind. But I also think it brings up the issue of whether having specific trainers is cheating because for example they’ll let you get a power overhang - that’s why I’m feeling there ought to be some base standards from Zwift for the trainer makers to program for.
i think it’s cheating but i can’t personally control what other people do. but i can at least quietly enjoy the mental image of someone stopping every three pedal strokes for a short rest like a stoner trying to walk up 150 flights of stairs
I raced and trained a lot with a Tacx Neo 2T (+ 2 years).
For the last 3 weeks I´m using a Kickr v5 and I think the v5 cuts power a little faster. It´s not night and day, but i think there is a difference.
In general, the Neo 2T is still considered one of the least “forgiving” trainers for riding & racing on Zwift (see this Oct 22nd 2022 review, for example, Review of the Tacx NEO 2T | Zwift Insider).
“Due to the virtual flywheel, the NEO 2T has a different feel to other trainers that I have used. It is really responsive but it “feels” harder to ride than others and I have been unable to generate the performances that I have previously with other different trainers, notably when I look at my watts per kilo over a 20-minute period”.
Bought my original Neo 2T in July of 2020. Lost resistance in October of 2021 and went to my LBS were I bought it. They contacted Tacx and I received a refurbished one.
Even though I did few hours a week in the end of 2021, and did very little and light training in the summer of 2022 (due to injury) the refurbished one went kaput in the end of November of 2022. Basically the refurbished one lasted a few months of real training.
New contact with my LBS and I received another refurbished one.
Since I didn´t know how much time I would be without a trainer, I decided to buy the Kickr v5 in a nice Black Friday sale.
I like the 2T a lot … apart from the fact that I had so many problems with it. If it wasn´t for that I would not think about a new trainer for the next 2 or 3 years.
I was only reporting a difference that I noticed between the 2T and the v5, and that I think was relevant for the topic
Wow, this problem seems to happen more often than people appreciate. Same thing happened with my Neo 2T. Had it for about a year until it suddenly expired, returned it to Garmin and I’m now on my (first) refurbished unit. The warranty on this has now expired so I hope I’m not living on borrowed time.
Hi
I had the same problem on a cat A race (STAGE 2: FLAT IS FAST) profile of a 60 year old runner (60kg) avg 4.5w/kg
5min at 5.3w/kg 1min at 9.7w/kg 30s at 12.5w/kg 15 seconds at 14.4w/kg result he finished 2nd. was it electric ? I think so and unfortunately dude is not the only one there are plenty like him and the worst they are on ZP and everything is fine. I don’t pay for an app to compete with cheaters who slip through the cracks (unless Zwift wants it)
I think a big cleaning on Zwift power would be welcome.
Sorry for the late response (;
I don’t know, maybe, but all means are good to do it… and it’s getting worse and worse. It’s very nice to make new cards and fix bugs etc… but what we want is that they put more means to deal with the problem of cheating within their application. Same since they took over Zwift Power, it’s a real mess!
Hmm. I came to the forums to check on similar suspicions.
I’m not here to call out a racer by name (I know the forums are not for that purpose)
However, what does an ebike ride look like?
In my race, an older rider (A+) rode a climb over 400 watts at 30 rpm?
His history shows a 1000+ watts sprint at 90 rpm for over 30 seconds >16 w/kg for 15 seconds?
FTP is at 5 w/kg at a heart rate that averaged 140.
Call Jumbo Visma. Wout needs another lead out man.
i’m about 99% sure this dude was on an ebike or using some sort of power hack. i would have guessed the latter but he was clearly actually doing some riding since he had a HRM connected. he would hold extremely consistent power (+ or - 2w) for 20+ seconds at a time
i’m not entirely sure how ebikes regulate output though, i think there are different types. that’s not what a power graph should look like either way
