Totally understand this one. This is the exact way I plan my IRL rides out in my head. It consists of me determining how long I need/want to ride on the day and then planning a route - usually a loop - around that, so that way I know where I’m at in the ride at any given point.
The same is true for me on Zwift.
I was curious if you were doing something along those lines or if there was another reason I hadn’t considered based on routes that would keep you wanting to focus on them.
Given the likely inability to offer a RP at every desired exact wkg effort, please look at the possibility of instituting the feature requests surrounding adjusting trainer bias. A setting if you will – which would enable for example joining a 1.8 wkg RP for example, but requiring the rider to put out 2wkg in order to keep to the same speed by entering in a +11% bias value. Actually could also make the regular group rides also customizably accessible if the pace is a bit too low vs. what is desired.
Not sure I follow.
Are you suggesting something like an aura around the Pacer that requires any Zwifter within that aura’s area of effect to have an increased or decreased trainer bias? Or the ability for each individual to determine how much more or less resistance they have on their trainer when joining a Pacer, similar to how you can set FTP bias before starting or during a workout?
The latter, but maybe for obvious reasons, only allow each individual to make it harder for themselves. You probably don’t want ability for people to travel faster and further than their ability deserves.
In theory, someone wanting to ride with the 1.1 wkg RP on a route, but wants to do a 3.3 wkg ride, enters a +200% bias
Regarding the comparison to FTP bias… it’s somewhat similar, except in an group event ERG workout training ride, you could increase your FTP bias a lot, but you won’t go faster. In what I’m proposing, you go the speed your bias result + your actual effort calculate as your resulting speed. The RP wouldn’t be sticky (not like a rubber-banded ride), but based on your bias, applied to your actual power, would result in the speed you’d go. Your saved FIT file would of course still have your real power metrics.
To expand on this. I want RoboRacers.
A group of robo racers who are at around my pace and who I can race any time over any course for any distance instead of having to wait for a scheduled race that has only 10 people in it with half of them doing 20% more watts than I can do.
On the RoboPacer cards where it shows the W/kg, it should show the “advertised” W/kg as well as the current W/kg.
From what I understand, it only shows the current W/kg.
For example, right now as I’m looking at it, Yumi is 2.8 W/kg on the Glasgow Crit Circuit, and 2.9 on the Watopia Three Little Sisters. Yumi is supposed to be 2.9 W/kg, so one of them is currently less. Jacques is shown as 3.1 and 3.2. Genie is shown 3.6 and 3.7.
Does that current W/kg displayed refresh at any time? I clicked onto the world selection, and back, and the numbers didn’t change.
Small stuff, sure. But if you don’t known what the “advertised” W/kg is supposed to be, you may not get the workout you were hoping for, or expecting.
Why I don’t ride with them, because they don’t keep a steady pace, they over compensate on the climbs and heavy riders can’t keep up. No point in only riding tempus fugit. But even the bump in that route force us out of zone.
Base them on PACE ie average speed (I mean they are robo PACERS aren’t they) rather than a power to weight ratio
Average speed won’t work. There is many ways to get to the same average speed in a hour.
I’m with Gerrie on this one; there are days I back off and away from the robopacers because they have 100+ people with them and are dragging them along at paces way above what I’m expecting. (I don’t know if we’ll see less of this with PD4.1, but up until last week, that point stood, where I could hop onto Coco, but there’d be so many people, she’d be at above Yumi pace for me personally).
Things I’d like to see:
Easier to access from the main menu. Give them their own subpage.
Custom “ghost” partner for just me. ie: can I get a ghost pace partner that runs X w/kg on whatever route I want; I don’t care if anyone else can/can’t see it. I want something steady… for me.
I’ve asked for this before but I don’t know how possible; I’d like to see better integration with upcoming events and links for companion app. Let them inform riders of rides/races with links, so you can sign up without ever having to leave to the main menu, or scramble through the events listing on companion.
Back on the subject of #2 though:
I’d personally find a ghost pace partner more enjoyable for things like a steady Z2 better than setting up a Z2 and running ERG in a workout and being locked in on power. (not to mention it would be client-side, so benefits there)
I realize that could be outside the scope of this thread; but, I think it’s a reasonable request in-line with the future of what people might want.
Because I seriously wouldn’t mind a workout that’s not ERG, but involves me chasing down a robo or two.
I’m on the newer side of using Zwift and find the bots for the most part really helpful… The only thing I find is that they are too easy to drop uphill. I don’t think I’m an especially strong rider but I notice the pack strings out severely and if you want to continue you have to wait up
I have not ridden with RPs in a while - I’ve done just about all my Zwift riding in group rides - but what I liked about them was, for the most part, the ability to stay with a reasonable group and get bonus drops, assuming I’m looking for mostly Zone 2-3 work (so that any kind of burst is something I can match).
The thing I dislike the most about RPs is losing the bonus when you’re still grouped with the RP - it’s rare but can happen, especially if the group is small enough. The RP goes inside on a curve, I get pushed to the outside, and I get the warning. Sometimes it happens the other way around: I work a bit to stay with the RP going uphill, I end up a bit in front, and then the RP slows down (to match its pace) behind me and I lose my bonus.
I would love to be able to set a RP to a particular level of effort on a particular course - e.g. 1.4-1.6 w/kg on Turf n Surf, so I could do a couple of laps there without having to hope for random folks looking to put in my level of effort.
It would be nice if the automatic messages they send could be used to promote community events, although I do understand that keeping them up to date would probably require a fair bit of regular maintenance
It’s actually quite easy to make any given RP harder or easier by adjusting your bike/ wheels. Just to take an extreme situation, if you are Z2/Z3 comfortable with a given RP and relatively fast road setup, you’d likely have to drop down several RP’s if you switched to gravel or MB. But I find I can do pretty small setup refinements and achieve exactly the above request.
If the RP I prefer has only one route of interest (relatively common), and perhaps worse - so does everyone else think so (to date I’ve largely avoided the biggest groups because of unreliable pack dynamics), then a week is a very long time… And 8 weeks is not too long until that situation comes back again…
Generally - like them.
I usually jump onto a RP ride instead of free rides if not for an event or workout. I sometimes make an effort to stay consistently with the RP and have a „steady“ effort - including dynamic pacing - that works well for me.
Enjoy the occasional group chat/banter - but not the messages from the RPs 
I would like to have the ability to adjust the difficulty of a ride by around ±10 percent, for example.
Suppose I’m participating in a ride at a pace of 1.5 watts per kilogram (w/kg). My intention is to join the ride and maintain a pace of 1.4 w/kg. This approach would allow me to engage in a group ride while training at the specific intensity I desire, essentially using the group as a training partner rather than relying solely on my personal pace.
The difference in wattage between two pacemakers can sometimes be quite abrupt.
I speculate that altering my weight might be a way to achieve this, but I’m not inclined to go down that route. Alternatively, a lightweight option by session could be explored.
I’m with you on this.
What if when you joined the RP it created a start/finish arch that only you could see, and gave you a route progress bar in the usual way except starting from that custom start point?
Separately, I like the RPs. The one thing that I’d like to see fixed is the size of the Drops multiplier zone, which is way too small (and therefore too easy to fall out of) when the group is quite small.
That idea is fantastic!
ie: 2.8w/kg for an endurance, 4.5w/kg on volcano KOM.
Nice!