How are smart trainers even competitive in Zwift leader board wise. If our resistance varies, while other dumb trainers don’t change, how is this possibly fair?
The in game speed is based off of power and rider weight. You can simulate the resistance by changing gears on a “dumb trainer”.
For example, you could be riding in your easiest gear with a lot of resistance to simulate a climb on a smart trainer, or be in your hardest gear in a dumb trainer to simulate the same power at the same cadence.
What you describe is correct Kyle, but I’m not sure that’s what Matt is asking.
For example, a rider could remain in the easiest gear on a dumb trainer for the entire ride.
Right Rob, but the point is if you ride in the easiest gear, the power Zwift sees is low, so your speed in Zwift will be low. The speed in Zwift is not the speed of the trainer, it’s calculated by estimating the power the rider is putting into the pedals and how fast that would move the rider in the virtual world.
Another way of looking at this, is that for dumb trainers the speed in Zwift will slow down as the grade gets steeper unless the rider accelerates (i.e., puts out more power). The total amount of work is the same whether you’re on a dumb trainer or smart trainer, its just the gearing that’s different.
Thanks. I guess I was thinking of a scenario where only cadence was reported, but I suppose that would not be Zwift-compatible.