This morning I accepted the Kona 112 mission and went on a groupride around the Watopia Flat Route. It was set to be a 3.0 W/kg ride which normally should be fine for me. However I had to work hard to keep up with the group and since there was a minirace at the end there was a leaderboard presented. I came almost last in that race (as I had a hard time just keeping up with the group) but when I looked at the powerstats I had 3.3 W/kg and almost everybody of the 20+ ahead of me was under 3.0, most of them around 2.6-2.8 W/kg. I know I’m not a perfect drafter but most of the time I was in group. I also compared with a similar groupride on the same course a week ago and although my avg. was only 3.0 W/kg on that ride, the time was 4 minutes faster (avg. speed 42 km/h instead of 38 km/h as today).
The only difference I can think of is that for the ride today, the Shiv bike was auto-selected (I found that out later when I became suspicious).
Is this bike really that bad or is it a form of TT-bike that does not benefit so much from drafting?
I’m curious if anybody else has som similar experience or knowledge in this area?
TT bikes get no draft benefit within Zwift.
Is the Specialized Shiv a TT-bike then? It does not specifically say so in the game.
It’s a triathlon bike.
What does that mean in the Zwift world? (I know what triathlon is in the real world 
)
Is there no drafting from a tri bike either?
A Triathlon and TT bike are very similar (most high-end triathlon bikes are not UCI legal) and within the Zwift world they get no drafting benefit.
Ok! Thanks a lot Allen. Then it all makes more sense and I should be prepared for much harder “draftless” grouprides the coming days until the mission is complete.
Sorry for mixing up you surname. I mean Thanks a lot Paul.
On a related note: How can I quit this mission? Or am I stuck with it auto equipping Shiv every group ride I do for the next 7 days or whatever.
There should be a button or something that says “Quit/Leave Mission?”
You should be able to go to the settings page and equip the bike you wish and still do the mission, I don’t think you have to do it on the Shiv.
I entered the challenge just before starting a race event and was stuck on it(shiv). Couldn’t change bike. Was hard work.
I too made the fun choice of joining the Kona 112 challenge, my first ride was a race and I can normally stick with the B lead group until near the end but I soon realized without draftng that was not going to be the case on the Shiv. But I burnt a shed load of calories trying before I bonked haha.
But I have done a couple of C races since on the Shiv (which are still stupid hard with no drafting), and to be honest every km ridden has felt that little bit more earned.
When I ride outside it is often alone as I have a young family etc so its actually more like IRL as I typically ride TT as no one really wants to ride with me at 6am lol.
If anything, the fact that people are not liking this challenge is better for those that complete as they have a better chance of winning that bike.
whether its the SHIV or the Zwift TT bike~ both are Time Trial Bikes and have no drafting in Zwift. You also only get +10 XP bonuses when passing Arches.
Zwift is a social training platform. It doesnt represent real life riding whatsoever. Its just a clever algorithm to simulate a speed from a power output. I rode the challenge well under 5hrs, and I cannot do that IRL.