Unlike some, I didn’t have a lot of trouble figuring out a sensitivity setting that made steering reasonable on my road bike with my iPhone 7 on a very inexpensive silicone bar mount I bought off amazon. It worked well enough to get 7 stars, IIRC, and KOM by 2minutes! I did something right.
I rode the course 3 times (it would really be nice to be able to drop-in at the gate rather than ride all the way up Titans!). While I thought it was “cute”, I was definitely bored after the third run. I applaud the Zwift team for looking for ways to improve the Zwift experience, but this seems like a distraction and was way too arcade-like for my tastes. I would much prefer to see them fix other limitations in the game, such as letting us end one ride and start another without exiting the entire program!
I would be keen to see alternative steering input options available (e.g. USB Joystick analog input) that didn’t involve having to use the Zwift Companion app + accelerometer + WIFI because there can be way too much latency involved with this method making steering difficult.
Mapping buttons to game features would also be handy, and custom USB HID devices could be created to provide the steering control so you wouldn’t have to mount a joystick on the bike to steer either.
Gotta admit steering makes Zwift even more engaging - but current implementation can be frustrating. I’m using an iPhone 6 mounted on the bars and a homebrew rocker board, front tire on lazy susan bearing system, and running Zwift on an ATV 4k. A couple observations…
Phone rotation about long axis (tilt - accelerometers?) makes much more difference than flat rotation in the plane of the screen (compass - magnetometers?). Outdoors I lean (frame tilt) much deeper into curves than I can on the rocker board. I rotate the bars much more on the trainer than would ever need/dare outdoors. It would be helpful to have a user-selectable sensor ratio of compass vs tilt.
I may be having latency issues - even on a strong wifi signal with fast internet - that make the steering seem unresponsive and then I tend to over-correct. At 15mph a 1 sec drop means 20 feet covered with no steering. That probably doesn’t matter too much on the Zwift road but makes a big difference on a twisty path. Perhaps the phone sensor (or future steering turntable) could be shared with local hardware (e.g. my ATV) to calculate and show “on path position” while the Zwift server calculates “on map position”? Keep the steering-sensor-to-micro-position local (BT or direct wifi) and offload the macro calculations.
I’m having the same problem as many: Inconsistent steering. I have an LG G6 Android mounted on my bike. I use a Wahoo Kickr Snap/Climb combination and sit pretty close to the TV and Laptop. I also have a regular house fan close by. Finally, I have a steel frame bike (Salsa Vaya). I point all of this out because, after taking my magnetic case off my phone (thought that would solve it), I still had the same inconsistency issues. It was better, but still not rideable. So I installed a compass on the phone, and started researching by putting the compass next to different items. Here is what I found:
• TV: Lots of magnetic fields from my TV. Probably the power supply.
• Laptop: Not as bad, but still effects the phone if too close.
• Climb: No real difference. Maybe when the motor kicks in. Not sure how well it is shielded.
• Kickr Snap: No impact at the distance the phone is when mounted on the bars
• Fan: No difference
• Bike frame: BIG IMPACT! Yes, my steel bike frame is magnetized enough to cause the compass to lock into one direction! I tried it with my steel framed Niner RLT and got the same result. I then tried it on my wooden framed Renovo and…no impact at all!
So, for those who have tried everything, check out your bike frame.
I’m really excited about this feature and hope the Zwift gets the bugs worked out soon.
I gave it a go running Zwift on an android phone and the companion on an old android phone. Worked very well.
So, given my previous issues, it looks like it won’t run on a gen1 iPad Pro (on mine at least). I’ll keep an eye on updates.
EDIT:
There was an update last week so I gave it another go. It stlll didn’t work, so I tried it with my old phone (that I dug out to use as a companion for my new phone when I tested android).
Summary:
iPad pro gen1 with Sony Xperia Z1 - WORKS
iPad pro gen1 with Sony XA1 Ultra - Doesn’t work
iPad pro gen1 with iPod Touch Gen 6 - Doesn’t work
It works great. I’m looking forward to doing some more!
I’m glad someone likes the steering, but I personally can’t stand it. Far too twitchy regardless of how I set the sensitivity. Only repeated the course in order to get the MTB. However, I have no intentions of riding any routes that require steering in the future. My opinion would be to allow riders a choice to utilize steering or not. I use Zwift to workout. The gaming aspect is beneficial in that it allows me to stay engaged riding a trainer longer However, making the gaming aspect more than the riding aspect takes away from what I am wanting with this platform since nothing about steering in the game is actually going to improve my real world bike handling. I prefer to focus on the pedaling and power output and not have to deal with gaming aspects.
Handset is a 6 week old Samsung Galaxy S10 running up to date OS and software, security patches, latest zwift app.
On trying the Repack Ridge for my second attempt with a lazy susan rotating platform, I think I had to recalibrate the steering 3 or 4 times. The steering kept drifting to left or right when going in a straight line. Likewise at another point, the handlebars were almost on full lock just to make the avatar bike go in a straight line.
The concept is good, but it is also very frustrating as trying to unlock the mountain bike for use on the gravel circuits, jungle route etc.
If the steering isn’t 100% workable, then why not just award the bike for those who have completed the circuit, albeit without the required stars or at least until the feature is 100% operational on all platforms, devices.
I think you’ve set the bench too high for the normal leisure cyclist!
The steering doesn’t work for me either. Here is what I do. I have a music stand next to my bike with my phone on it. and use my hand to tilt the phone to steer. so far it has worked good. I just hate that you cant ride that course without the steering. Hope this helps.
The steering doesn’t work for me either. Here is what I do. I have a music stand next to my bike with my phone on it. I use my hand to tilt the phone to steer. so far it has worked good. I just hate that you cant ride that course without the steering. I appreciate that Zwift is trying to replicate real life riding but that isnt possible. In real life is…well real life. You will never feel the fresh air rush through your hair, smell nature, ride uneven surfaces,etc. Zwift is an indoor training platform, I think they should stick to that. Why not make the steering optional and allow every on the new course. It is becoming more like a video game and there are thousands of better games out there. And other competitors with better steering.
But thats my 2 cents.
Just be yourself.
Hi All,
I tried the steering today on the cheap.
A circular balance board and phone held do my Garmin with elastic bands.
1st attempt was ok but wheel riser slipped off balance board.
2nd attempt front wheel zip tied to balance board (no wheel riser) and front brake locked on to hold board in position.
Phone just the same.
All worked quite well really. It felt smooth and no real problems.
I’d like to have some control over my position in a group ride or race, so maybe it
could be used all over Zwift, but only as an option.
“Ride On”
I tried the steering on the MTB course for the first time yesterday. I don’t have anything to allow my front wheel to turn, so I just held my iPad and tilted it for the turning. It wasn’t perfect, and definitely seemed to get more ‘drift’as I progressed through the course, but it worked well enough to get the MTB, which is good.
While I can’t say that I have any real interest in the steering becoming more pervasive in Zwift, I do think the steering could make for an interesting ‘tandem’ activity in Zwift, with one person cranking out the power while the other person does the ‘steering’.
A lot of people have said, as I did too, that the steering does NOT work. Rather than Zwift saying “overwhelmingly positive” , why not give out the real results. How many people out of a 100 had a terrible experience? It is obviously not as positive as they claim. I want the truth. I can handle the truth. I can’t handle the gloss-coated lollipop answer.
Isn’t this method of (using a phone) steering just wrong? There are too many different mobile phones to take account of and we all know new phones are released on a regular basis. Zwift - you will be playing catch up for ever! This is aside from the fact that there are many riders who don’t or won’t use a mobile phone, don’t have wirless in their homes, etc, etc. There is also enough feedback from new smart trainer owners that shows us there are constant software mods required to make them work in Zwift.
The new smart bikes are sort of leading the way with stering control buttons - these could be used to skip from lane to lane in a multi-lane system on a road, Its not freedom to steer anywhere but would be much simpler all round?
It will be interesting if Zwift open up the option to use a game controller to steer. I can already see what interesting setups the Zwift community will come up with.
I realy like the Repack Ridge course!
Steering however is inconsitent. Mass oversteer on the first 1/3 section, mass understeer in the middle section. Better with lower sensitivity, but understeering in the middle section does not change…
I’m using a Lazy Suzan (mechanical part of the steering is perfect) and Samsung Galaxy S9 mounted on the bars.
I too like the Repack course! For me (this is end of Nov 2019 when I’m trying it) the steering works fine. Iphone 5S with latest updates on phone, Companion, and am Zwifting on Apple TV gen 4. I’m not worried about my score—-I’ll save that kind of angst for the road courses. (I raced back in the day with Julie Furtado, but just let me say that even with all of her knee surgeries from skiing, she could romp better on a mountain bike than most of the rest of us at the time! I was more into the road and velodrome anyway…) BUT, this dirt course on Zwift and the fun steering is a total gas, and pretty motivating too. Thank you for this little bit of awesomeness! Well done Zwift. I did have trouble executing the rating of the experience window at the end; I’d put in lots of blue thumbs-up icons but then could not get the apple tv cursor to drop down and actually ‘Submit’ the feedback. So I hope you see this and keep it up, my vote is
Yes like, and Yes do more!
Just had my first try of it with an iPhone 7 on my Garmin mount. Have to say I was quite impressed after two runs. The first run was fun but seemed to be too sensitive at times but on my second run through I think I’d adapted to it and managed 9.5 starts to unlock the bike.
