Last night while riding Richmond I came across another rider avatar which was moving with constant 2.4 w/kg on the flats without pedaling (legs were not moving at all). At one point his avatar even changed position on the bike tacking in on the top tube like for descending faster even though he was on the flat at the time. More than that I was moving at 2.5, 2.6 w/kg and the guy just passed me with that steady 2.4 w/kg. He dropped me slowly and he continued moving passing other riders without pedaling at all. In some area the rider went up hill again without pedaling but at constant 2.4 w/kg. Is this some sort of bug in Zwift SW or is some sort of cheating? How can somebody input a steady 2.4 w/kg at 0 cadence (I assume his cadence was 0 because his legs were not moving)?
In the two or so kms I was around the other rider he din not pedal once and the w/kg was constant at 2.4. My W/kg was permanently changing between 2.4 to 2.7 w/kg.
I had something like that happen to me personally yesterday during a workout group.
I have a power meter and cadence but it was as if I kept losing signal as my cadence would instantly drop to zero and power gradually fall on my dashboard. My avatar would instantly stop pedaling or stand up but I was still travelling along and my w/kg on the participant list would hold what ever w/kg value I had been on previously.
Kept on happening for about half the ride and was very annoying as it didn’t reflect what I was doing in the workout and probably appeared to others as per your comment above! I tried a few things like switching Bluetooth on and off which did nothing but then noticed on the pairing menu that ERG control had picked up my sensor and I never have that on as I don’t have a controllable trainer. Once that was corrected I didn’t see the issue again.
Don’t know if it is the same in your instance but thought I would comment what I experienced and discovered might be influencing this strange avatar behavior
“Electric bikes”
If cadence sensor is paired, but doesn’t report appropriate cadence (or signal is lost), rider behaves like on an electric bike: no pedaling but nice power. It might happen when the battery in the sensor is dead.
If cadence is not paired, “average” cadence is assumed, so the rider doesn’t look strange at all.
Maintaining some power is simple with some trainers, and very difficult with other ones. Heavy flywheel makes it flatter. If ERG mode is set, the power might fluctuate very little (I’ve seen even ±2W, usually ±5W, depends on gearing).
