Am I the only one who doesn’t really care for the London course?
I have been on Zwift since the early days of Jarvis Island. Unlike some others, I don’t mind the Richmond course. However I really don’t like the London course. The urban scenery is bland and I don’t think it offers nearly as many ride options as Watopia. The current schedule has it available 3 days in a row. I find that I avoid Zwift on those days. I am now in the camp where I believe we should have the choice of which of the 3 courses to ride on a given day. I know you can “hack” Zwift or change your computer time clock. I think that leaves you isolated on a lonely ride without the experience of having others on the road with you which is one of Zwift’s greatest assets. Anyone else in my camp?
I think all of us has a favorite course. I like the idea of one course per day that force me to ride the others as well. There will probably come a day where we can choose.
I am with you … I do not enjoy anything about the London terrain. At this point, I don’t use Zwift to do my indoor training when London is the terrain. Hopefully it is soon relegated to once or twice a month.
Frankly, I am bit burned out on Zwift overall. Last winter I looked for excuses not to ride outside and ride indoors with Zwift, this winter it has been the exact opposite.
I agree with you Bob. I was a bit of a Zwift addict the last 2 winters. I am just back from 3 weeks of riding in the sun. Going back to Zwift isn’t a lot of fun this year. I’m going snowshoeing.
First, I want to praise the artists and designers who created London. Their recreation of many London landmarks are visually interesting. Because of their effort I really wanted to like the London course.
But I agree with the comments in this post. What I really don’t like about London is it’s lack of “ridability”. The “flat” London route is really a series of “false flats”. This constant undulation breaks any rhythm one may be trying to develop. I believe that is why Watopia and Richmond are liked, because one can get in a rhythm on specific loops or segments of the routes. It seems the majority of riders opt for flatter route. So, I assume a steady ride is valued higher than a hard ride by most (I don’t have data to support this assertion just my personal observation).
Additionally Watopia offers some many variations now one can string a long route together that feels more like a point-to-point ride.
agree, I like London … but not for 3 days in a row … there isn’t enough to do to cover 3 days.
Especially seeing that one of those days is a Saturday, I finally get a couple of hours spare in a row … easily useable in watopia - mountain - radar- hilly flat and volcano … a good morning out.
That’s one of the first thing I learned… edit the prefs.xml and you can select which world you want to use. Checking out http://zwifthacks.com/zwift-preferences/ to make it even easier
Yea, I have used that hack. But unfortunately it kind of defeats the purpose of Zwift to ride in relative isolation. There are many other VR programs with as good or better graphics that let you do that. The appeal of Zwift to me is the MMO aspect that you don’t get anywhere else.
I think I have just rediscovered that I enjoy riding outside much more than indoors even during the winter months.
I’d like to see more choices than London, Richmond, and Watopia. Come on folks, don’t you thing having just 3 courses is monotonous? Let’s have New York, Paris, Rome, Beijing, Rio, even Antarctica!
The London map to me was a huge disappointment. I was hyped to join Zwift in December as I thought there was a huge London - Surrey map amongst other large maps to ride on. Didn’t realise it’s just a small loop that you repeat for the same distance of the PRL sportive.
Three days of the London map is soul destroying, it feels small and limited. One day per week is enough, maybe very occasionally two days per week. Pray we don’t see a large increase in Richmond days, it’s even duller to ride on.
Hope Zwift get their act together and put in some properly good maps - full spring Classics, Ventoux etc. Where’s all the amazing stuff that will take this game to the next level.
But yes for now, please drop London back to the way it was in 2016. Watopia is by far the best map and should always be available in my view.
Thanks for the map hack by the way, have to try that.
I am not a fan of the city/ urban courses like London and Richmond so I hope we don’t see any more of those. I think the fantasy type courses like Watopia and even the original Jarvis island courses are much more engaging. I certainly don’t want to see New York City or Paris or any other major metropolitan area turned into a Zwift course. I have used Zwift sparingly this winter partially due to London’s prevalence as the course and also due to our mild winter this year. I will continue to be a member for now, but not if they continue with courses like London.
I agree. The new addition to London while clearly it took effort to make, just adds more flat roads between gray buildings. London is repeated far far too often. I did not dislike it at first just because it is London. I dislike it now because it is endlessly repeated and pretty much all the same (as others have mentioned). There is the one hill. The rest is pretty much all the same with different colored buildings and no feeling of really going anywhere. Make it a rare occurrence, and I might look forward to it again.
London is tolerable once a week. When Richmond is on the calendar, I don’t ride on Zwift. I despise Richmond VA and I certainly can’t abide riding it virtually either. We need more courses like Watopia that are more exotic, visually stimulating and courses with greater texture.
Richmond and London should just be “island” on Watopia, so that way at the start of your ride you could say turn left and head to London course or Right to Richmond and straight for watopia, I really get bored fast o London, but if it was part of the great area of watopia i could chose to make it part of my route or not. Any future courses could just appear as new islands and just expand the virtual world.