Hello. I just completed the Everest climb today and was expecting to have earned my Tron bike but I didn’t because I didn’t realize that I still had to earn the 41100 points even though I already have over 250000 meters. That doesn’t seem fair because the required number of total points isn’t any different whether you earn them before or after entering the challenge.
This challenge is particularly hard for those like me who aren’t blessed with the physiology that makes for a good climber and also disadvantages those who don’t decide to enter the challenge right from the beginning of their Zwifting activity.
So why can’t I get my Tron bike?
This is why you cant have the tron bike, but you already knew that…
2 Likes
Think of it as paying your dues.
I did the same, wasn’t signed up for the challenge my first year, realized the mistake, crazy climbing the second year (Radio Tower Hill repeats) , got the Tron, used x 2 years and now I never use it.
2 Likes
If all the elevation and distance that you did counted for all the challenges whether you were signed up for them or not, what would be the point of multiple challenges? You’d just ride, and suddenly 'You’ve completed the California challenge…and hey also Italy by the way, and Everest, and there’s the Tron bike." The point of the challenges is that you pick one, and after you pick it, you focus on doing that challenge.
If they created a new ‘Ride Brazil’ challenge today, and it was fewer KMs than you’ve already done, would you want them just to give you that challenge badge right away?
6 Likes
I agree with your point.
The carrots are good for encouraging people to ride but we have to keep things in perspective.
The carrots should not become more important than riding our bikes.
3 Likes
The challenges would still be milestones and as such they would still encourage you to ride. It would be appropriate to allow the challenges to be completed even if you haven’t signed up for them or else be completed retrospectively once you’ve signed up for them. This is the way it works on Strava. You don’t have to have been signed up for a challenge on Strava in order to get the trophy if you sign up after you’ve already completed the required laps, distance, time specified for that challenge.
I haven’t had my desire to pass a challenge because I can still receive it afterwards as long as the challenge is still open. I think that is a better system because you aren’t always aware of the challenges as they are posted.
I still maintain that the fact that I’ve completed to 50000 meters shows that I’m no slouch and I should receive the reward associated with it.
Sincerely,
Julian Ross Hudson
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25
I don’t accept that because it isn’t a sequence that is really relevant. The whole thing comes down to quantity of kms put in and once you’ve entered the challenge there’s no time frame set for when the the challenge must be completed in order to qualify your efforts. If there’s not time frame when you’re in it then what’s the point of ignoring the fact that you’ve already qualified before signing up?
There’s no cheating involved. This isn’t a moral issue about being properly sporting. It’s all matter of did you put in the requisite work.
Sincerely,
Julian Ross Hudson
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25
I’m not saying you’re a slouch. I’m just looking at how this would work. You’d essentially be getting rid of the notion of choosing a challenge to take on. If Zwift offers ‘California Distance’ and ‘Everest Elevation’ as separate challenges, your idea would have everyone effectively enrolled in both of them from the start. At that point they aren’t ‘challenges’, they are just distance and elevation badges.
And that’s a different concept. Zwift could offer a badge for hitting a certain distance mark, but that’s a different thing from offering a challenge that someone intentionally chooses to take on, starting at a certain point. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s a different thing. Zwift offers challenges for people to intentionally select and try to complete, as a way to motivate people. If I got both the California and the Everest challenge badges for doing the same riding, I would be less motivated than if I had to finish one, and then move on to the other. Maybe you wouldn’t be–but what they’re offering is an intentionally taken on challenge, not just an acknowledgement of a milestone you might have passed. Just different things.
4 Likes
I thought of it that way also and that is why I did the 8850 kms. I finished those only to discover that there were 41100 more to go and for what reason? I didn’t know that the 8850 just got your foot in the door. It makes no sense at all.
If that is the case the there should be a warning that in order to pass certain challenges it is important that you enter them right away upon becoming a member of Zwift because succeeding in those challenges will require a significant amount of time and the best way to pass them is to fulfill their requirements as you go along. A lot of people just start Zwifting away and enjoying the site. They may casually browse the sight further as they get time but who knows when.
Probably the best way is to enter all zwift members automatically into the challenges and award them as the member completes them. I think that would encourage many people, especially those who aren’t into racing or who haven signed up for Zwift Power. Give them some encouragement also.
And this thing about “paying one’s dues” makes no sense. Is this some kind of club that we have to gain entry to by undergoing hazing? I don’t think there are any dues to be paid. This isn’t an initiation into a frat, sports team and I’ve got no indebtedness to those who are already in. Just because someone else did it doesn’t give it legitimacy that obligates me to undergo the same initiation ritual.
I have the kms so give me everything that goes with that challenge.
Sincerely,
Julian Ross Hudson
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25
I think the best way to handle the problem of people missing out on the Everest Challenge would be to prompt them to turn it on when they join. It’s a common problem that users are unaware of the challenge or don’t know how to select it because the UI around it isn’t good, and that is avoidable disappointment in the product. That kind of disappointment should be avoided. When a challenge is completed and more challenges are available, the user should be again prompted to select a challenge. The Everest Challenge is the only one that really matters since the other ones don’t have useful unlocks.
2 Likes
I agree that the Tron bike could be more clearly indicated as a goal, given how popular it is. But Challenges are very clearly indicated when you sign up, as least they were when I signed up. I was prompted to select one, so I did.
That the Tron bike is a (really poorly kept) ‘secret’ extra goal doesn’t demonstrate that people shouldn’t need to sign up for challenges. It just means that maybe now they should stop making that part of it ‘secret’.
But again, to be clear, they are not rewarding us for ‘KMs ridden’ or for ‘meters climbed’. The challenges reward you for ‘purposefully taking on and completing a goal that you chose’. Rewarding someone for completing a distance without them having chosen to take that challenge on is simply not a challenge. It’s a different thing.
If I accidentally dumped a bucket of ice water on my head a few years ago, I did not do ‘the ice bucket challenge’. That’s not what the word means.
2 Likes
I know what you’re saying but I think it should be retrospective aspect as well as the prospective. This is the way that the Strava challenges operate and I have been motivated by both ways. Its nice to pick a challenge but it is also motivating to peruse challenges and see ones that you’ve already passed or our close to passing. You aren’t just zeroed out at the beginning. Its nice to see something that you’ve come close to accomplishing and disheartening to discover that nothing you’ve already done will count.
This isn’t a race. It isn’t time limited. People have lives and none of us are following the same schedule. These are personal goals and not team goals.
On Strava you can complete several challenges at once if they have the same criteria as their goal. You can do 200kms, 600kms, 800kms, 1250kms all at once because there is no zeroing of your distance. And I find it just as challenging and rewarding when I pass each one.
If someone wants to take each challenge separately then they can do that but if another person doesn’t want to then there should be allowance for that also. Let the users drive how they work their way through the listed challenges. What’s fun for me is seeing the Strava trophies that I’ve earned on my virtual wall. The time saving way is to get them as you earn them.
Sincerely,
Julian Ross Hudson
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25
Yes they zero at the end of the month. I did say that there’s no time frame on the Everest Challenge or any of the challenges. They are opened for entry and exit. They don’t follow the Strava formula where if you enter the 200km challenge first then later enter the 600km challenge later whatever kms you’ve accumulated on the 200km challenge aren’t applied as your base when you enter the 600km challenge. You start the 600km challenge from zero as long as you start them in that same month.
Sincerely,
Julian Ross Hudson
If it isn’t a race, then it shouldn’t matter the speed at which you accomplish the challenges, and it shouldn’t matter that you’ve done something else before it.
I see what you want, but it’s just not what Zwift is offering. They are simply different things. The challenges are ‘climb this number of meters from the moment you click this button’. It’s not ‘how many meters have you ever climbed.’
It’s similar in a broad way to a race. If someone puts on a race on Fuego Flats, I can’t just tell them what time I’ve done Fuego Flats in before and say “give me a spot in the results because I’ve already ridding that route”. The race is about doing Fuego Flats now. Similarly, the challenges are not races, but they are about doing the specified distance or elevation now. Where here, ‘now’ is defined as a moment you select yourself. But you have to select it. That’s just what they are. You’re not proposing a simple addition to the challenges, you are proposed a complete overhaul for what they mean and how they work.
If they gave you a Tron bike for having climbed that elevation before you selected the challenge–and while you were in fact putting in distance for another challenge–you would be devaluing the efforts of other people who put in the same elevation after choosing the challenge.
Again, I’m not saying your way is worse, I’m just saying that you are asking for something that is entirely different in kind from what Zwift has made the challenges to be. It’s not a small change to the challenges, your suggestion is a fundamental change.
1 Like
Meh. It’s some pixels on a screen.
I think I was automatically enrolled in the California challenge when I started Zwift, though I can’t really recall. That means that some elevation I’ve ridden doesn’t count towards the Everest challenge but just means it’ll take me a bit longer to get the Tron (I’m on 70% at the moment). TBH I do “get” that these rewards and counters add a little incentive but the drama related to this (and the “missing” drops) seems disproportionate. It’s not like folk stop Zwifting once they’ve completed the challenge so it’ll remain an incentive until done and then be largely ignored.
Julian, I disagree.
Zwifting is very much a community or even a frat.
We are a collection of people who have a common interest in riding our bikes.
There are shared experiences and some of the shared experiences involve learning the many ways people use the platform.
There are secrets to seek out and learn.
The Zwifters that seem to stay with the program are those that embrace the journey.
You are a paying customer and your $15 allows you access to the program.
I’m not sure what else you feel your entitled to but I guess you do you.
Good luck.
1 Like
If you’ve climbed the requisite number of meters then you’ve completed the challenge period because that is fundamentally what the challenge is about when reduced to its essence. If the challenge said that you had to climb them in a certain time frame that would be a different story. Races are a totally different matter because they occur at a specified time and are competitions between you others who’ve entered that specified time. As far as whether or not your record on a specified course stands that is something that is apart from any race. You can set course records outside of races. The completed times that come up for sprint segments and courses are reflective of times that have been set both in and outside of races.
There is no “now” on something that is open entry and a time frame has not been specified but only a quantity is set forth. You can’t say, its too late, you’ve missed your chance. That is what is being said when your existing 50000kms are zeroed out.
Sincerely,
Julian Ross Hudson
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25
I completed the Strava cycling distance challenge in January, with 200km to spare.
I missed it in February by 50km.
I’ll clear March’s with 150km to spare.
I’m not expecting to be retrospectively awarded credit for February’s challenge because them’s the rules and I’ll just suck it up and get a grip. It’s just pixels.
Have a snack and ride your bike.
6 Likes
Well, not really. If you completed the challenge you would have the bike. The challenges are not designed to be done together, they are designed to be selected, then done individually.
That said, I do think Zwift should give a prompt to let you select which challenge you want to work on first, or just default people into the climbing challenge - since it’s the only one with a good unlock.
This is not correct. This equates to saying ‘I completed the Boston Marathon, but I didn’t enter the event.’
You may have completed the distance, but you didn’t complete the challenge.
4 Likes