What is the worst Zwift World, and why is it New York?

Agree totally, zzzzzz and the futuristic climb is ridiculous. I never know where I am on the course and always tend to use Watopia for the harder trg sessions as it has more varied routes.

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When I ride New York, I generally stick to the Park Perimeter loop. I like the rolling terrain and the scenery. The future-stuff and KOM? Not for me. But, then, I also think the ‘Tron’ bikes are dumb too, so… TEHO.

Is NYC the worst Zwift World? IDK. I might argue that Innsbruck is worse. I liked it well enough at first, because HEY! CHANGE OF SCENERY! A NEW CLIMB! (and no sci-fi)

But now? It’s easily as boring as NYC. You have, basically, 3 options: skip the climb and do the Innsbruckring. Do the worlds course. Or do only the climb/descent/repeat.

Watopia remains my go-to 7-8 times out of 10 because it’s got everything you need on any given day. Flat, rolling, hills, and mountain climbs, jungle, alpine, desert, temperate forest, tropical island…

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Scratching my head reading most of the posts on ‘how boring’ NY is. As a Zwift newbie I am blown away by the extensive number of routes. True, some are better than others, but they all beat riding on a trainer without the immersive experience of Zwift. And, truth be told, the variety of routes far exceeds what we normally experience in our home towns.

Having said all that , as an ex New Yorker I kinda wonder why the Zwift folks decided on my home town for bike routes. In reality, Central Park is the only place a sane person would ride, so I get that part, but it does seem a bit limiting in terms of route choices. Same can be said about London in terms of actually riding a bicycle, but London roads are more interesting because they are not laid out in a boring grid like NYC.

One suggestion for expanding NYC routes is to mimic the famous and super fun Five Borough Bike Tour - check it out here TD Five Boro Bike Tour - Bike New YorkBike New York

Off to go ride London and Box Hill - see ya!

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How did you change the color of the road to orange, the crack only does gray. Can you do other colors? Thanks.

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My only problem with NYC is, that it’s always overcowded like any other little Zwift world.
Watopia is way more chilled cause it’s way bigger.
The easy solution is to simply open all worlds anytime. It would spread the riders all over all worlds, and you wouldn’t suffocate trying to ride the NYC KOM.

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I’m surprised by the negativity in this thread for NY too, because unless you want to climb a virtual cat3 or bigger hill/mountain, this world caters for all.

Some flat, some rolling, some cat4 climbs.

Personally, I love Grand Central, ride hard up the cat4 and recover on the descent before ramping things up again on the rollers back to the banner.

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I dislike New York as

  1. There are not really any flat routes - almost every segment (as in junction to junction) has a fairly random little steep section (at least 6%, up to 15%) for no obvious reason (especially no reason on the elevated roads). The only route without a >6% part is La Guardia which is 2.8km.

  2. The scenery is dull and repetitive - a few cut and pastes of the same building round the edge. And it is not even a pretty building. The leads to problem 3)

  3. It is very samey - I really never know where I am on the map by looking at my avatar - tree-lined roads at ground level and samey skyscrapers on the elevated roads.

  4. It is very small - there are a lot of routes in New York. I think there are 11 route badges and 8 (IIRC) of them go over the KOM (sometimes multiple times). Mostly the routes are then really just different lead-ins and lead-outs for the KOM.

  5. As it is small it is really busy - this isn’t really a problem except for the avatar taking veering about the road, which is the a bit off-putting. And generally feeling a bit cluttered.

  6. Related to 1) but the visual cues for a change in gradient are (to me at any rate) poor - a lot of the 6%+ sections just appear with no warning. This goes for the gradient indicator at the top right - I’ve seen the gradient go from 0% to 5% with no apparent change in this. It makes the ride choppy as you can’t anticipate the gear changes.

  7. (and finally you’l be relieved to know) I get a bit annoyed at spawning on an 8% gradient at the start on occasion - including a hill in the spawning area was not the best idea.

What is perplexing is that it is the most common guest route. I really do not understand why it is given such prominence by Zwift. Still, two more route badges to get for NY to satisfy the stamp-collector in me, and then NY no more (or Escape from New York if you prefer).

P.S. Sorry but 8) - Part of the joy of cycling up a hill is the view from the top (even a virtual view): the summit of the KOM in New York is in a tunnel! Why would they do this!?

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^^^ This! I think half the routes start here.

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…and the Highline route. 3.2 mile WITH a KOM for the lead-in?!

So stupid…

I begrudgingly got the badge this morning and will voluntarily avoid this route from now on.

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It’s funny I haven’t really used New York for a while as I don’t really like the glass section. But give me a route badge to aim for, and I was there every day. LOL

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@_Troy

Check this out, Hack for Acrophobics: No More Glass Roads in New York City | Zwift Insider.

I always felt sick when I got to the top of the KOM, but after this I don’t feel sick anymore.

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Hi Gerrie,
Ah yes, that is a good idea for some… but you have to take into account that I’m too scared to go digging around inside my computer. :worried:
I’ll play safe and stay in the park or Watopia. :slightly_smiling_face: :biking_man: :banana: :mountain_snow: :gear: :small_zwift:

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I rode in NYC today to get my three last NYC route badges.
Spent nearly 2 hours there.
I think NYC isn’t too bad, if they’d change two things:

First, give us free world choice. The main problem about NYC is, that it’s totally overcrowded. Sometimes I felt suffocating.
Second, build a bit of a flat road here and there. It’s very difficult to warm up or cool down cause there is always a little climb just behind the next corner.

Now that I’ve got the route badges, I’ll visit NYC only for events/races. I see no point in free riding in NYC, when I’ve got the choice between NYC and Watopia.

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You folks act like you have never heard of Zwift Preferences?

I hate London. I mean REALLY hate London. New York is second on my loathings list. So, I use ZP and spend my time in Innsbruk, Richmond, or one of the many varied Watopia rides.

This being said, is there any scuttle on new worlds and routes being worked on in Zwift?

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Yes, we know the next three…Tokyo, Switzerland and (2021) Belgium.
Belgium is only approved. It hasn’t been designed yet.

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“Nobody rides the NY course anymore – it’s too crowded!”

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Just did the Everything Bagel for Tour for All’s Stage 3. Pretty quickly, I remembered how much I dislike the New York map. Just kept chanting, “I Hate New York” all the way up the second KOM, and back around to the finishing banner. It really is the worst.

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I had the opposite reaction today in the Tour. I hadn’t really ridden New York in a while and I realized I had become a bit bored with Watopia and London. Riding the Everything Bagel was like putting on and old glove that fit really well. The whole of New York definitely feels more like a race course though.

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I mean, I guess that’s why they have different worlds. I’m glad to know someone enjoyed the route today.

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[quote=“Andrew_of_Uptown, post:37, topic:192930, full:true”]
Just did the Everything Bagel for Tour for All’s Stage 3. Pretty quickly, I remembered how much I dislike the New York map./quote]
Same! First time riding NY for ages and apart from when doing the KOM’s or reaching sprint/finish banners I just have no idea where I am. Hate the place, could be made so much better by expanding on to the roads.

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