Drives me crazy after 5 yrs and 26,000kms Zwifting when in a group ride or otherwise when someone gives me a ride on there isn’t an easy way to give a ride on back. I have to search the riders nearby or use “find Zwifters” and using the companion app can be tricky when cycling. I Would suggest if I am given a ride on then in companion app for 5-10 seconds I see a large orange ‘give ride back’ thumb appearing that allows me to quickly give a ‘ride back’. Much like the one that appears next to a rider close by who’s given me a ride on (this disappears too quickly on laptop by time I take hands off bars and get curser it disappears.
Hi Jeff,
I know what you mean. I always feel a bit rude if I haven’t been able to
return a ride on. Added to the fact that you have to keep you eyes on
your group ride position as you don’t want to drop off the back whilst
looking at your phone.
“Ride On”
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Spot on. Can’t understand why Zwift wouldn’t help with this. Would only encourage more Ride Ons
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I totally understand this, a simple pop-up or something would help and encourage more interaction.
As you didn’t mention it, I’m not sure if you know you can give ride-ons to the five closest to you by hitting your position icon in the map in the companion app. A circle around your icon regenerates in a few seconds to denote when you can do this again. I know this is not quite what you wanted but does help.
I sometimes spend a long climb or slow ride just hitting this to break up the monotony and of course it may help others morale. You can give ride-ons like this to riders coming the other way but you have to get your timing exactly right which is hard if they are descending at speed.
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you are 100% right but in a group ride this option to give 5 ride ons to closest from companion app is not available to the group riders only to the group leader so you have to give ride ons to each rider individually and search for that rider from either laptop scree/ios screen or companion app…in a group ride there is a lot of change to rider position on companion app given the bunching between riders so you have a rider next to you and easy to find but in a split second they are 50 riders moved … i’m amazed Zwift hasnt been more responsive to getting a more user friendly way to give a ride back to a rider after they’ve give you are ride on … even an automatic feature whereby you toggle in settings that gives an automatic ride on back to anyone giving you a ride on assuming they are actually riding and available for a ride on
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Gosh, of course, you’re right. I’d forgotten the group ride restriction.
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This morning I did not give a single ride-on but received 24, I feel so bad 
.
Why didn’t I give any ride-ons. Two main reasons.
- you can’t give a ride-on while you are doing a workout , the only option is to use the companion app by clicking on the circle on the map.
- My phone was low on battery so I could not use the companion app and there is no way to give a ride on using my keyboard.
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Hi Gerrie,
I don’t think you should feel too bad.
If you are doing a workout you are “in the zone” and focused.
I don’t think anyone expects a “Ride On” when you are so busy.
I can’t let you off for the low battery though. LOL
“Ride On”
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Yes but there are recovery blocks. I actually wanted to give a ride-on, there was this two guys that Raced me up the KOM, I was doing a hard interval so climbing fast (atleast fast for me), it was a bit of fun because they were pushing me and I was focused on them not my power (i was still trying to keep the required power).
They both give me ride-on’s but I could not return, I did say tanks.
I try to minimize my phone usage while charging, the previous one died due to this.
“Ride On”
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Hi Gerrie,
Zwift can be so engaging, who would ever have thought cycling indoors could be so much fun?
On another note…
I didn’t realise that using your phone whilst charging is bad for the battery! I’m always doing that. Thanks for the info.
All the best Gerrie.
“Ride On”
That is what the provider said when I complained that my Phone died so soon 
. Now I am not taking any chances. 
Call me lazy but giving ride ons is a hassle. I feel “bad” that I don’t give as many as I get but find the process annoying unless the companion app gives me an option to do a mass RO burst. Can we please get a quicker/better way to give these? Thanks!
If you hit the little circle on your rider in the companion app you can give 5 ride-ons to riders nearby.
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I was trying to find this “trick” during this AM’s ride – ty! I’ll try it tomorrow.
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That’s great for free riding but what if you’re in an event with 100 or more riders? Do you just keep smashing that little circle as the peloton evolves?
The circle trick does not work in events (only the leader has that ability). That is why we are asking to make it easier.
Like why not use the the keyboard to scroll thru the rider list. and a multiple ridon button on the KB. Or add support for game controllers both USB and bluetooth, most phone games has controller input.
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i have 2 simple solutions for Zwift. 1) if a rider gives you a ride on then IF that rider is currently zwifting live you get an easy access ‘give ride on back’ button on companion app or in middle of device/laptop that you can easily find to give the rider a ride on back or 2) in settings have a feature that allows for automatic return ride ons via toggle on /of in privacy or somewhere so you dont have to search for zwifters especially when in a group ride where there are 200+ riders and you are getting 50-100 ride ons … cmon zwift …
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That will be nice, it is so easy to let your rider wave or say “hammer time” or “Bring-it” but we cant say thank you to someone that give us a Ride-on.
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who the heck waves or gives hammer time … NO ONE … actually i do wave maybe once or twice a week so this is pretty neat … why o why cant or WONT zwift make giving ride ons easier…especially to people who;ve give you one…i was told a few years back they dont provide feature as a lot of ‘avatars’ were giving ride ons … not sure about that … i know now i get many and miss giving back many as its too hard to search for riders if not around you …CMON TEAM ZWIFT YOU ARE GREAT MAKE YOURSELF GREATER
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Ya I also feel bad as I cannot give Ride no’s while in workout mode, which I mostly use Zwift for. So even if I am riding along on a Recovery Ride or 2 hour easy spin as part of a training plan I cannot give a Ride On unless someone gives me one first??? Seems odd??? Also, do we get XP for giving Ride On’s?? Would encourage others if you got 5XP for everyone you give?
1 Like