Hi. Like many others, I get occasional 1-2 second wi-fi drop-outs. Something with the complex connectivity doesn’t work, and for 1-2 seconds, Zwift gets no power reading from the smart trainer. [Yes I’ve tried everything…: top turbo, good wifi, ANT+ cable etc.] That’s enough to spit you out of a fast 45-50kmh bunch in a race or group ride. You can burn matches to try to get back on, but eventually it burns you out. Two points. It’s unrealistic being dropped so quickly from the bunch - you wouldn’t sink so fast IRL. But more importantly there is an easy fix: if Zwift suddenly drops signal from the turbo, why not introduce a simple decay function so power falls gradually over [5] seconds rather than sinking instantly to zero? That simple solution would fix a major gripe which I know is enough to put many users off group rides and races altogether.
The dropping of your WiFi signal will not have any effect on your in-game watts, you will however lose the draft.
Have you tried a different channel for your WiFi?
Are you using 5Ghz or 2.4GHz?
How far is your WiFi router from your Zwift setup?
Do you have fluorescent lights?
Drop outs are usually caused by interference: How to Fix ANT+ Dropouts in Zwift | Zwift Insider
What device are you running Zwift on? If it is a PC or Mac do you have the option to hard wire?
I think this happens to very few Zwifters and not many.
Paul, thanks for the comments but the focus of my question is not about the WiFi drop itself (and I know from Strava and friends that others do still have the same problems). But about tiny easy tweaks Zwift could make to mitigate the impact. So your answer contains one obvious fix - if the draft is lost when power drops to zero (and it definitely does in-game), that explains why I’m kicked to the back of the group, especially on double draft events like the Tour de Zwift. But why??? How stupid is that??? That’s not what happens IRL, and it massively amplifies the impact of a 1-2 second drop-out when IRL you’d simply coast in the draft.
What happen IRL if you drop your chain on a 40km race?
The issue I see with this is then people will speed up to 500w and rest for 5 sec then speed up again and thereby saving lot of energy.
some racers alreadt do it with some trainer that has a 1sec delay.
I would suggest putting your log file in Zwiftalizer and see if it is wifi dropouts or your power meter dropouts.
I’ve seen the same problem on 4x different KICKRs, a KICKR Snap and 2x other turbos, in different places with different user accounts. Sure if someone has been riding at 250W for 20 minutes then kicks up to 800W and stops pedaling, the algorithm shouldn’t give them a free ride at 600W, 400W etc… But would be easy enough to give them 80% of their average power over the whole ride for 1s (i.e. 200W), then 60% (150W) for the next 1s, then 40%… Sounds like even keeping the draft would be a major fix; that’s what happens IRL and if you drop your chain it’s not game over as long as you fix it in a couple of secs.