I am new to Zwift and after trying Sufferfest first, I found Zwift to be much more interactive with the trainer which is what I was looking for. I don’t yet understand all the things that are on or pop up on the screen (especially that orange bar that I first thought was a progress bar on the route, but that isn’t the case) and I’m sure I will over time.
I am having issues with the hill interaction with my trainer (Kickr Snap) and it may have more to do with fine tuning the set up, but I don’t know what more to do yet. The last ride I did this morning it seemed I was going up hill most of the way, was only going 4-6 mph on the inclines most of the way, and seemed to be working harder than I do on my real bike outside. I usually average 13 - 15 mph on most of the miles outside with a hill climb in them. Never have I noticed my speed drop to 4-6 mph for any sustained time like it does on Zwift. In today’s ride I was going uphill for quite awhile then downhill for short times, then back up hill again. I was fighting the magnets in the trainer on the up hills so much I gave up the ride.
I had wanted the hill interaction, but it seems for me it is nothing like the real thing. Is there a way to turn off the hills or find flat routes? I love hills outside and they have never discouraged me to stop a ride, but the Zwift hills seem to be constant and much harder than the real thing. Instead of riding the bike I just seem to be slowly moving the pedals.
Any input you have would be appreciated!
You could set the difficulty slider to 0 and see if that works for you.
Here is a post that could help you understand the slider: Understanding the Trainer Difficulty Slider
did you do a spin down? i have the snap, too, and getting to a good spin down was more effort that it would appear to be. i also use zwift spin down at 10 minutes into most of my free-rides – if i don’t do it regularly, there is definitely drift on the realism feel.
use the wahoo utility and get your spin down time to be between 12 and 15 seconds. if it’s faster than 12, you should LOOSEN the tension knob. if it’s slower than 15, you should tighten it. mine requires 2.3 turns of the knob past “just touching” the tire.
finally, get a trainer tire! they handle the heat better for this use case.
after all that is straightened out, then you can play around with trainer difficulty. i have been happy with 50% for that setting.
Comparing my Garmin data on the bike to Zwift, I found them to be very similar. I’m using a Wahoo kickr and Apple TV.
That may help! I didn’t know there was a slider … thank you.
I have been doing a spin down before each session, but this morning I was not able to complete it though I tried three times. I would start to build up speed and then the speed in the Wahoo utility would go away even though I was still going. After the third time I quit and hoped that since I did it yesterday it would still be good. I turn the tension knob an even 2.0 turns.
Have not yet tried the Zwift spindown (don’t think I saw that yet) but I will look for it. I will check the trainer difficulty level. Thank you for the help!