Steering is enabled by default in races but I believe organizers can disable it if they want, so it depends on the event
Repack Rush feels like trash compared to regular free-ride. Slow, laggy, and barely usable.
Also, it’d be great if a press and hold of the Zwift logo would launch Zwift.
I really wanted to like this. I found the steering to be not analog at all. With a quick tap, I could get it to not slam to the side, otherwise, off it went every time, without regard to how hard I pressed. I can echo the concerns on braking. Not doing events, and in an environment where you can’t crash, what are brakes for? It is only in the way, and too easy to trip. I would much rather have the option to steer with one hand, or just turn it off forever.
The real issue for me though was that while this fit really well on my handlebars (enve ses aero), it messed with my hand positions enough that my hands kept going numb. It was in the way on the hoods, and on the drops.
I tried it yesterday, the steering IS analogy, but very hard to feather it. The force between slight movement and heavy is almost the same, so you always end up with heavy.
certainly possible that my fingers in gloves were not sensitive enough, or that my controllers were not calibrated particularly well. I was not able to get a light touch out of them after trying repeatedly for a while. I believe you though and in theory that ramp is something they should be able to fix in software.
It’s not you, it’s the device. There is no way to be going max sprint tightening down my core with a death grip and they want me to apply 6oz of pressure to gently steer. It’s like trying to punch a punching bag while holding a raw egg.
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I keep hitting the brakes when I shift. I am running mechanical Ultegra. I have been moving the controllers a bit. I wonder if they only looked at electronic button shifting when designing this product.
You should be able to turn off features with the ZCA.
They were tested on a whole variety of combinations and mechanical Shimano is probably the most common. Try adjusting them a little bit and I’m sure you’ll find a happy position.
Yeah, i have similar too i’m mechanical shimano 105. Not as bad now as when i first started think i’m kinda getting used to it a bit.
i’m not too sure why you’d ever need to brake in free rides anyway, i think braking should only be enabled when needed or able to be disabled.
Adding finesse to the steering can require a bit of delicacy. Now, as someone with smaller hands and a high degree of finger agility, I could be a bit skewed in my perspective, but I believe what might be happening is that many of those who struggle with the steering tend to press the steering paddles with the tips of their fingers. This action transfers the entire force of their grip onto a paddle that, admittedly, has a minimal detent. You may find it helpful to adjust your grip so that your fingertips rest inside the channel/groove inside the paddle, allowing you more roll the finger pads toward the outside instead of forcefully pushing only the steering half.
Having fingers of average length for a woman (which probably means they’re on the shorter end for the Zwift community at large), I find that when my hands are on the hoods, my index and middle fingers naturally wrap around the inner spine and roll back, while my ring finger rests more in the channel controlling more of the action with a finger less prone to produce excess force and providing me with good feedback as to the level of detent in the steering paddle.
In high-intensity situations, this technique may lose some of its effectiveness, so I do hope Zwift considers introducing a sensitivity adjustment feature. I’ve also noticed that when transitioning from the hoods to the drops or getting out of the saddle, there’s a tendency to engage the brakes accidentally. As a result, I’d like to see an option to disable braking or, even better, to remap the buttons. This feature would allow users to customize their control setup, making Zwift an even more immersive and personal experience.
for me it is counter intuitive to have pull out as steering and pushing in as braking.
When i’m out on a bike in the real world, turning left to me is about pushing the bars to the left (pushing the right arm forward) and leaning to the left, not pulling the left bar inwards with my left arm.
might be just me?
and it is much easier to accidentally knock the paddle inwards (when changing gear for example) and accidentally braking will be a lot more problematic than slightly changing line for racing which is about the only time steering/braking will be of any use.
I would like to see complete customization of what the paddles do.
For example, since the left shifter on my trainer bike only does front chainring, I’m less likely to bump the paddle during a ride. Make the in/out on that steering paddle the only one that does steering. Completely disable the right paddle, since that shifter gets used more, and is more likely to accidentally engage braking or steering.
Make the workout side button the braking lever, since the only function of that button is to change workout bias, and it is completely unused if you are not in a workout.
With the haptic feedback now on at least I can tell when I done something.
Now I’ve got them running reliably (PC but using CA (iOS) to connect the play controllers as they don’t reliably connect via PC BT…
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The fit isn’t ideal on my Vision Metron 5D bars - because the ‘tops’ are angled forward meaning that the controllers are very close to the bar/my fingers. Managed by rotating the controllers forward to give (just enough clearance)
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the navigation around menus, etc works pretty well though since you don’t have a mouse pointer, highlighting what is selected more visibly would be good - eg with a yellow outline rather than the standard one
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An option to turn off steering would be useful - most of the time it’s good but it’d be nice to be able to choose to steer or have autosteering
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Some feedback (visual or haptic) when trying to steer but being blocked by another rider, etc would be good
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A button to cycle through camera views (as the CA view button used to do) would be good.
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Option to customise the unused side buttons would be great (eg take a photo, change camera view, etc
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Shorten the ride-on bomb press length - there’s no negative consequence to doing it by mistake and currently it’s unnecessarily long.
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Repack Rush really doesn’t work very well but I think everyone knows that so I’m assuming that we can expect to see that develop.
A good start though
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Feedback after first race
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Auto Brake button is too sensitive / toggle braking off/on
1.1 - Could we not have a toggle for the brake or make it less sensitive as I hit the brake button multiple times in final sprint and doing efforts due to how i hold the hoods (yes i could move the units down but this would make the interaction buttons out of reach )
1.2 Moving the braking functionality to the ouside buttons (used for erg % change) could be a simple fix/change to remove mistaken braking -
Ability to toggle steering off and on mid ride without needing to open paring screen
Middle of the race where you just want to rid ethe bunch being able to turn off steering so you are not sudden thrown out of the draft then reenable when you want to take control back without the need to open and close the paring screen would be nice
Overall I really enjoy the Play units - no need to touch a keyboard and mouse from start to end when using zwift is a massive win
Power up button right there and able to deploy during an effort is game changing
Steering to me feels alot more natural and repsonsive bonus i am not banging my shoes into my front wheel.
Maybe the ability to reconfigure what each button does would be a nice next feature to have.
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I love everything about my Zwift Play, but I cannot use it because of 1 thing… When I am racing, it is too easy to bump the steering paddle on either side in a way that activates braking and I lose the group. It is killing me that I cannot steer, or use the buttons, or now even use virtual shifting on my Core simply because of a feature I have no use for, braking. Please help me disable it so I can take advantage of a great tool that I purchased to enhance my experience.
Hi @Greg_Flynn_HERD Greg, It’s great to know you love the Zwift Play virtual Shifting. I like your question as this is a good point for future tests. For now, my suggestion would be to just move the controller down a bit, this has worked for other Zwfiters during rides to not hit the breaks.
For more about Zwift Play please, review this article below.
It would also be good to be able to disable the steering. For things like TTT it can be a real pain with steering and non-steering riders which makes it hard for those using Zwift Hub one or core trainers.
Ideally a whole interface to allow us to customise the buttons to different layouts would be great.
Like those of us without virtual gearing have two pointless buttons that would be far better if we could use them for a power up button’
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That is such a Steve Jobs / Apple “You’re holding it wrong” comment.
The better solution would be to allow disabling braking.
That way, those who don’t want it won’t have accidental braking.
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they do change the FTP bias during a workout - but yes, they do nothing in a free ride.