Zwift indoor virtual reality trainer

I did my first Zwifting today: WattBike Atom to an iPhone (the only device I’ve got that’ll run it). Everything worked fine except I couldn’t pick up an HR signal from my Garmin strap. I checked in the WattBike app and it was working fine. Anyone got any ideas or suggestions?

Ant or Bluetooth HRM?

Ant

iPhone has no ANT hardware

I know, but I was hoping Zwift would accept a signal from the WattBike - like when I’m using the WattBike app. If that’s not possible then I wonder whether it’s WattBike or Zwift not supporting it?

Apps normally just receive ant/bt data. The Zwift Companion app is an exception as it can pickup data from a sensor and share it with the main Zwift app, but this is through internet rather than it re-transmitting.

Looks like the same applies to Wattbike

https://support.wattbike.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360006052040-How-to-connect-to-Zwift-

“Riding Zwift is harder than riding road”. Discuss

Yes: It's the same pedaling effort without any of the actual fun.
No: You can do 150W and apparently that's good enough for 40kph on the flat
Yes: There's no traffic lights to chill out at
No: There's nothing to crash into, ie. descents can be done with your eyes closed.

Yes (but it depends on your turbo)

Turbos have less kinetic energy than is involved when riding on the (flat) road - why it can feel like riding through treacle on some turbos. So for the same power you have to apply torque throughout the pedal stroke rather than in shorter bursts that are typical or road riding.

Watts are watts but generally RPE is higher inside because of heat stress (dunno the data but you'd need a fucking huge fan to replicate outside riding), the turbo lag effect (sorry Fast and Furious) as danb says and comfort, because you're often locked into a very static position and don't move around as much as you would on the road, which can cause issues on longer rides.

The composition if the watt may be different though.

300w at 90rpm requires an #average# torque of 31.83N.m

But that same 300w at 90rpm could also be achieved by 63.66N.m for half of a rpm and 0N.m for the other half for example or any other ratio which averaged out to 31.83N.m over a revolution.

Apparently I rode "22 mph avg" over 50 mins on the New York circuit. I think that's a load of shit, there is no way I would ever go that fast with those climbs included. Maybe with a smart trainer the power data is closer but as far as replicating real life it might as well be Grand Theft Velo: Vice City

Seeing you in this thread is so weird

Most people don't suddenly start pedaling completely differently on their turbos though.

In a bunch? You can see people riding 35kph for a couple of hours off 100W so I assume they're in a virtual bunch and it's applying some drafting physics.

It's weird how zwift lets you have infinitely tall gears. I can put out 300W down a hill and end up going 60mph around hairpin bends.

Or they are on a no drop meet-up ride.

I would say that most people are forced to pedal differently. It's the same difference between peddling up a smooth flat road vs up a steep hill or through sand/mud - you can be doing the same watts and rpm but the pedal stroke and muscle demands are different.

I'm (comfortably) winning the LFGSS "chopper" award I think when it comes to Zwifting - yesterday saw me in a skin suit, plus running trainers as I have MTB flats on the Turbo-Klein.

That aside, I'm quite enjoying it now, but then I've realised that I'm a sucker for routine, and my hour of Zwift in the morning has now become my new normal.

I have no idea what that is. I have heard mention of a "fence" so I assume it means there's some kind of virtual kick in the arse that keeps you all together. It's this kind of stuff that made me not bother trying to chase other indoor riders in TGBR.

Except there aren't the same rapid traction changes you get with those surfaces. I don't know about your turbo trainers but none of mine respond so rapidly that I have a jerky 'off road' pedal stroke.
Riding up that Alp du Zwift thing definitely feels different to the real world but all the other routes where the gradient changes aren't so frequent feel pretty normal, especially if you keep your cadence up when the gradient changes.

Laundry day?

Trainer difficulty should always be set to 100%

What difference does that make? I think it defaults to 50% so there's gonna be a lot of people that don't bother changing it. Mine is 100% because that's the requirement for vEverest so I figured I should just get used to 100%.

I'm so sick of indoor riding though I think I'll fuck the vEverest off. Maybe I should do a proper one on some shitty "hill" near home.