Trainer App #2 - Zwift

• Posted on 20 January 2023
• By KW
• Posted in bike trainer, trainer, Winter bike riding, winter training
• 0

Another dreary January morning, another smart trainer app to try out.  This one came a little earlier in the day - why should I NOT be on the trainer at 5:30 a.m.?  It's dark outside anyway, so I'm not about to be on the road (though there was probably little traffic...).  So I grabbed the laptop and opened up Zwift.

OK, the first thing I notice is that Zwift is not as user-friendly as Rouvy or Wahoo Systm.  I know that many of you use it, and part of it may have been the 5:30 a.m. brain, but it took me much longer to get rolling with this one than anything else I've tried.  (This actually all started a couple days ago, when I couldn't get my "reset password" email and gave up after six or seven tries.  I used an old address and that seemed to work, so off we go.)  Next is the "free' subscription.  Yes, it's free.  After you input your credit card/PayPal/etc. billing info.  So in 30 days your free subscription will auto-renew for $15 a month if you don't cancel (I already have a reminder on my calendar).

Ooohh, another avatar.  Cool.  I can select hair color and style ("bald" is indeed an option), kit colors, bike color, and a few other things that are taking too much time.  Thankfully there's no real "body style" option, so we're good there.

Once I'm on the route, which is called "Watopia," things go fairly smoothly.  Watopia is a cartoon universe (probably called virtual reality or something) in which nothing is actually real, and apparently there are several versions of it to choose from eventually.  You can also choose VR routes in a couple of actual cities, like the Richmond Time Trial.  Since Zwift knows I'm a first-time rider, there are helpful hints along the way - things like a navigation tutorial, along with helping decipher all of the various icons, letting me know who all these people are on the course with me (unlike Emma from Rouvy, they are all real as far as I can tell), and how I can communicate with them or actual friends via the app.

From what I've seen previously, Zwift is much more focused on a competition-style setup, but you can also make training plans and workouts, much like Rouvy and Systm.  There are "drops" that accumulate as you ride, which are not, as I assumed, the number of other riders who have passed you.  These drops are like drops of water, or maybe Skratch Superfuel, and you can spend them those tickets you get at Craig's Cruisers for playing Skeeball.  Maybe I can buy a couple MPH points...  Oh, what's this icon I see at the end of my ride as I am trying to record my session?  *click*  DRAFTING AWARD.  Now you can ease up as you draft someone.  Where was THAT when I was still going??  The amount of possible computer interaction would definitely mean that I'd have to change my setup - right now the laptop is on a table next to me and kind of low.  If I really wanted to do all the interactive stuff it would have to be in front of me on a higher table (which we can get for you if you want to order one...).

There are background sounds on the app, which are pretty easy to regulate.  Once again I had to select my own music, but I had thought of it in advance this time, so Brendan and Panic! were singing before I started pedaling.

At $15/month it's the same price as the others, and does come with the yearly/monthly option (the monthly idea is a couple bucks more expensive, same as the rest of them).  

Overall it's a fine app, I guess.  If the Rouvy was 4/5, this one is a 3/5 for me, though.  It's just not intuitive enough.  Yes, I'm an old guy, but I consider myself pretty computer literate, and Zwift just didn't work for me.  I even gave it a second try the next day.  A little easier to navigate, but still not quite there.  I'm sure if I gave it more time I'd figure more out.  The point, though, is that I felt more comfortable faster with Rouvy and Systm.

Stay tuned for our next episode, when we discuss the Systm from Wahoo Fitness.