Zwift - Cruzbike Activities (races and group rides)

[ratz]

Jason your music sounded more like two tom cats fighting. Any-who I couldn't get above the fracas. Ratz thats great news . Hope you include a lot of races or rides as like Jason the workout thing isn't my balleywig.

Yeah but workout mode is the best way to keep a group together and working at equal levels; and if you haven't notice we are a hugely variable group of talent. Those "racing" are the clear minority; if we want to grow participation we need no drop events that don't require people to use discord and don't require sweep riders.

I chatted up some of the bigger groups and they are getting < 5% rider participation on the discord because people don't want to do it, the rubber band solves that. Small Building blocks Setting up the team is the first step we need to get enough members to start with that charlie at zwift will take it seriously enough to list. Then rider leaders etc.

But that's cart before horse. Lets see if we can even get CBR up to 10 people if we can't then not much point and just ride other stuff and abandon the idea of formal organization.

 

[RojoRacing]

Right now is a good example. I am communicating clear and concise on three other channels but I am unable to get through to Jason on the Cruzbike channel? It's gremlins I tell you.

well I saw you connected but you had you mic and headphones in the off position from what I saw on your use icons

 

[RojoRacing]

ratz just changed it to push to talk only which I personally wont use, works better for when people don't know what they are doing but is annoying for us who have our setup dialed

 

[ratz]

Right now is a good example. I am communicating clear and concise on three other channels but I am unable to get through to Jason on the Cruzbike channel? It's gremlins I tell you.

I'll bump the bit rate that might help.

 

[RojoRacing]

Ok you zwiftpower.com users. I am starting to get things organized. If you are so inclined , go to join the ZwiftPower.com team "Cruzbike Racing" short name "CBR" since I created the team I can screenshot the steps to join a team. If one of you would like to do that; and post them in the beginners zwift thread.

I'm going to start planning actual Events. Research to be done; but you can expect Climbing Challenges, Group Workouts, and TT/Lap races. Much research to do, but this is the first step

Ok I joined the team but I'll let @trplay get the screen shots and post them. It was like 3-4 clicks to find and join

 

[super slim]

Hard to believe the PBP is less than two years away and in less than a month the upcoming brevets have an impact on PBP registration. So today we decide to skip the Zwifting and establish a randonneur bar of fitness. How would our almost exclusive Zwift rides and races fare for the "readyment" of the Grand Brevet? Can basically short distance rides of 1 hour Zwift do the trick? Today we hit the real road for an 85 mile jaunt at cruising speeds as a test marker. How did it go? Yes and no. No problem condition wise but I believe this was the most uncomfortable I have ever been on a recumbent. Return of the ancient neck discomfort along with a few more body pains that I can't recall having. Why, one might ask. I don't know but my first thought is lack of saddle time. My actual time on the bike seat is hugely less than any year in the last ten years. The good news is randonneuring has moved to the forefront of the Team Moose agenda.

No impacts from rough roads on an Indoor Trainer!

 

[super slim]

I think you have hit on a point I have never considered. Yet another reason for a rider to rely on Zwift especially if one has some nagging ailments and needing recovery time.

Have you got Tacx Neos, and if so would the cobble road mode, create enough vibrations to simulate normal road riding??

 

[RojoRacing]

Have you got Tacx Neos, and if so would the cobble road mode, create enough vibrations to simulate normal road riding??

NO

 

[ratz]

The neo feel is more of a massage than a rough ride. As a side note, I found the Neo's cobble, wood plank, and dirt modes neat but the novelty quickly wore off. I perceive they slow me down and have turned them off. The dirt road effect is particularly annoying as the quiet neo becomes noisy with a grinding--uuugh-uuugh- uugh sound. My opinion is buying the Neo for those functions is not worth it. In fact if they eliminated them and reduced the price it would be a better product for the money. Of course opinions will vary greatly on this subject.

Since the Neo uses magnets to do all the it adds really nothing to the cost. Agree bad for during a race it does add resistance. But for riding around in general I like it especially the way to keeps the fly spinning if you coast down hill makes it easier to resume pedalling.

 

[ratz]

Hard to believe the PBP is less than two years away and in less than a month the upcoming brevets have an impact on PBP registration. So today we decide to skip the Zwifting and establish a randonneur bar of fitness. How would our almost exclusive Zwift rides and races fare for the "readyment" of the Grand Brevet? Can basically short distance rides of 1 hour Zwift do the trick? Today we hit the real road for an 85 mile jaunt at cruising speeds as a test marker. How did it go? Yes and no. No problem condition wise but I believe this was the most uncomfortable I have ever been on a recumbent. Return of the ancient neck discomfort along with a few more body pains that I can't recall having. Why, one might ask. I don't know but my first thought is lack of saddle time. My actual time on the bike seat is hugely less than any year in the last ten years. The good news is randonneuring has moved to the forefront of the Team Moose agenda.

10 to 1 odds that is the lack of having to balance. You won’t have the core muscles from just riding the trainer. But just for 15 twisting sit-ups before and after each trainer ride. That would surprisingly help a lot. Just make it part of your warmup and cool down routine.

 

[RojoRacing]

Hard to believe the PBP is less than two years away and in less than a month the upcoming brevets have an impact on PBP registration. So today we decide to skip the Zwifting and establish a randonneur bar of fitness. How would our almost exclusive Zwift rides and races fare for the "readyment" of the Grand Brevet? Can basically short distance rides of 1 hour Zwift do the trick? Today we hit the real road for an 85 mile jaunt at cruising speeds as a test marker. How did it go? Yes and no. No problem condition wise but I believe this was the most uncomfortable I have ever been on a recumbent. Return of the ancient neck discomfort along with a few more body pains that I can't recall having. Why, one might ask. I don't know but my first thought is lack of saddle time. My actual time on the bike seat is hugely less than any year in the last ten years. The good news is randonneuring has moved to the forefront of the Team Moose agenda.

Hmm hard to say but it never seemed to bother me, but I am the oddity among oddities. Remember back when I first had surgery on my first wrist I was on the fluid trainer watching movies and super-cross for like 2-3 months strait, this was before zwift. I was just spinning at a steady effort for every ride, not a single sprint effort in all that time. Then I jumped on my mtb for one 20 mile ride to see if I could handle it then I won the temecula 12hour race 2 days later in dominating fashion not having ridden outside for 2-3 months. More amazing was the total lack of mtbing style effort during trainer time which would typically include lots of hard hill climb efforts followed by periods of coasting and then hard effort again. I'd say your time in zwift is too structured to translate optimally to outdoor brevet riding. I know your thinking "what structure?, we don't follow any structured plans". Well in a way you two ride mostly races and not much else so in a way that's a one denominational type of structured training in itself that maybe doesn't make for great brevet stamina. maybe you need to substitute about half your zwift time to just free riding the different courses as if your were outside and chase the occasional passerby.

Or ride outside more

 

[RojoRacing]

As for the neo's road feel

I leave it turned off most the time, only turning it on for some of my free ride sessions because it's cool to feel the relief of smooth road after a long section of cobbles. The road feel adds like 30-40 more watts worth of resistance when it activates across the cobbles and such, so if in a race and already at threshold you'll need to click a down shift to get you cadence back then click an upshift when you get back to smooth asphalt. This is just like real life which is awesome but with most racers on other types of trainers it's a minor hurdle you have to account for that the others don't and sometimes I don't want to deal with the handicap. One odd thing to note is if you turn the trainer difficulty down to zero for a post race recover spin so you don't have to shift gears on the hills, road feel will still add resistance when active in those areas forcing your cadence to bog down.

 

[RojoRacing]

sorry my phone died but thanks for hanging out and giving me a little more cow bell. I'm serious when I say I would have quite at the start of the last lap had you guys not been there watching me. Till the next time

 

[RojoRacing]

@ratz can you change the CBR team name to just Cruzbike, CBR looks so generic in the race results

 

[RojoRacing]

Something that slipped my mind today post suffering is that today was my first hard effort on the vendetta since before the 24hr race so almost 2 months. I guess one can expect half a dozen races to fully get my fast twitch bent legs back.

 

[ratz]

@ratz can you change the CBR team name to just Cruzbike, CBR looks so generic in the race results

Done.

 

[RojoRacing]

:lol I just happened across a live CVR World Cup race while scrolling through FB. Everyone holding over 5wkg and a 3:30 on the Red KOM climb, I think my best in a race is like 3:45. Based on my past zwift races I'd be lucky to hold onto the lead group for more then half a lap.

 

[RojoRacing]

Zwift sprint zone powerup button installed. Wired directly from my space bar button contacts.

 

[velaksap]

Finally got my new setup all dialed up, registered in zwiftpower and had my first race today! Entered in cat C and barely hung on to it, finishing pretty much last, but hey, it is winter and I have been piling up more fat around my waist than miles, so hope my performance will be only improving form here.
I am competitive and racing is a huge motivator.
Now I just need to find more time to ride and race.
So... as a next step - how do I enter Cruzbike team, how do I get to join some of you people for a ride?

 

[Bill K]

Instructions on joining a team:
https://zwiftblog.com/cycling-teams-on-zwift/
According to their facebook page, they just fixed a bug in ZwiftPower that fixes this feature for Safari and Internet Explorer browsers.
If it doesn't work for you (you cannot get to the profile page) try using the Edge browser in Windows 10.