Zwift - Cruzbike Activities (races and group rides)

[LarryOz]

Good times thanks for coming long

Cool pics Jason!
It was pretty fun - 1st time I ever dropped a chain on the KICKR thought - probably because I've been too lazy to switch my KICKR cassette to 11sp - still have the 10sp that came with it 2 years ago.
And of course - I'm riding with 11sp- di2!
Yeah I know -- lazy - but most all my workouts I do in ERG and never change gears!
It was great fun - Thanks for getting up and riding at 5am Jason!
Yeah - I like my avatar - I do look much younger - no grey hair! haha!
..
Yes - Jason can Sprint hard too - I know I saw him doing 10, 11 or 12x FTP at least several times.
I was going through a learning curve just learning to modulate my power when I was trying to catch someone.
You have to ease up just before you get to them, or you blow by them - I did that a lot - not meaning to.

It would really be cool if there was some handicapping system where riders based on their power/weight ratio could ride together and have about the same TSS and perceived effort.
Then we could get a bunch of the tribe riding simultaneously.

 

[RojoRacing]

you have to assume what you see visually in game is happening 2 seconds delayed. so you ease up 2 second before reaching that rider or sprint 2 seconds before that upcoming kicker in the climb. the racing forces you into a crash course of mastering the timing of the game. riding zwift at 100% simulation is a totally different experience then with erg. it's fun to keep pace with one another but also fun to mix it up and race with some of the random riders on course just like you would in real life. only thing that sucks is not being able to visually see you riding buddies body English and adjust the pace accordingly. every time i checked larry was about 20 bpm higher then me but he does have that little 4 cylinder high revving heart.

 

[LarryOz]

every time i checked larry was about 20 bpm higher then me but he does have that little 4 cylinder high revving heart.

It's partly called age (as in old age - haha!), but more correctly, it shows that Jason is way stronger than Larry, and that Larry has to work harder to keep up.
My heart has to beat more times more each minute just to keep up with you! haha.
.............
Here is the comparison of the last 0.6 mile up signal hill. (which took us 6 minutes) - after a pretty hard 3o minutes of climbing just to get there:
Jason was pushing 289 watts with a HR of only 159.
Larry was only pushing 271 watts but his HR averaged 171.
You can also see where my rpm just kept getting lower and lower until I was able to change the diff setting on Zwift.
I actually enabled me to ride at a little bit harder once I got the rpm's' back up - but I got pretty toasted as you can see my HR was in the mid 180's there at the start. It was hard to recover.

You can also see those little dips in Jason's wattage. This is where is did double U-turns to back up and check on me - what a good riding buddy!

 

[RojoRacing]

yeah i know at an all out 100 mile effort we're probably not so different but pacing for a group ride with someone for the first time can be hard. i did my best to try and not beat you up too much as you adapted to a none erg zwift ride as well as relearning how to shift your bike into the little ring

the u-turns are a PITA to time on a climb that steep because when you turn the second time to rejoin your buddy the avatar starts back up the hill at 15mph when it should be close to 5-6mph. the other issue with turning around to regroup is as soon as you do the rider list on the right completely changes to everyone in the other direction so unless you partner is wearing a unique color(blue) you can go right past and never notice them. the left hand turn you missed from my late notice was a bit tricky to correct. i actually made the left without you, u-turned right away which forced me to turn right back toward the original direction we came from so i had to u-turn again and go strait where you headed. as soon as i did that i spotted you head back toward me so i u-turned again and them made i right turn behind you to catch back up. i guess i could have just stopped and waited for you but i text slow and i never asked if you knew how to u-turn in game.

the odd connection dropouts are also a bit odd to deal with since the time to reconnect can range from 5 seconds to 5 mins and sometimes never. best thing for group rides would be some kind of voice chat that's open to your friends in the ride, the texting works but came be hard to do if the pace is fast. that would make changes to the overall pace and quick bathroom breaks easier to que up.

 

[LarryOz]

Now they need to add a Cruzbike vendetta in the bike selections.

That would be awesome - but man - you would not want to have to ride it up Signal hill.
It would just kill people on the flats though if they calculated the CdA correctly!
But - it would "look" so cool just to see it going down the road.
I was in the beta group for a little while and did suggest it - but nothing ever happened.
But - maybe it's time to hit them up again.

 

[RojoRacing]

i'd think cruzbike themselves would have to approach zwift about getting the vendetta into game. at this point i'm think bike makers what their products in game more than zwift need them. not to far fetched to think zwift is accepting sponsorship from trek, specialized and others to have their bikes in game.

like I've said before, beside the novelty of seeing the vendetta in game it wouldn't be all that useful in events since most organizers would ask you not to use it for races. it would be kind of funny if they added it and it dominated the flat routes exclusively for a time then i could upset the power balance in the mountains all over again :lol

 

[RojoRacing]

yeah the trike thing was a toys for tots deal where zwift actually bought like 100 bigwheel trikes and gave them away at the long beach parade. The in game trike where super basic and I'm sure the bike dynamics where the same as one of the other regular bikes so no detailed work on their part.

 

[RojoRacing]

@Lucia as the most computer geeky and marketing connected of the Cruzbike HQ staff what are your thoughts on the subject of approaching zwift to add a Vendetta. I know they are always working on a large to do list of bikes they want to add on top of expansions to the available course routes.

 

[ratz]

But but then you'd have to build it in to the game that ½ the people that tried the bike would fail to be able to ride in a straight line. And for those with left right power meters. During a descent, when the software the sudden onset of mashing would endure a lost of control and a crash of epic proportions.

 

[RojoRacing]

When Larry dropped connection towards the bottom of the DH and suddenly dropped off I thought he may have crashed or ridden strait off the mountain edge

 

[ratz]

Oh my, I was so proud of myself for climbing to the top without stopping but then notice when I finished the little max % slider thingy was on about 50%. I'll have to try again another day. Coming off the top in the 50's has a little pucker factor even though you're actually sitting still.

Think of that as just installing at 36 little ring and a 42T cassette. The net effect of that slider is the same. As long as you believe you can balance your bike and not tip over at the virtual speed of 3mph then you could gear a bike and make the climb.

 

[LarryOz]

Think of that as just installing at 36 little ring and a 42T cassette. The net effect of that slider is the same. As long as you believe you can balance your bike and not tip over at the virtual speed of 3mph then you could gear a bike and make the climb.

Yes - I noticed the same affect - It did not really impact the power that I was putting out, it just let me spin at 90 rpm instead of 40 (which would have eventually caused me to blow up!)

 

[RojoRacing]

Gives you east coast flat lander riders a little taste of what I ride in. Now just imagine the watopia climb being twice as long and you have any one of a dozen climbing options out here. One look at the our strava Groups page will show just how little climbing the Cruzbike group does. As the recumbent best know for its climbing ability we don't put it on display all that much as a community. Don't take this out of context, I'm not criticizing anyone especially those who live in parts of the world that are just geographically flat.

Those 9-16% grades are a good reason not to go too short of those cranks arms.

Also simply adjusting the in game slider to match your physical or equipment limitations doesn't promote as much growth. Careful how easy you make something or else you'll limit yourself to your current ability.

 

[ratz]

Gives you east coast flat lander riders a little taste of what I ride in. Now just imagine the watopia climb being twice as long and you have any one of a dozen climbing options out here. One look at the our strava Groups page will show just how little climbing the Cruzbike group does. As the recumbent best know for its climbing ability we don't put it on display all that much as a community. Don't take this out of context, I'm not criticizing anyone especially those who live in parts of the world that are just geographically flat.

No kidding on that one. it definitely depends on where you live and what route you choose. Can't leave my house and come back without doing 1000ft of climbing; but while you might climb 4000ft in on two hills; we'll ride here and do 3500ft on 80miles but it's more like 90-100 hills. I know last year for us work and kids had us indoors far too much which = zero climbing. Interesting the climbing skills don't really map between terrains either there is a big difference in my experience from settling in for a 20 minute climb at a sustainable pace versus doing a 2 minute climb and fighting the temptation to over cook it on the steady diet of 10%+ grades. I've done both and when we went to Portland I was like oh; ok this is what we are doing. Pluckblond's first time reaction was much more WTF is this crap. 2 years ago (before his trainer addiction) Larry rode a lot out doors in the eastern hills; that same year my average vertical travel per mile (in the rolling lands) was higher than his; all that short steep stuff adds up quickly.

Those 9-16% grades are a good reason not to go too short of those cranks arms.

That's been proven false in the lab at least. It just means you need to shift your gears to be a bit lower maybe a 42T instead of a 40T; in theory it should be a smoother spin up the hill. Leverage lost in the dead spot is still your enemy. That said I'm skeptical about the benefits of going shorter than 150mm unless you are really short or cursed with bad knees. That said it'll remain a highly personal thing. Going up a steep grade I've never once thought dam I wish I had longer cranks; but I have certainly reached for a gear that wasn't there. When we finally move to the southwest I image a much bigger cassette is in my future.

One look at the our strava Groups page will show just how little climbing the Cruzbike group does.

Route selection is king; well that and we have a lot for Florida, Ocean coast, and texas riders

 

[RojoRacing]

40 and 42t tooth are not proper road bike choices yet for someone of the racer type using top tier components. A compromise to make something work is still a compromise, some compromises are better than others.

If shortening my cranks results in the same effect as trading my 32t for a 30t or 28t in absolute crank/gear ratio then I wouldn't be able to do half my rides.

Just one more of the limiting factors of recumbent bikes that rob the rider of the ability to stand out of the saddle. If I could stand and use that 40-50 cadence power I earned riding the SS Mtb then many more options would be viable.

 

[ratz]

Just one more of the limiting factors of recumbent bikes that rob the rider of the ability to stand out of the saddle. If I could stand and use that 40-50 cadence power I earned riding the SS Mtb then many more options would be viable.

We'd have to change your name to RoboRacing to reflect you bionic knee replacements for 40-50 rpms definitely a limiter of the platform.

A lot of it ties to the riders current RPM comfort zone. I traded 165mm's for 155mm's didn't change the gearing; but I did see my RPM average move from 75-85rpm out doors to 85-95rpm when "Cruzing" and to 95-105rpm when focusing on it. I was always a masher pre-cruzbike even though I knew that might not be the best way. I've ridden 170mm on a recumbent and I could never adapt to the hip/throw(forward to back) in the pedal cycle; that was a bigger limiter than the dead spot; it made me too bouncy which became a bigger problem when the road tipped up.

40 and 42t tooth are not proper road bike choices yet for someone of the racer type using top tier components. A compromise to make something work is still a compromise, some compromises are better than others.

I'm hoping we'll see the continued push to get 36T into the mainstream road components; if RED Etap could do that out of the box; that would be a game changer....

 

[ratz]

i'd think cruzbike themselves would have to approach zwift about getting the vendetta into game. at this point i'm think bike makers what their products in game more than zwift need them. not to far fetched to think zwift is accepting sponsorship from trek, specialized and others to have their bikes in game.

Official word is a 1 year backlog on people wanting their bike brand in the game.

Want to move up that list; get more people you know buying and riding Cruzbike; and in the meantime just keep beating them on race day and group ride days....

 

[RojoRacing]

Official word is a 1 year backlog on people wanting their bike brand in the game.

Want to move up that list; get more people you know buying and riding Cruzbike; and in the meantime just keep beating them on race day and group ride days....

Well that's one year after CruzBike request such an add. The question is wether or not cruzbike is on that list.

 

[RojoRacing]

Ok, current and future zwift users I have an idea to make group rides more feasible and enjoyable. It seems some of the group ride employ a chat service called Discord. Discord is free to use but as I have never used it personally I'm not sure how it works or how to set it up just yet. I've gone ahead and created a virtual server for us titled CruzBike West Coast. I sent Larry an invite via Text but I think anyone who want to chat or even listen in the group will need to sign up with Discord and use the invite link provided by me. I'm not sure if one invite link will work for multiple people so for now I need a few volunteers to join discord so we can start figuring out how this works.

I plan to use the Discord phone app for communication right now since I've already got the mount and headphone setup on the bike.

Who interested?

This isn't Zwift specific ether. This is mean for online gamers so chatting with your coach as you perform your trainer workouts and such are also potential options.

 

[Don1]

we use dicord in the sim racing world.. 20 prople all online all able to converse. can split of into subgroups for team strategy talks etc. simple to use. access was via website registration for us....