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Impressed with Zwift + Zwift play
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Sort of a longtime user of Zwift here, but just had to say here, I've been yet again impressed with Zwift and its excellent functionality and features.

I finally recently upgraded from Kickr Gen 1 (the first Kickr that still never dies!) to a Kickr Core, mainly because I could use it with the Zwift Cog, as I have 10 + 11spd bikes and as well, there was usually some annoying shifting glitch at some point even with matching cassettes.

The Kickr Cog works amazingly well. Super easy to mount the bike, and totally smooth 24-shifts with the remote control button or even better, the Zwift play controllers. This alone was a meaningful, worthy upgrade - the 24 gears in particular is wider than even the 11spd cassette, and I can either grind as low as I want or spin as fast as I want all over Watopia. It's really a game changer.

I was impressed enough with the cog to spend the $100 for the Zwift play controllers. I got them really because I wanted to try having a shifter on each side as opposed to the remote control button which comes with the cog (which works perfectly fine, I'd recommend it for sure.) Turns out the Zwift play controllers elevate Zwift to another level. Not the steering (ok, I haven't really found a use for that yet), but being able to use the buttons to do actions is amazingly helpful.

The most useful thing with the play controllers I've found - teleporting to robopacers. I watched an online Zwift review of the play controllers and copied the recommendation of warming up with slower robopacers, then teleporting mid-ride to faster ones, and then if you're feeling frisky, teleporting to ones above your level and trying to hang on as long as you can. You can do this with a keyboard, but on the Zwift controllers, it really is near-effortless, and all of a sudden you can ride with others even if you're on easy day, hard day, and even interval day.

I'd go on, but these were the two new features that I've been enjoying of late that are particularly recent, and have exceeded expectations. Zwift really is great for my use - for sure, I have higher quality workouts every single time with less hassle on Zwift than I do riding outdoors. (I'm lucky enough to live in Norcal where I can ride outdoors nearly all the time though, and riding outdoors is my reward for working hard on Zwift when scheduling is in the way, which is most of the time, unfortunately.)
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Re: Impressed with Zwift + Zwift play [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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That's really interesting -- I am relatively new to Zwift (~5 months) and haven't tried the controllers, but I did find myself wondering about robo pacers this morning. I dropped into one group and struggled to keep up since I hadn't warmed up. I didn't know you could teleport between them. Next time I'll have to try warming up with a slower group then jumping to a faster one like you described. It sounds like a better situation than what I did today.
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Re: Impressed with Zwift + Zwift play [ntl_tri] [ In reply to ]
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ntl_tri wrote:
That's really interesting -- I am relatively new to Zwift (~5 months) and haven't tried the controllers, but I did find myself wondering about robo pacers this morning. I dropped into one group and struggled to keep up since I hadn't warmed up. I didn't know you could teleport between them. Next time I'll have to try warming up with a slower group then jumping to a faster one like you described. It sounds like a better situation than what I did today.

The teleport is a really great feature (Zwift throws a lot of stuff at the wall and some of it sticks). It's useful warming up, and also to rejoin a pace partner after a bathroom break (or if you dropped your towel and need to get off the bike to get it), and to rejoin the PP if you dropped them going for one of the sprint lines and don't want to wait for them and then have to accelerate onto the back.

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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Re: Impressed with Zwift + Zwift play [lightheir] [ In reply to ]
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Are you using the play controller on a TT bike or on a road bike? I've read that it wasn't designed for a TT setup - Though I can live with shifting on the pursuit bars if they'll fit logically. Otherwise I'll just use the click

I have a 2018 Kickr that only really works in ERG mode (end of life and starts making noises if I spin it quickly in a big gear) and I've been waiting for to Zwift Cog + click to become compatible with it.
Last edited by: timbasile: May 17, 24 7:53
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Re: Impressed with Zwift + Zwift play [timbasile] [ In reply to ]
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timbasile wrote:
Are you using the play controller on a TT bike or on a road bike? I've read that it wasn't designed for a TT setup - Though I can live with shifting on the pursuit bars if they'll fit logically. Otherwise I'll just use the click

I have a 2018 Kickr that only really works in ERG mode (end of life and starts making noises if I spin it quickly in a big gear) and I've been waiting for to Zwift Cog + click to become compatible with it.


The Zwift play controllers are on my road bike, not my TT bike. I haven't tried mounting them to my TT bike, but it would be hard/weird, as they really are ergonomically set for a road bike.

I think you'll have to stick with the click, although the click is pretty awesome for what it does and where you can mount it. You'll probably have to get a separate keyboard or something for the quick-access stuff that the Zwift play puts at your fingertips (and honestly feels like a game-changer to me, even though it's not particularly hard for me to reach out to touch a keyboard.)
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