I’ve picked up a couple of “faster†frames and wheels, but I’ve settled on the steel frame with classic wheels, cuz that’s what I ride in real life. Even the paint scheme is similar, although mine is red and Zwift doesn’t let me pick red. It’s either orange or pink, no candy apple red that I can find.
No helmet though, and I’m hoping to unlock silver shoes at some point. Is that an option?
Edit. Doesn’t seem to make much difference in speed. Same ride a few days ago on the Tarmac w/ Enves at 4w higher power yielded 0.3km /h higher speed.
I go with the fastest bike/wheels for the route I’m riding. That’s the Tarmac Pro and ENVE3.4s for climbing (haven’t won the Milienstiens at the top of AdZ yet), and a Venge with 808s for flat/rolling (I’m not leveled up enough yet to get the S-Works Venge and the disc wheel). Usually the top 5 bikes are within 5-10sec. of each other over a 1hr course, so lots of virtually equivalent options.
I usually stick with the same in-game gear when I’m riding solo, the intention being that I can benchmark my times on KOMs etc, against previous best performances.
That means I almost always use the “Tron” bike. Although I’d be better off using a TT bike for that purpose as it eliminates drafting which makes a much bigger difference than anything else, if there’s any traffic on your route.
In reality it doesn’t make a very significant difference most of the time, except maybe on a timed ascent of Alpe du Zwift.
For normal races I usually use either the Tron bike or the Cervelo S5 with Zipp 454 wheels on rolling or moderate climbing courses, Tron or S5 with 808 & Super 9 for flat routes, and Tarmac pro with ENVE 3.4 on big climbs. For TTs I use the Cervelo P5 with ENVE 3.4, Zipp 454 or 808 & Super 9, depending on the route profile. If i remember correctly, the Shiv S-Works is a bit faster on flat routes, but I’m not interested since I’m only one ride away from hitting level 37. Then I can get the Felt IA which is as good as it gets for flat TTs on Zwift (and also matches the real bike I have on the trainer!).
I usually stick with the same in-game gear when I’m riding solo, the intention being that I can benchmark my times on KOMs etc, against previous best performances.
That means I almost always use the “Tron” bike. Although I’d be better off using a TT bike for that purpose as it eliminates drafting which makes a much bigger difference than anything else, if there’s any traffic on your route.
In reality it doesn’t make a very significant difference most of the time, except maybe on a timed ascent of Alpe du Zwift.
For normal races I usually use either the Tron bike or the Cervelo S5 with Zipp 454 wheels on rolling or moderate climbing courses, Tron or S5 with 808 & Super 9 for flat routes, and Tarmac pro with ENVE 3.4 on big climbs. For TTs I use the Cervelo P5 with ENVE 3.4, Zipp 454 or 808 & Super 9, depending on the route profile. If i remember correctly, the Shiv S-Works is a bit faster on flat routes, but I’m not interested since I’m only one ride away from hitting level 37. Then I can get the Felt IA which is as good as it gets for flat TTs on Zwift (and also matches the real bike I have on the trainer!).
Yeah, it seems like the drafting algorithm masks any differences between frames / wheels by a good bit. Going from a “faster” frame / wheels to what should be one of the slowest setups in the game made less than a 36 sec difference over a 1 hour ride (1%), but my avg power was 2% lower too.
I honestly haven’t changed my bikes/wheel is probably 6 months. Races, basic rides, hard training, it doesn’t matter that much for me. It’s just one less thing to do before each ride. I ‘ride’ the SWorks Venge w/858’s, which is a pretty good all around setup. I guess if I was doing a TT I might switch to a tri bike.