For what it’s worth I run zwift on a 3-4 year old iPad mini ( generation2 ) using Bluetooth for the CycleOps hammer ( power), p1 pedal ( cadence), and 4iiii chest strap ( HR). It works fine and hasn’t crashed yet ( this weekends zwift server issues notwithstanding ). If I use rouvy I just need the hammer and the chest strap as cadence is received from the hammer.
Well yesterday's ride was awesome. I did not get an official count, but I believe we had around 20. It stinks that Zwift had all of the connectivity issues, but I believe we all did a great job just peddling through them! After 2+ hours, we still had 6 of us riding.
Discord was much better this week. Thanks so much to everyone for either checking your settings on another ride (getting Discord approved) or using "Push to Talk". Rule number one of Discord on the Sunday ride - Heavy breathing on KoMs and Sprints = good. Trainer, squeaky drive train, fan or static = bad.
I will be out the next 2 weeks, as I will be off the grid. It is Watopia next Sunday and London the following.
It is on the Zwift events GroupMe, but in case you missed it.... Sunday ABP ride will be at 8:00 EST from the start banner. The course is Watopia Figure 8. Jersey is Basic 5. Banter will be on Discord.
After joining the Zwift experience, I'm upping my "Pain Cave" game. Picked up a Kickr and a Rocker Base this weekend. One thing I'm still struggling with though is this. Perhaps some of you IT guru's can offer help(I've Googled for hours and still not finding a solution.) When I hook up my Laptop, 2017 Thinkpad Ultrabook via HDMI to my 2007 Visio TV, the picture on the TV screen is about 5% oversized and cuts off some of the details around the outer edges of the screen. I can see them on the Laptop screen, but the point is to watch the TV, vs the laptop. Have tried to change display size on the TV, but it's not helping. It is on Wide. Its like I need to resize the picture to about 95% of its current size. Any thoughts/suggestions.?
One thing I learned today that might help someone else. I bought a laptop pedestal at Staples last week and placed it to my left side to keep the ANT+ dongle on the same side as my PT pedals broadcast from. Have a big fan on my right side. But it was hard to use the keyboard with the laptop to my left, as I'm right-handed. So, today, I moved the pedestal to the right side. Had many ANT+ dropouts. When I would sit up, I would loose HR connection. The fan was in direct line with the ANT+ dongle. Stopped the workout and relocated pedestal to the left. No more dropouts. So, it appears that my fan had enough electrical field around the motor to disrupt the ANT+ signal from reliably reaching the Dongle.
@Dave Campbell Buy an extension cord for thee ANT+ dongle & tape it to your bike frame close to your pedals. I have a Stages PM & this set up works good. Assuming that the P1's would work with similar placement.
@Mark Stahlkopf, thanks. Great tip. I am having good success with the PT1 pedals. My most important issue to fix now is how to set the laptop to show the full screen on a TV when I HDMI it into a TV. Its doing the same thing at the TV in my hotel room at the Hampton Inn, so I don't think its a TV setting.
@Dave Campbell try this: hold down the windows key & the "P" key at the same time. The display mode box will open, set the display to Extend. Next drag the window with Zwift open onto the second (TV) screen. If the display on that screen is too big (or too small) press the F11 key to "display full screen". This set up should have Zwift full screen on the TV & "windows" (or what ever other screen you have open) on your laptop. I usually have ITunes open.
@Dave Campbell Did you fix your TV problem? Just read about this issue...it’s your TV overscanning the image coming from your laptop. It has to be adjusted in the “overscan” menu on the TV. If you can’t find it, Google your TV model and “overscan” and you should be able to find directions to do it. You want to turn off or disable the overscan option.
@Alicia Chase Thanks for the hint. I'll give it a try when I get back to the base Pain Cave. I'm at the Hampton Inn Pain Cave, and what you say fixd the problem on the LG TV. MY home Vizio, 2007 Vintage on the other hand doesn't show any way to turn off the overscan. I've sent a request to their support site.
Posting something I learned from someone in the Zwift group me here for anyone else who is looking for info in this thread (as suggested by @Scott Dinhofer ).
For P1 pedals, the default crank arm length is 172.5. You have to change the crank arm length using your "display device" (like a Garmin or Suunto) using the garmin's instructions.
Zwift says you cannot change the crank arm length direclty in Zwift. But other EN teammates told me that if you change the crank arm length in your Garmin, then Zwift will be using the updated crank arm length (as if the pedals have the knowledge you changed it.). This seemed to work fine for me, because my Garmin and my Zwift power readings are very similar.
One of my personal observations that makes it harder to understand what is going on here: I had to set the crank arm length 3 separate times for 3 display devices (a Suunto, the powertap app on my phone and my Garmin). So the pedals did not tell those other devices about the updated crank arm length.
None-the-less, once I set it with my Garmin, Zwift seems to be getting the correct power readings even if I never corrected the crank arm length in Zwift.
Test rode the new Rocker Plate this morning on Al's ABP ride. Was also the 1st long ride on the Kickr, so lots of newness under my saddle. The rocker made the ride much more comfortable as in no more low back pain on a 2+hr ride. The feel out of the saddle is almost realistic. I need to play around with the rebound rate of the suspension to dial it in more. In the saddle, the minor rocking motion just feels better. Although not my primary reason for adding the rocker, as an Engineer, I have to believe it is easier on the bike frame to allow some of the energy to transfer to the faux springs. Pics of the build here and also much more info on the FB group Zwift Rocker Plates
@Dave Campbell. Great riding with you yesterday! Your rocker board looks great, much less complex than others and looks very solid! What is the rocker assembly in the center called and where can you get it? Also are the suspension balls fastened down and are they adjustable? Thanks!!
@DaveCampbell-- Great rocker plate! Any "lessons learned" from when you made it you'd want to share? My partner is a woodworker so I've asked him to make me one! He's got a few things in mind for the assembly but never hurts to derive from others experience!
Same here Turby. You got off the front and I couldn’t catch you. The rocker are pillow bearings. I used 4 of them. Can be found on Amazon, and Walmart.com. Then there is a 24” long 3/4” diameter steel axle. That runs through them. Check the Zwift Rocker Plate group on FB also. Lots of info there. I actually had a friend of mine build the basics while I was traveling for work and I finished it. So he ordered the parts and assembled them.
@Carole Harbison Thanks! See the post I just did to Turby’s question. The mounting of the trainer to the deck varies from trainer to trainer. But basically want to center the bikes too tobe over the axis of rotation. Which for a Kickr is not the center of the trainer. I offset my trainer about .25” to line up the bike over center. I used some very strong zip ties from Lowe’s Hoem Improvement to secure the trainer to the top deck. That’s about all the tricks that come to mind, but glad to help with any Q’s
@Turby Wright, just slid them in place. I’m still fine tuning placement, as in distance out from center axle. Moved them in about 1.5” today and it helped the rebound rate a LOT. No need to fasten them down.
Any tips on how to load the EN workouts? I'm running P1 Powertap pedals and reading power on my garmin. Haven't been successful connecting my macBook with Zwift to my bike - but I think i was missing the key link of Zwift on my android phone as the link (?). I would like to try to do my test on Tuesday in Zwift (although maybe not the best idea for my first zwift ride?) I downloaded the workouts to my computer - but not sure how to then get them to zwift.
... I downloaded the workouts to my computer - but not sure how to then get them to zwift.
Assuming you have the EN workouts loaded into the correct folder on your computer, here's how to access them in the game. Start Zwift; when you get to the screen with the "Start" dialog box, FIRST select the course you want "Change" button). [IMO, if you have a smart trainer like a KICKR, it's best to choose the course with the most elevation gain per KM. Remember, in workout mode, you will NOT notice the elevation changes using a smart trainer. Zwift and your trainer will conspire to keep the effort level constant up, down, of flat. That way, if you are going for the Everest Challenge, and subsequent Tron big (and why wouldn't;t you?), you get most bang for your buck. EG, today and tomorrow, I'd choose "Surrey Hills" in London.]
THEN, after selecting the course, click "Select Workout". New Dialog box appears, notice at the top of the list on the left is "Custom Workouts". If you don't see it, scroll to the the top of the list. The EN workouts should be there, grouped into "Bike" focus and "Run" focus, and by week and day of the OS. Click on the one you want. Then hit "workout" at the bottom, "ride" at the bottom, and off you go.
You'll get a little curved screen in front of your avatar's handlebars, indicating you are in a workout. The color of the screen corresponds to how hard you are supposed to be working. There are other cues in the various parts of the screen to also provide feedback.
I think a workout as a first ride on Zwift is just fine. No worries about how to ride hills, or in a group, just you and your effort, surrounded by 1000's of others and the fake scenery.
FYI: In the past everyone sid don't use wireless headphones on Discord. I think it might be that they were using Discord on their laptops with Bluetooth connection. I rode for an hour this morning and used the Discord app on my phone with my Bluetooth Jaybird headphones. @Sheila Leard and @Sid Wavrin had no trouble hearing me. YMMV
I've been using Zwift on Apple TV for a while now, and am about to start the OS (a little out of sync with everyone else). It would be great if I could use the Zwift workout files in the wiki but there does not seem to be a way to do it.
On Apple TV, you can link Zwift to Training Peaks, and if you have a structured Training Peaks workout on that day you will see it on Zwift in the workout list. But - I can't figure out a way to import ZWO files into Training Peaks. Very frustrating! Has anyone figured this out? Do I need to manually create the workouts in Training Peaks?
Another custom workout question. I'm running Zwift on an iPad. Apparently iTunes took away the ability to load files to Apps (iTunes was too fat so they removed the App stuff). So - has anyone been able to load the custom workouts to an iPad, in my case, from an iMac? I do also have support requests to both Zwift and Apple. Thanks Ed
Hi All, I actually just found the answer to my question on importing custom workouts for IOS devices. A new post was uploaded on Zwift support. I tried it and it works! https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005558866 Maybe my support question prompted the upload
It looks like it has been a while since we have posted an update for those who are not on the GroupMe. The Sunday ABP ride is still rolling and always welcoming those who want to give it a go! Tomorrow we will meet at the start banner at 8 EST. We will be riding the Watopia Figure 8 course. Come join the fun!
Comments
Discord was much better this week. Thanks so much to everyone for either checking your settings on another ride (getting Discord approved) or using "Push to Talk". Rule number one of Discord on the Sunday ride - Heavy breathing on KoMs and Sprints = good. Trainer, squeaky drive train, fan or static = bad.
I will be out the next 2 weeks, as I will be off the grid. It is Watopia next Sunday and London the following.
That 4iii heart rate strap looks to sort out the issue - sensor bridge. Fantastic. Guess the ATV is in my future then.
Watopia Figure 8 tomorrow at 8am Eastern
See you tomorrow!
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One thing I learned today that might help someone else. I bought a laptop pedestal at Staples last week and placed it to my left side to keep the ANT+ dongle on the same side as my PT pedals broadcast from. Have a big fan on my right side. But it was hard to use the keyboard with the laptop to my left, as I'm right-handed. So, today, I moved the pedestal to the right side. Had many ANT+ dropouts. When I would sit up, I would loose HR connection. The fan was in direct line with the ANT+ dongle. Stopped the workout and relocated pedestal to the left. No more dropouts. So, it appears that my fan had enough electrical field around the motor to disrupt the ANT+ signal from reliably reaching the Dongle.
Is that a bent crank arm I see in the pic above? Doesn't surprise me.....
This set up should have Zwift full screen on the TV & "windows" (or what ever other screen you have open) on your laptop. I usually have ITunes open.
For P1 pedals, the default crank arm length is 172.5. You have to change the crank arm length using your "display device" (like a Garmin or Suunto) using the garmin's instructions.
Zwift says you cannot change the crank arm length direclty in Zwift. But other EN teammates told me that if you change the crank arm length in your Garmin, then Zwift will be using the updated crank arm length (as if the pedals have the knowledge you changed it.). This seemed to work fine for me, because my Garmin and my Zwift power readings are very similar.
One of my personal observations that makes it harder to understand what is going on here: I had to set the crank arm length 3 separate times for 3 display devices (a Suunto, the powertap app on my phone and my Garmin). So the pedals did not tell those other devices about the updated crank arm length.
None-the-less, once I set it with my Garmin, Zwift seems to be getting the correct power readings even if I never corrected the crank arm length in Zwift.
I hope that helps anyone looking for that info!
THEN, after selecting the course, click "Select Workout". New Dialog box appears, notice at the top of the list on the left is "Custom Workouts". If you don't see it, scroll to the the top of the list. The EN workouts should be there, grouped into "Bike" focus and "Run" focus, and by week and day of the OS. Click on the one you want. Then hit "workout" at the bottom, "ride" at the bottom, and off you go.
You'll get a little curved screen in front of your avatar's handlebars, indicating you are in a workout. The color of the screen corresponds to how hard you are supposed to be working. There are other cues in the various parts of the screen to also provide feedback.
I think a workout as a first ride on Zwift is just fine. No worries about how to ride hills, or in a group, just you and your effort, surrounded by 1000's of others and the fake scenery.
On Apple TV, you can link Zwift to Training Peaks, and if you have a structured Training Peaks workout on that day you will see it on Zwift in the workout list. But - I can't figure out a way to import ZWO files into Training Peaks. Very frustrating! Has anyone figured this out? Do I need to manually create the workouts in Training Peaks?
Thanks all!
Thanks
Ed
https://support.zwift.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005558866
Maybe my support question prompted the upload