Cheapest way to do Zwift

[bane]

So with all the rain I've had in my region this year causing a number of flood induced road closures, I'm interested in setting up zwift to keep the kms ticking on these very wet and windy days.

Initial research suggests an expenditure over $1000, but I'm curious if others have put together some sort of cheaper alternative. For instance, how would it work with a laptop and regular trainer from say, Aldi? What else would be needed? What type of power meters are needed? Are they all the same?

[minhyy]

from what I understand, the bare minimum is having an ANT+ enabled device to record your riding, and an ANT+ USB dongle to communicate with the computer running the Zwift program

It is smart trainers like the Wahoo Kickr with built in ANT+ that can communicate with Zwift and adjust its resistance to correspond with the terrain in the program. Basic trainers such as a wind or fluid one from Aldi to Blackburn to Tacx to Elite etc will still work, but the resistance does not change real-time with Zwift

Extra peripherals like a speed + cadence sensor, HRM add further metrics to the program, but a smart trainer is ideal for the complete simulation experience

Seems interesting, I'd much rather be on the road but understandable in your situation

[march83]

Do you already own a powermeter? This will dictate the best way to go about things...

If you own a powermeter you can get the lo-fi experience with your current bike, any "dumb" trainer (mag, fluid, rollers, etc). With an ant dongle attached to the zwift PC, you can pair the powermeter to the computer and away you go. The experience is good - your speed is tied to your power output and so it's realistic from that perspective, but you don't get resistance changing with the environment.

Next option up would be to buy a budget smart trainer (again, assuming you own a powermeter). Something like a bKool, or one of the cheaper Elite/Tacx models will do. These trainers will have ant FE which allows remote devices to control their resistance in real time. Zwift will give you a more realistic experience by modulating resistance to match the environment. These cheaper units can't necessarily offer as much resistance as the top of the line versions, but they do a good enough job on a budget - all this really means is that your gear will be "wrong", but it feels fine from a realism perspective.

If you don't have a powermeter you can buy a trainer which has an inbuilt powermeter. This is a little tricky because some of the trainers claiming to offer this functionality do a really crappy job at it. This is where people choose to buy the very expensive trainers because they have accurate powermeters and very high resistance.

Personally, I bought an elite qubo digital which was about $400 delivered from bike-discount.de and I use it with one of my bikes which has a powermeter. The experience is pretty good and I'm happy with it. I also ride occasionally on my rollers which obviousl doesn't provide any resistance but I can still cruise around the map at the correct speed which is good enough when I want to give my legs a steady-state or high cadence work out.

[macca33]

Nothing wrong with going for the 'cheaper' option, but you still have to be sensible and use one of the trainers they list in their 'classic' trainer category, otherwise your Z-Power will never be right.

Secondly, whichever computer you use, you MUST have at a MINIMUM, a 1GB dedicated graphics card - 2GB is better.

All the specifications are posted on the Zwift website - takes the guesswork out of it.

http://zwift.com/get-started

cheers

[hamishm]

Do you already own a powermeter? This will dictate the best way to go about things...

You actually don't need either the power meter NOR a smart trainer, if you get one of the ones Zwift supports with "zPower", eg Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. But the experience is not as good and prepare to be glared at when you take minutes off the KOM...

I got a Tacx Vortex Smart, quite cheap from the UK, works great. I wouldn't mind a bit more resistance sometimes (max is around 7% gradient equivalent?) but it's fine.

[march83]

@hamish: yeah, but in my opinion if you don't have an actual power reading going into zwift (as opposed to a made up zpower number) well then you might as well not be doing it. it's a cheaper alternative, but it's not a particularly real experience to race against other people in a bunch, or to try and take a jersey, or to set a course PB if the power numbers are just made up as most zpower numbers seem to be.

[V8rider]

I have a dumb trainer (cost about $250 to set up) and a smart trainer and the zpower numbers are really close. It's not as immersive using the dumb trainer but it's still a very useful training tool. If you really want to test your power against people, show up to the local crits.

[hamishm]

@hamish: yeah, but in my opinion if you don't have an actual power reading going into zwift (as opposed to a made up zpower number) well then you might as well not be doing it. it's a cheaper alternative, but it's not a particularly real experience to race against other people in a bunch, or to try and take a jersey, or to set a course PB if the power numbers are just made up as most zpower numbers seem to be.

I don't think it's worthless but I don't think you should be able to get KOMs or jerseys based on zPower.

When I swapped from using the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine (zPower) to the Tacx Vortex Smart my power went down by quite a bit.

I mostly bought the smart trainer for the resistance simulation though.

[Rioli2Gunstall]

[shareyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvdfMketrCI[/shareyoutube]

This is a good vid and probably what i will get. There is useful links in the info section. Just be aware that a bunch of new trainers are coming out soon and you might be able to pick up a kicker for a bit cheaper than they are currently.

[bane]

What's the benefit of choosing Bool? Some people claim its both better and cheaper?

River broke its banks last week again too. Thirteen road closures.

[billy70]

I see that Zwift are to commence beta testing for IOS - that's exactly what I've been waiting for!