Zwift’s first-ever, and hopefully annual, Zwift Community Live (ZCL) began yesterday in Mallorca. This event aims to bring together the Zwift community with a paid four-day event packed full of outside riding. At first glance, that might seem weird for an indoor cycling company, but as you’ll see, that’s about to change starting next week. In addition to the main ZCL event, Zwift also had a short media event, as well as a slate of other indoor-focused sports tech companies that have been floating around. That includes Wahoo, Garmin, Elite, JetBlack, CORE, and undoubtedly more I’m forgetting. Even the head of ASO and the Tour de France is here (more on his Zwift level in a second).
This post isn’t about ZCL though, and instead, it’s about all the new software and hardware features Zwift has announced that are coming over the next few months. All the software features that are listed below will be turned on next Tuesday, the 8th, for all users. Though there is one feature that I note is more of an early preview, and is coming later this summer.
So with that, let’s dive into it!
Zwift Ride Adjustable Crank Length:
We’ll start off with the easiest one of the group here, which is the new adjustable crank length option for the Zwift Ride. Up till now, the Zwift Ride was only available with 170mm crank lengths, and was arguably the single biggest component that people complained about. However, that (sorta) changes in two weeks. Starting April 16th, you’ll be able to order an upgrade kit that has a bear claw style crank arm design. This has 5 different crank arm lengths on it (160/165/170/172.5/175), just like virtually all other consumer-focused indoor cycling bikes. Thus, you simply attach your pedals to whichever crank length you want:
Now, the upgrade kit won’t be standard-issue for Zwift Ride bikes. Instead, you’ll need to order it separately for $99USD/99GBP/99EUR. Shipping is free however.
It’s important to note that you will need a few tools to get the old crank arm removed and the new one installed. Most notably a square-taper bottom bracket puller tool (for removal), and a torque wrench that can show 45nm (for installation). You’ll also need an 8mm Allen key, adjustable wrench, and a small flat-blade screwdriver helps too. It’s the square-taper puller tool that’s going to trip most people up, though it is easily found online for $10.
(Torque wrench not pictured here).
The actual removal/installation process is silly simple, just like most other crank arms, and once you have the right tool, it will only take you about 5 minutes. Super easy. But it is also 100% impossible without that square-taper removal tool. I’ll stick the full install flow photos I took here in a couple hours at most, but in the video up above I show the swapping procedure.
In any event, for the time being, it doesn’t sound like Zwift is going to transition to the bear-claw design being standard on the Zwift Ride. That’s neither a short or medium term thing. On one hand, that seems like a bit of a mistake, though, on the other hand with people shifting towards smaller crank arms, 170mm is where many people are landing anyway. Ultimately, it sounds like this is mostly about component cost, more than anything else (hence the accessory/upgrade option).
Zwift Outdoor Ride Tracking:
Next is the headliner feature on the software side, which is that outdoor rides now count. Specifically, they count towards maintaining streaks, towards XP (which is how you increase your levels), and towards a new dashboard that tracks your rides. As part of that dashboard, Zwift will now be tracking your training status and training load.
At launch next week, it’ll import in your rides from Garmin & Wahoo devices/platforms. Thus, to get started you’ll need to *reconnect* your Garmin account to Zwift (or, do a first time connection to Wahoo). The reason you need to reconnect Garmin is to give Zwift additional permissions to receive the completed workout files from Garmin (whereas Wahoo is brand new). If you don’t do that, your outside rides won’t come in yet. On the Zwift Companion App, simply go to More > Settings > Connections, and deactivate and then re-activate your Garmin connection (or instantiate the Wahoo connection). It takes like 30 seconds:
I’d strongly recommend you reconnect your Garmin/Wahoo accounts now (before the 8th). It’s highly likely there will be a backlog of Garmin/Wahoo processing your previous 90-day historical files, which is the data it’ll pull into your dashboard. Zwift says Hammerhead connectivity will come this summer, and likely others as well over the course of the year.
Once that’s done, and once Tuesday the 8th comes along, you’ll see this new dashboard. At the top left, it’ll show your Training Score, which is your average training load, akin to CTL. Then, in the center you’ve got your current goal (default is time, more on that in a second), as well as your current streak.
In the middle are the days of the week, and you can scroll back to previous weeks. You’ll see any XP gained on that same page as well (you tap on it, and it pops up). XP for outdoor rides is earned at a rate of 5XP per kilometer, up to a maximum of 200KM/1000XP per ride. Zwift says they may tweak that number down the road, but that they want to see how people might be ‘gaming the system’ (in a not-so-good way), before making adjustments. For reference, normally on indoor Zwift rides, you’re getting 20XP per KM (before any random bonuses). Additionally, you do NOT earn Drops (for the store) on rides, nor do you earn points towards bike upgrades.
Below, some historical weeks, and my ‘Just Me’ feed showing the activities coming in:
Note that in my screenshots, I’ve got a bunch of duplicate files coming in (since I’m recording/testing on multiple devices). Zwift says that by next week, you’ll be able to delete activities that come into the dashboard. And that at some point soonish, they’ll be doing de-duplication, to mitigate issues like this.
In any event, down at the bottom of that training dashboard screenshot you’ll see your current training status, roughly akin to what Garmin has:
Ready: Ready to start or return to Training
Fresh: Active and ready for a challenge
Productive: Consistently training and recovering well
Overreaching: Training heavily but in need of more recovery. Rest weeks are essential for recovery and peak performance.
Detraining: Loss of fitness due to reduced training.
When it comes to that middle section where your goal shows, you can adjust your goal to any of the following goal types:
– Time
– Distance (KM/Miles)
– Calories (kCal)
– Stress points (SP)
– Kilojoules
Note that there will be an expansion of this later this year (estimated summer), adding Fitness trends. Zwift showed a few screenshots of what this looks like, and in a nutshell it allows for more reports of your ride/fitness trends.
Likewise, while runners aren’t included in the launch of outdoor tracking, Zwift says that’ll come later this year as well. I’d guess that’ll probably launch at the same time as fitness trends tracking. Further, they doubled-down that their focus will be exclusively cycling and running going forward. Said differently, those that still might have hopes for rowing, should probably sink those hopes.
New Zwift France Routes:
Zwift is adding 8 new routes to the France map. In addition they’re adding a bit of new pavement too. Err…I mean, new rocks. Not pavement, but cobbles. This new section is properly miserable looking if you have a Tacx NEO series device that’ll actually replicate that shaking feeling. All of which is meant to coincide with the upcoming Paris Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift.
I did take the cobbles section for a brief ride (Zwift had Zwift Ride bikes set up in the hotel lobby at Zwift Community Live):
And here’s some fancier photos from Zwift:
This goes live next week as well.
New Sensor & HUD Support:
Next, a quickie. Zwift will be enabling support for CORE body temp sensors. You can see this in the screenshot below. The CORE sensors will pair within Zwift, and record your body temp data & heat strain index data to the .FIT file (allowing other platforms to see the data, same as Garmin/Wahoo/etc…).
Further, that upper left corner dashboard (HUD) now has additional custom data fields, including:
– Added Left/Right balance (from left/right power meters, if paired in Zwift), also recorded to the .FIT file
– Added average watts/KG
– Added average speed
– Added weighted power
Here are the updated fields in that drop-down box:
But, this isn’t the only area you’re seeing additional data metric fields, on to the next item!
Added Lap Support:
Next, another quickie. I’m a fan of quickies. Zwift is adding a lap/split button. This allows you to create/take laps and show metrics based on those laps. The button is on the action dashboard (and can be triggered from the Zwift Ride/Play handlebars), and looks kinda like a recycling icon:
Zwift will write the lap/split markers to the .FIT file, so any apps/platforms that see/use the .FIT file (e.g., Garmin, TrainingPeaks, etc…) will see those lap/split markers.
In addition, there’s another new dashboard showing your critical power display for 5-second, 60-second, 5-minute, and 20-minute, that you an see at the left (above).
Scotty Streaks:
Next, as you maintain your streak (through either inside or outside rides), you’ll gain a squirrel:
4 Weeks: Get a Scotty medallion
12 weeks: get a Scotty key chain
24 weeks: Get a waving Scotty in your back jersey pocket
Additionally, if you’ve got something against squirrels, you can turn this off in the settings. I don’t know who dislikes cartoon squirrels, but Zwift said those people made themselves quite vocal on April 1st, when they turned on pocket-Scotty for everyone as their annual April Fool’s joke.
Totally Random Zwift Tidbits:
Over the course of the media day/event, there were various random Zwift-ish tidbits. In no particular order, here we go:
– The head of ASO (and owner of the Tour de France) is a very avid Zwifter. That’s him, above, Yann Le Moenner. He noted that he’s Level 75 on Zwift (and I confirmed he ticked over to Level 76 via the companion app, shortly after he made these comments). However, based on some of his off-the-cuff wording around the level limits, I’m pretty sure he really is. In any event, he was there during part of a presentation on the impact on women’s cycling, of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
– Here’s some stats from the last 30 days on Zwift:
– 2.2M free rides
– 632K group rides
– 483K robopacer Rides
– 282K races
– 106K climb portal rides
– Structured workouts are clearly going to be a key part of Zwift’s forward-looking strategy. They also shared these tidbits:
– There are 2,400 structured workouts offered in Zwift
– There were 2.3M solo structured workouts completed on Zwift in last 30 days
– There were 104,000 workouts completed via Zwift Link (that’s the new Zwift Training API that companies like TrainerRoad, Final Surge, Xert, etc… use, but TrainingPeaks is using old API and not included in this number, which is *massive* secondary number)
– There are currently 8 partners using Zwift Link today
I’ll probably add some more tidbits here into this post over time, but for now, that’s it!
With that, thanks for reading!
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Sensational change, development.
Now it’s Zwift gone wild :)
Thanks as always for the updates Ray!
How well is Garmin True up working these days? I don’t link Zwift to Garmin, because I prefer dual recording and only letting my Garmin device (FR955) write to Garmin so that the watch can keep my metrics.
If I only record on Zwift and connect it to Garmin can I expect all Garmin metrics on Connect and the watch to be updated correctly?
i do same on my edge. my understanding was that garmin stats are calculated on device only (want more stats buy a newer/more expensive device) – anything imported or manually entered effectively has no stat impact. i already delete the dual record on strava, so guess you could delete the dual record off connect as well?
My Zwift workouts contribute to stats on Garmin and I don’t use a head unit indoors and take my Fenix off. Garmin doesn’t crunch the numbers until the Fenix and Connect sync though.
If I understand correctly, from now on there will be a two-way synchronisation between Zwift and Garmin. Zwift workouts will be uploaded to Garmin as before and Garmin outdoor workouts will be imported into Zwift.
Initially, only cycling workouts will be imported and in the future also running workouts will be imported. As a triathlete, it would be interesting if swimming workouts could also be imported into Zwift in order to control the total training load, which is something that Garmin users can already do in Connect.
I’m curious about the ability to set laps in a Zwift workout. Currently if you program an interval workout in Connect and do it in the Tacx app, the fit file that is generated does not show the laps for each interval. I find it incredible that Garmin/Tacx have not been able to solve something so simple and useful to analyse the watts and/or pulse of each interval.
The cranks are even interesting for bikefit analysis.
I’d agree that eventually, if Zwift wants to be a training hub, they need to account for all activity types, at least at a basic time/distance/calories/whatever goal-setting level. I don’t think they need to dive into analytics of all those aside from bike/run, but at least cover consumption of it (just like TrainerRoad does).
They some biiggg cobbles.
Tacx Real Feel is going to be fun on my bum!
The most interesting piece of information here for me, is that there were more solo structured workouts in the last 30 days, than there were free rides.
Workouts are still the majority use case for indoor cycling, and yet the experience has basically not changed in years. There’s really no need to glance at the screen as the terrain is irrelevant, it’s just background graphics whilst you churn away at a workout in the same way you always have.
I truly believe that the platform that gamifies workouts will come to dominate the space. I have loads of ideas for how this can be achieved, but I’m waiting on tenterhooks to see which platform takes it on and innovates.
Crank lengths but no 0 setback seat post? Make it make sense Zwift
Move the saddle forward?
It sure sounds like Zwift is looking for ways to convince people to keep their accounts active during the summer in the northern hemisphere.
Hands up if you’ve ridden that bit of road that is pictured near the top
🙌
Yeah, it was a nice little ride yesterday!
Well done Zwift, you just made a sale of your bike with the new crank lengths, sadly I still can’t get excited about the streak, we need a pause when on vacations, I never ride, so I know I will never get more than say 25 to 30 weeks before it gets reset, so I have no interest.
It’s not a streak if you can pause it.
Isn’t that like telling people at an AA meeting that you’ve been sober for 17 years, just to casually add that you’re always taking off 2 weeks in December for your Christmas bender and another week in the summer for a mandatory-drug-trip to Ibiza?
Agree with James and Alex. It is the same with Apple’s silliness of allowing breaks during from streaks of closing the rings.
It might not be a self-inflicted failure to achieve the target (instead, maybe it is because of work travel or an injury) but neverthelss it is a break in the streak.
X consecutive days of achieving the goal(s) =/= X consecutive days of achieving the goal(s) when it is possible/convenient to do so
Ooh Zwift is coming for Strava *popcorn*
re: The zwift cranks, it seems a bit wasteful to make you buy the additional crankset with a new zwift ride. Everyone is going to want it, it has no downsides another than the extra cost. So thousands of those 170mm cranksets are going to be lying around peoples garages they can never do anything with? Why can’t they just update the ride with the adjustable crankset and increase the price accounting for the difference in manufacturing costs.
I got excited for a second that I’ll get the Tron bike, before realizing that outdoor rides only benefit will be XP. Oh, well, time to grind the Alpe 10 more times.
Curious to see how people respond to the outdoor rides.. Seems like they’re trying to become a training hub, a la Garmin Connect, Strava, Training Peaks, etc.
I use Zwift every week without fail, but have no desire to change where and how I’ve reviewed my activities for years, and no trust that Zwift has the knowledge to implement this better than current players – and additional XP doesn’t motivate to connect the 2 accounts and delete the duplicate activities
An interesting development for sure, but more for the COVID class that started cycling on Zwift maybe 🤔
Ultimately, I suspect a portion of this is that they know people want to continue leveling up. It’s highly likely this will drive people to keep subscriptions in the warmer months that might have otherwise cancelled (since you only get outside XP if you have an active subscription).
As for the other bits, perhaps one day it’ll compete with TrainingPeaks at a basic level, but certainly, they’re a long-long-long way from that. Likewise, while some have alluded to Strava as a competitor, I don’t really see that at this point. Strava is far more a social platform (and route planning/etc platform).
For me this would make sense if they offered a really cheap xp only subscription. Just process my metrics and give me up, but I won’t be actually riding on the platform. It’s become too expensive to maintain for an odd rainy day ride in the summer
Also a fan of quickies
As the Zwift ecosystem grows, myvelofit is going to be a prime candidate for acquisition there.
Showing right/left balance and importing data from bike computers that could lead to data duplication…This seems like the perfect time for Zwift to include native support for dual recording of rides.
I’m not powerful enough to need it for races (yet, I hope), but it would be cool to have (and would be the only reason I’d see right/left balance while riding since I (probably like most people) pair my trainer for resistance/power/cadence even though I have power pedals.
Also, I’d imagine that most data duplication would come from people doing dual recording. Just having Zwift grab them both rather than doing one on Zwift and one on the trainer should alleviate some of that load.
So only outdoor rides from Garmin and Wahoo devices will upload to Zwift?
For now. As noted, Hammerhead is coming this summer, and it sounds like some other companies are in the works. I’d assume that the most logical ones would be Polar/Suunto/COROS/Apple, but Zwift doesn’t have any connections with those at present.
This looks like Zwift wants to stay very far away from the new Strava API Agreement, since that would have been an easy first integration. Doing it one-on-one definitely takes a lot more dev time, but makes it so those activities can be shown on a follower feed, and analyzed (how dare they?!)
Speaking of, when these activities show up on feeds, what is the privacy situation? Hopefully we’ll be able to set privacy zones for maps (or they’ll be transferred from the connected device)?
Indeed. Word got out, nobody in the industry wants to deal with Strava’s API at this point unless they have to. Or, Strava’s unpredictability.
As for privacy, right now it doesn’t show your outside rides at all to others (in any capacity). Only you see your own.
Any chance the HUD is going to increase the number of visible fields? 4 is very limited. You should be able to select how many fields you want to see. Because there is only 4, I have to use Sauce for Zwift to overlay the rest of the data that I want to see.
I’m curious as to what they’re going to count for XP. Road miles obviously, but gravel and mountain? How about e-bikes? I disconnected/reconnected, so I guess I’ll find out soon. And my streak isn’t going to end next week (the weather forecast looks pretty good).
Yes, all cycling profile miles count (essentially there are sub-categories, but seemingly everything within the ‘bike’ category counts).
If I record a ride with my Wahoo device and manually upload the .fit file to Garmin (as we know Garmin doesn’t import from Strava or anything useful other than Zwift), I don’t get the training effect metric… It’s just Garmin being difficult (if I edit the file and change the recording device to a Garmin manually, it will give me training effect… But anyway).
Virtual rides imported directly from Zwift to Garmin DO have training effect…
So what I’m wondering is, as Zwift will now import my ride from my wahoo device will it also export to my Garmin connect account with training effect, or are they still going to block it because the .fit file contains a non-Garmin recording device?
If I want to use Garmin connect as a fitness and training load tracker, but don’t want to use my Fenix to record my rides, not do I want a Garmin head unit, this is a real pain in the butt.
Zwift won’t re-pass files outbound again (Garmin, Wahoo, or otherwise). Just like TrainerRoad doesn’t transmit files from partners outbound to Garmin/etc… Else, things can quickly get into a nasty loop.
Do we need to run the Zwift Companion App on our phone for the outdoor rides? Or is everything done by the backend connection between Garmin/Wahoo/etc to Zwift servers?
Obviously looks like Zwift wanting to reduce their “seasonal” subscriptions. My fear is the membership cancel/pause option will go away now and we’ll be facing full-year costs. I only use it 4-5 months a year, and the outdoor features aren’t meaningful to me, so any big fee increase means re-evaluating other options.
Alert: possible lost Lama sighting at 3:00! 😄
I think you astutely hit the nail on reducing seasonal subscriptions. Definitely keeps Zwift relevant during our outside months. Further concern however that this set of feature adds could add to future sub pricing hikes. RIP the days of $10/mo.
Thank you for the informative and well written articles.
Wild Zwift is finally adding extra sensor l/r support, laps. Fundamental features that have been requested since beta. Feels like an April fools joke at this point
I find it hilarious that Zwift is concerned that people might game the outdoor rides to gain 1/4 of your in-game xp, when the real xp gaming is that you can already just take your phone with you and run Zwift as you ride outside. I suppose you could create fake GPS tracks and say they were done outside, but at that point you might as well just use a bot if you were that concerned about video game points.
More seriously, any idea if the XP bonus is going to move over to running?
The core thing in your scenario, though is that you still have to pedal, since it’s tied to a power meter (or, I suppose a speed sensor, which has a magnet/etc…). In that Zwift game scenario, it’s not tied to GPS.
Whereas this is. You don’t need a power meter to get XP while riding. And since it just looks at a GPS ride track, that could easily be a plane flight across the Atlantic, or your car commute to work. Hence the limits. Seems pretty logical to me.
As for XP outdoors running, all of this will come later this year to running.
Never thought I would say: Zwift is adding some good features! Bear claw cranks are long overdue. Outdoor data import from Garmin is also very good – especially since Garmin seems headed toward a subscription model.
Wireless shifting locked to Zwift is still a red flag for me. I know Rouvy and QZ offer support for shifting in other apps. Zwift still hasn’t said whether they will sue these developers so I still can’t buy the Zwift Ride Bike.
Some good stuff from Zwift here. Wish they’d fix issues brought about by recent (months long now) issues with pack dynamics, especially for those with Zwift Rides being steered out of packs, etc. But, fwiw, Zwift dev has been looking good lately compared to Strava or Garmin. Strava lost my sub and Garmin’s premium offering is hilariously bad. Zwift’s still getting my $.
What’s the privacy of imported rides? Are they just visible to yourself or followers, teams, etc as well?
They’re only visible to yourself (outside rides).
This is great! What a great collection of features. I do like the outdoor sync for streaks. I honestly keep my subs year round because during the week, if I’m getting a quick ride in, its going to be indoors. But there are still the odd weeks here or there where I might only ride outdoors. And then I lose my streak.
I don’t necessarily care as much about the unified training status since I rely on Connect & Training Peaks for that but I don’t dislike another place for it! Especially with Connect going subscription based.
And I just bought a Core sensor yesterday so this is great timing 8)
Connect is not going subscription-based. It stays the same as always, they only added some new features for those who wish to pay for it. To me, that is a major difference…
While the gang is there (you, Des and Shane) you could try to put some sense into the Zwift people and make them see that opening their hardware (the Zwift Ride/Play controllers) to other platforms is a win-win situation for everyone.
Fingers cross for that to happen during this Maiorca event.
What about Zwift challenges like the Factory Tour? Since the only bike I ride outdoors that has power is my e-bike I don’t expect to make much progress in the Factory Tour until November. What about distance/elevation challenges? Can someone earn their Tron bike entirely outdoors?
Not that makes garmin connect + even more pointless
Hi Ray,
Do you know how the Core sensor is connected to Zwift? On the device page?