Zwift Appears to Have a Smart Bike and Direct Drive Trainer on the Way
It appears there is a Zwift bike & Zwift trainer heading our way. A hardware survey hit my inbox and the long rumored Zwift branded training equipment is getting real.
The survey featured two new Zwift products, a full blown smart bike called the Zwift Ride and a direct drive trainer called the Zwift Wheel. Notably, the Zwift Wheel can be upgraded to a Zwift Ride.
Features of the Zwift Wheel:
- Max power of 2,200w
- Accuracy of +/- 1%
- Downhill acceleration (accelerates the flywheel when descending)
- 25% Gradient simulation
- Terrain simulation – guessing this is a rumble feature
- Z Cog – not sure what that means but sounds like it’s the ability to have virtual shifting
Additional features for Zwift Ride:
- Handlebar controls built-in (steering, braking, and game controls)
- “immersive lighting”
- Rotate the bike upwards/vertically to save space
- Designed to fit riders 5′ to 6’6” (152cm to 198cm)
- Multiple crank lengths
There’s a lot left to be seen here, but I’m very torn.
On one hand, the up-gradable design is very cool and the ability to do virtual shifting on the direct drive trainer would be awesome (most of the sound on a direct drive is chain alignment and shifting).
On the other hand, why does this thing have a full size front wheel? The foot-print is going to be huge. A big feature of moving to a full-blown smart bike is the saved space. I’m also not sold on the look, it’s a bit loud.
