First Look: Zwift Ride

This post is a guest article from BaseCamp coach Lorri Lee Lown, a a longtime cyclist and coach who's also an expert bike fitter with over twenty years of bike fit experience.

I've been training inside since the late 1990s, first in spinning classes at the gym and then on a CompuTrainer at home and in group workouts. I've ridden magnetic trainers, fluid trainers, wind trainers, rollers, and all variety of gym bikes. I've coached in-person group sessions, live and virtually, based on RPE, heart rate, and power. For platforms like Zwift, I've ridden direct drive and wheel on power trainers. For someone who doesn't necessarily love indoor training, I sure have done a lot of it.

Indoor training has morphed into its own sport. Ten years ago we saw the advent of the smart trainer, and the world of cycling changed forever. Previously, indoor training was considered a necessary evil for road racers during the winter months. Now it's a year-round training and racing solution for everyone from beginner to professional e-sport racer!

For last year's winter group coaching program, I was able to use the Peloton Bike+ by installing a set of power pedals and pairing them with Zwift. It wasn't perfect, as I couldn't feel terrain, but it was good enough to execute the workouts, join group rides, and even pace a group of BaseCampers up Alpe Du Zwift. The downside is that I created some pretty significant muscular imbalances riding four months of high volume on a fixed-gear, heavy-flywheel bike. Let's just say that one side of my gluteus is a bit more beauteous than the other.

For the 2024-2025 winter group coaching program, I decided I wanted to go back to a traditional power-based trainer or a smart bike. But that decision led me down a rabbit hole of options, each with advantages and disadvantages. Should I mount my really nice road bike on a stationary trainer? Maybe I should get a basic road bike to use only on the trainer and save my road bike for outside. Should I invest in a smart bike? Or just stick with my Peloton? The options were endless. Then I saw the Zwift Ride, and that became the obvious decision for me.

Unboxing and Assembly

The Zwift Ride is comprised of a bike frame and separate handlebar unit that includes all the electronic controllers for the Zwift game. I paired this with a new Wahoo Kickr Core with Zwift Cog direct drive trainer. The components arrived in four boxes: bike frame, handlebar, optional tablet mount, and trainer.

Assembly was relatively easy, and Zwift included a hex wrench conveniently designed to fit into the bike frame for storage. There are QR codes on the boxes that should lead straight to setup directions; they didn't work for me, but a quick search led me to Zwift's very robust library of videos to guide you through the process. Once you open the boxes, there are a handful of manuals for each part of the ecosystem. I did have a bunch of unanswered questions (mostly about the electronics) but was able to find other resources to help me.

The bike comes with a chain (for some reason I thought it would have a carbon belt drive) that is pre-lubed, but nowhere does Zwift indicate whether you need to lube it again over time or if the chain will stretch or wear out. I also wonder if the bottom bracket or chain tensioner will wear over time. The chain isn't as quiet as I'd hoped, but the complete setup is definitely quieter (and cleaner) than an outdoor bike on a stationary trainer.

Bike Fit

I've been a bike fitter for more than two decades, so fit was one of the more interesting aspects of the bike. Could the Zwift Ride really accommodate a variety of bodies? Would this be a good solution for a household with multiple riders? Let's find out!

The stated height range for the Zwift Ride is 5'0" to 6'6". I fall solidly in the middle of that range. I've currently fit the Zwift Ride for one petite bike fit client (5'0"), and I look forward to fitting more riders at the high end of the range. For my petite client, we encountered a number of challenges, including crank length, reach, and bar width. She had initially set up her position based on the bike fit chart from Zwift (pictured below), and her final result after I fit her was dramatically different from what Zwift recommended. We made it work, but I could suggest some design modifications that would make it better.

I started my personal bike fit by setting up the bike with Zwift's provided chart. Of course, this chart is based only on a rider's height and doesn't adjust for gender, inseam, femur length, forearm length, or more dynamic variables like body composition or flexibility. As a bike fitter, I know all of these should be part of the equation, but I wanted to see what other users might experience. Even though this chart is intended to be just a starting point, I learned as I did some research on the bike online that many folks use these settings and never make any modifications.

It didn't surprise me to find that Zwift's fit suggestion wasn't even close (my saddle was significantly too high, and the reach was way too long), but it was a starting point. I rode a bit, made a few fit adjustments by feel, and was ready to start my first group ride. I did take a coffee break after about 30 minutes into the group ride to make one more saddle adjustment, and I made a handful of bar adjustments while riding without getting off the bike. I measured the bike after I finished my ride, and it's pretty close to my road bike fit. Before my next ride, I'll transfer my actual road bike fit coordinates to the new bike to see how that process works.

I'm pretty particular about my bike fit, and I knew when I ordered the bike that there would be a couple of pain points for me. The first is crank length. The bike comes with 170mm cranks, while I ride 165mm cranks. Even though I have a long inseam, I have a hip impingement and have had one hip surgery, so I benefit from shorter cranks. At this time, there is no option to order the bike with a different crank length, but there is an aftermarket crank length adapter I may try.

The second aspect of the bike fit that I'm not super happy about is the handlebar width. The bike comes standard with a 42cm bar (I ride 34cm bars), and Zwift informed me that I would void the warranty on the electronics if I swapped bars. I'm willing to give this some time to see if I can adapt.

The saddle is not awesome for me. As with outdoor bikes, we know that riders will most likely swap out a stock saddle to their favorite saddle. Based on my experience as a bike fitter, the supplied 160mm saddle is wider than most riders would likely ride on an outdoor bike. It's also a bit on the soft side and doesn't have a cutout. Needless to say, I experienced some numbness during my 90-minute ride and will most likely replace the stock saddle with an option that works better for me.

One of the interesting bike fit challenges of the Zwift Ride is where to position your hands when you ride. At first I thought I would emulate the hand positions on my road bike (tops for climbing, hoods for cruising, drops for cornering and descending), but the Zwift Play console makes me think otherwise. The console was thoughtfully designed with a standard hood position, a groove for the ever-popular and aerodynamic puppy paws, and an attached gaming console that allows you to execute all types of functions while riding, including in-game steering. A bit more riding will help me determine ideal hand position with this bar, and I will adjust the reach to accommodate that.

One last note on bike fit: Zwift chose to use letters (A, B, C, D, etc.) to indicate fit position. I would have used centimeters, since that's how we measure bikes and those measurements could be set up to correlate to our outdoor bikes. This is a missed opportunity, in my mind, to do something very simple that could improve the user experience.

Ride Experience

I plan to write an in-depth review after I've spent more time on the bike. I rode about two hours total and allowed myself to just learn by doing throughout the ride. The Zwift Play console is very convenient, as I don't need to touch a screen to give Ride-Ons, change directions, access the game menu, or other in-game functions. It took a while for me to figure out the subtleties of which part of the controllers do what (it's not completely intuitive), especially when steering, which requires a braking motion.

Shifting is initially set up sequentially (left hand to a lower gear, right hand to a higher gear), but you can change that setting to either SRAM or Shimano shifting. You can also change your gear range to emulate what you might have on your outdoor bike (1x, 2x, mullet, etc.). You can see your current gear selection on the gaming screen. When you shift, you're simply pressing a button on the lever; there isn't really any indicator that you did so (no click or moving paddle), so it was easy to over-shift until I got used to looking at the screen for my gear selection. One feature that's new to me is the ability to steer the bike. I had so much fun changing directions with the controllers that I might have been swooping, paper-boy style, back and forth for a while, probably driving everyone else in the game nuts.

Since I was already familiar with Zwift, the learning curve was not steep, and it's just a matter of remembering which button or controller does what. I assume this will become intuitive with more experience.

The ride feel is pretty realistic, and I like the way the bike accelerates and responds to changes in terrain and gearing. The only piece that's missing would be terrain changes to the physical bike, similar to what you'd achieve with the Wahoo Kickr Climb, but that's not compatible with the frame at this point.

On-Bike Storage

I purchased the optional tablet holder, and there's also a small rubber mat on the stem for personal items like your phone, earphones, snacks, or air conditioning controller, but there's not a lot of additional storage. There are two bottle cages mounted to the frame. For long days in the saddle, I might want to attach a feedbag or top tube bag for additional snacks. The tablet holder is a great addition; it places the tablet in perfect alignment for your neck (as opposed to looking up at a television). I don’t think most riders consider this enough and end up craning their neck or sitting too upright so they can view an elevated screen, neither of which are ideal for bike or pedal stroke optimization.

First Ride

I haven't Zwifted since the summer, and it was fun to join a group for my first ride. I did a short warmup on a newer route called Repack Rush, where you can utilize the Zwift controllers to steer the bike and get bonuses (and penalties). It was a fun way to illustrate the steering capabilities of the hardware. During the group ride, I focused on familiarizing myself with the Zwift controllers and dialing in my bike fit.

Winter Training

I’m excited to spend more time on Zwift with the new Zwift Ride. I think it's a great solution for indoor training. The price is significantly lower than other smart bike options, and the bike is really designed to optimize the Zwift experience.

One downside I should mention is that the Zwift Ride is technically compatible with other online training platforms (not just Zwift), but there seems to be a complication with shifting on other platforms. I'll learn more in the coming months.

If you're joining BaseCamp winter group coaching this year (training starts in just a few weeks!), you're probably also dialing in your indoor training setup, and I'd love to hear from you if you've recently switched to the Zwift Ride or are curious about it. Comment below or email me directly at lorri@savvybike.com (or if you're a 2024-2025 winter group coaching member, tag me in the Facebook group when it opens and let's start a conversation!).

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