Swift Zwift Tip: Smart Trainer Intensity Slider Explained

Zwift call it the 'Trainer Difficulty' setting. I call it the Trainer Intensity slider... others call it "damn these hills feel too real!". Here's a Quick Zwift Tip explaining what it's all about. *Update* As noted by a keen eye on the data side of things, the slider only impacts downhill by 50% on Zwift. So 50% slider on a 10% downhill feels like 5% downhill. Confusing.. but that's how it is.

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[sysyphus]

Perfect vid! Started on Zwift last week on my Fysio's Neo to stay in form during my recovery. Saw this setting amd thought WTH is this. Now, 1 week on and a perfect 1.25 min no BS video later and I know exactly what I need! This is why we watch the Lama!!

[theOtakuCyclist]

Not a question but more of an observation. On my Tacx Vortex I find it easier to stand (when climbing) with more resistance. I'm going to see if this helps me in my Tron challenge!

Another great swift Zwift tip 👍🏼

[TooManyGooglAccounts]

One correction: downhill gradients are always 50% of the trainer difficulty. So a -12% downhill on 100% difficulty is still only -6%. A -12% on 50% difficulty would be -3%, etc.

I discovered this while sniffing ANT+ packets and confirmed with Zwift support.

[jamespiva-giblett]

I had always wondered why gearing was inaccurate on Zwift. Going up the Epic KOM in the Big Dog.

[javawocky]

Ok I will give this a try. I am hoping it will stop we spinning out at top gear on the flats. Shane, you may have saved me some cash on a needless cassette upgarde!

[IndieRider]

This would also affect trainer noise, in particular the wahoo kickr, because if the grade is steep and you ride in a low gear it is relatively quiet.

[babybelkin]

Zwift should make all racing at the 100% mode so there's a bit more evenness to events

[Col]

Great vid Shane G slow down were you late for a meeting had to watch it 4 times LOL keep them coming.

[lazurm]

Except for the downhill runs, think of it as a change in one's gears with the lower percentage meaning that you have lower gears.

Great tip knackers! Wow, I didn't know it affected downhill too. Hmmmm!

[Atamanxxxvii]

I'll keep the setting at about 60-75% as the bike on the trainer is very high geared, and dropping down to 45-55rpms on long climbs just isn't fun.

[bosco]

I suggest use 100% because can understand which gear for which gradient same as IRL. But really depends on your cassette, 11-23 just set 50% lol

[PaulThePunter]

This is a great tip Shane, so are you saying that in a race situation you'll gain an advantage by having the intensity lower?

[ATBRides]

Now i understand why i can ride a lot more on the heavy gears on zwift compare while riding outside. When i wack it up to 100% it wil feel more relastic. Is the training gonna be more heavy then or not? Or is it just riding in a lighter gear and putting out the same watts?

[ropatekosa]

So if you want a more "realistic" difficulty for a given climb in Zwift, you should be on 100%? Is that correct?

[markevans]

You must be a mind reader I was only wondering about this a couple of days ago

[raymonds]

I'm getting too much resistance on the flat, I can push out 320 watts in easiest gear sml chain ring. Using kinetic rnr smart trainer. Tried calibration & updated firmware still very hard resistance. Speed & cadence are way off too from what I can tell.

[madik]

Would be nice to have adjustment for ascent and descent gradients separately. I would probably go for 50% in ascents and 25% in descents.

[robsaunders]

so am I right in thinking that what is happening is... that the slider on less than 100%
changes what the trainer sees, making the hill longer and less steep, such that at a constant power
you will get to the top at the same time as on 100%.

The longer distance is then mapped (making it the 'right' shorter length) back to what it would be at '100%';
because that is what you see in the virtual world, distance and speed don't change.

I guess the way to test it would be to monitor your bike stats on a seperate device, change the slider,
and see what happens to the numbers on that. This should then tell you what the gearing ratio change is.
Possibly you have already done this.

[gabbechico]

Great video, i about to buy a smart trainer, i just wonder, maybe it's a stupid question but do u need Power pedals, or is the smart trainer "installed" whit this power meter? ty for answer