SRAM-Style Virtual Shifting Options Added for Zwift Play and Click Users

Zwift already supported different shifting styles (Sequential, Shimano Style A, Shimano Style B, SRAM Style) using the Zwift Ride’s controllers, but last week they quietly added SRAM-Style support for users of the standard Zwift Play controllers and the Zwift Click.

Sequential vs SRAM Shift Styles

Zwift Play and Click have only used Sequential shifting up to this point. How does Sequential differ from SRAM Style shifting, you ask?

• Sequential: shifting up or down will move the chain on your virtual rear cassette from 1st gear up to 24th gear. It’s like having a virtual 24-speed cassette.
• SRAM Style: shifting up or down will move the chain on your virtual rear cassette from the 1st gear up to the 12 gear (since it’s a virtual 12-speed cassette). “Double tapping” – hitting both shift buttons at the same time – shifts your virtual chainring between the large and small rings.

Gear Range Options and Gotchas

Now, regardless of which shifting hardware you pair (Ride, Play, or Click), you will have four different gear range options:

• Mixed Terrain (1×24)
• Flat (53/39, 10-28)
• All-Arounder (48/35, 10-33)
• Climbing (43/30, 10-36)

Note: If you select “Mixed Terrain”, your shifting behavior will be the same whether you select “Sequential” or “SRAM Style” as your Shift Style, since this is a single-chainring setup. The only difference is the HUD shows “Gear X” with Sequential style, and “Gear 1-X” with SRAM Style.

As the names imply, the Flat, All-Arounder, and Climbing gear ranges are best suited for particular types of terrain. The Flat range assumes you’re riding on flat, fast roads, and thus gives you lots of gears in that range. The Climbing range gives you much smaller front chainrings and big “granny gears” on your cassette, so you can find that perfect gear on climbs. And the All-Arounder range is somewhere in between.

Choose “Mixed Terrain” if you want the maximum range of gear ratios, with fairly even spacing between each gear, without needing to think about shifting chainrings. Choose one of the other options if you want to use SRAM-style shifting and have your overall gearing and shifting experience more closely emulate IRL mechanical shifting.

Note: if you choose Sequential shifting but choose the Flat, All-Arounder, or Climbing gear ranges, your experience will be less than optimal. In my opinion, Sequential shifting should only be used with the Mixed Terrain (1×24) setup. This is because Sequential shifting basically sorts your available gear ratios, then shifts you between those ratios with each shift, magically swapping you between the large and small ring as well as shifting your cassette. The result? Uneven spacing between gears.

Example: Sequential shifting using the Flat (53/39, 10-28) gear range would mean shifting from 10-11 is a gear ratio change from 2.60 to 2.75, while shifting from 11-12 is a ratio change of 2.75 to 2.79. Those are two very different ratio gaps!

Want more detail? Here is the actual gearing each scheme emulates, according to Zwift, along with the calculated gear ratio of each combination.

Mixed Terrain (1×24)

This gear range basically behaves like a single 55-tooth chainring in the front, with a 24-speed cassette in the rear with a massive range between 10-73 teeth!

Flat (Standard)

All-Arounder (Compact)

Climbing (Sub-Compact)

Why No Shimano?

The Zwift Ride controllers can support Shimano-style shifting since they have two shift buttons on each controller. The Play and Click controllers, however, only have a total of two buttons (one on each controller), which means they can only support Sequential or SRAM-style shifting.

Questions or Comments?

Got questions about Zwift’s virtual shifting? You might check out our “All About Virtual Shifting on Zwift” post. Otherwise, share below!