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Top 5 Zwift Videos: FTP Tests, Riding IRL, Paris Expansion

Need some motivation to keep you chasing your goals? In this week’s top video, check out one athlete’s latest challenge in his weight loss journey: conquering Alpe du Zwift.

Also included: videos about Zwift’s Innsbruck world, a first race attempt, racing team time trials (TTT), and Garmin’s acquisition of TrainingPeaks.

As part of his weight loss journey, Devin Bradford tackles the iconic Alpe du Zwift. Can he complete the full climb on his first try?
Adam from Road to A rides Zwift’s Innsbruckring course in real life and compares the two experiences. How realistic is Zwift?
While Ryan himself can’t race, he shares commentary and coaches his partner through her first Zwift race. Can he help her snag her first win?
Ever wanted to try a team time trial on Zwift? Watch as Liam Shaw explains how team time trials work and how you can get involved.
Don’t quite understand Garmin’s acquisition of TrainingPeaks and Train Heroic? Tariq from Smart Bike Trainers explains why Garmin likely did this and what this means for users.

Got a Great Zwift Video?

Share the link below, and we may feature it in an upcoming post!

AHDR Winter Tour Announced, Begins August 4

AHDR Winter Tour Announced, Begins August 4

The Aussie Hump Day Ride (AHDR) Team is back, and ready to race! Join them in August for their annual Winter Tour, a four-race series aimed at Aussies with a 7:15pm AEST (9:15am UTC) start time on Tuesdays.

The Basics

  • Racing starts Tuesday, August 4, with four races over four consecutive Tuesdays
  • Riders are categorized using standard Zwift pace groups (A-D), with an E pen for women only
  • Race standalone events if you’d like, or compete across the whole series:
    • Overall time-based General Classification (GC)
    • Standalone Women’s GC
    • Sprint points competition
    • King/Queen of the Mountains (KOM/QOM) points competition
  • Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/ahdrtour

The Courses

Each week takes you to a different Zwift world:

  • Week 1 – August 4 – Watopia: Itza Climb Finish
    • 29 km, 291 m elevation
    • Start fast over the first 4 sprint sections, then the race heats up as you climb the Mayan and Itza mountainsides — the perfect place for climbers to make their winning move.
  • Week 2 – August 11 – New York: Brooklyn Bridge Finish
    • 31 km, 241 m elevation
    • This one is made for sprinters! Mostly flat with 3 sprint opportunities, ending on the famous Brooklyn Bridge. Even though the profile looks easy, the undulating course can still split the bunch if you lose focus and drop the wheel. The finish will suit a strong rider with a good turn of speed.
  • Week 3 – August 18 – France: Hell of the North
    • 19.8 km, 241 m elevation
    • A shorter but intense race: 4 sprints to satisfy the fast riders, then a tough uphill finish on the Petite KOM. The climb is draftable, so smart positioning and a well-timed attack can take the win.
  • Week 4 – August 25 – Scotland: The Muckle Yin
    • 23.4km, 282m elevation
    • A true test for all-rounders. With 5 climbs to earn KOM points and one last chance to collect sprint points, the final night offers every rider one last chance to shine.

Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/ahdrtour/ >

Additional Race Details

Choose your best bike setup, as there are no restrictions on upgrades. See Fastest Aero Bike Frames and Wheels at Each Zwift Level and Speed Tests: Tron vs Top Performers for help choosing a fast frame and wheelset.

Results are via ZwiftPower and subject to verification, so please ensure your height and weight are correct. Make sure you are registered on ZwiftPower and link your Strava account. Racers are also encouraged to complete a recent spin down, and for those racing A grade we would encourage you to have some outside verified rides to back up your ZwiftPower numbers.

Each week results will be posted to the Aussie Hump Day Ride Facebook group page.

Tour Requirements:

  • Smart Trainers/Power Meters/Smart Bikes only
  • ZwiftPower registered
  • Zwift Pace Category set

The Tour is run by Team AHDR’s Race Manager Mike Brooks (Brooksy), a Level 109 Zwifter. Brooksy was one of the founding members of AHDR back in 2016 when Tim “Bacon” Searle set up one of the first Zwift Clubs. Brooksy organizes the Team AHDR Race Teams throughout the year and can be found outside in the wild every January at the Tour Down Under in the Adelaide Hills and bakeries.

Questions or comments?

Share below!


Zwift Speed Tests: Wheel Ranking Charts

Zwift Speed Tests: Wheel Ranking Charts

Your chosen bike frame and wheelset both affect speed in Zwift, so it makes sense for racers to do a little research and choose the best tool for the job.

While Zwift’s 4-star rating system for weight and aero is simple and easy to understand, performance varies even among wheels with the same star ratings, because the stars are just an approximation. Therefore, we’ve created several charts ranking all the wheelsets against each other based on their actual performance on flat roads and climbs. Data in these charts is continuously updated with the results of our latest speed tests.

If you’re just looking for recommendations on what to buy, here are some helpful posts:

We begin with a simple chart showing how much time a particular wheelset will save you across 1 hour of riding a road bike at 300W (4 W/kg) compared to the stock Zwift 32mm Carbon wheels.

The chart is sorted from the best-performing wheels to the worst, and you can sort based on flat performance or climb performance.

Time Savings Over 1 Hour (300W)

Flat savings
Climb savings

This chart is just like the one above, except the test was run at just 150W (2 W/kg). We would expect to see the flat performance rankings stay the same, while climb rankings may show lighter wheels moving up vs the 300W chart above.

Read all about Bike Upgrades here >

Use the toggle to sort based on flat performance or climb performance.

Time Savings Over 1 Hour (150W)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

We don’t see any major rankings changes vs the 300W tests when it comes to flat performance, but that’s no surprise. At both power levels, on flat ground, aero performance is still the driving factor.

When you compare the climb rankings for 300W vs 150W, though, you’ll see quite a few changes. And this is what we expected: at 150W (2 W/kg) up Alpe du Zwift, a wheel’s aero performance doesn’t really matter, since you’re traveling so slowly (~7.7 kph). But at 300W your speed almost doubles (~14.8 kph), so aero performance is more of a factor.

Next, we have one of our favorite charts, ranking wheels based on total time savings across our flat and climbing tests on road bikes. This chart lets you easily see the best all-around performers, and whether their performance leans to the aero or climbing side.

Use the toggle to see data at 150W vs 300W.

Time Savings, Stacked (150W vs 300W)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

As you toggle between 300W and 150W, what you see is the more “aero all-arounders” moving down in the list, while the lighter, less aero all-arounders move up. That’s because, as already mentioned, aero performance matters much less at 150W speeds.

Notice how the disc wheels’ heavy weight and poor climbing performance pushes them well down this list. This is why, if your road race includes any significant climbing, you’re probably better off going with a lighter non-disc wheelset.

So far, all of the charts you’ve seen have been based on results using a road bike frame. But on Zwift, disc wheels perform better on TT frames than road frames. Specifically, the wheels have a lower CdA on TT frames than on road frames.

So if you’re picking a wheelset for a TT or TTT race, you’ll want to pay attention to this chart, as it shows the boosted performance of the disc wheels. Wheelsets are ranked by their flat (aero) performance, since that’s where we see the variation caused by the CdA changes.

Time Savings at 300W (TT vs Road)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

The big takeaway here is that disc wheels make sense for flat and rolling TT races, while they probably don’t provide enough of an advantage on road frames to be used in anything except the flattest races.

Compared to the fastest non-disc wheels (Swiss Side 650), the fastest disc wheels are 15.8 seconds faster across an hour of flat riding on a TT frame. That’s a big time gap. But on a road frame, the disc wheels are only 3.2 seconds faster, a difference which is easily overshadowed by the Swiss Side 650 wheels being 26 seconds faster across an hour of climbing.

Testing Methodology

The data above was generated using our standard bot testing procedure. Our bot rides alone on Zwift, set to 75kg weight, 183cm height, using the Zwift Carbon frame for road bike tests and the Zwift TT frame for TT tests.

The aero (flat) test route is Tempus Fugit, the flattest course on Zwift, while the weight (climbing) test is done on Alpe du Zwift since it’s a long, steep, and fairly steady climb.

All of the data used by these charts comes from our public Google sheet of test data.

Questions or Comments?

We’d love to know what you think of these charts, including suggestions for improvements. Share your comments below.


Tour Fever Sale Announced: Zwift Ride Bundle and KICKR CORE 2 Trainer Discounts!

Tour Fever Sale Announced: Zwift Ride Bundle and KICKR CORE 2 Trainer Discounts!

Today, Zwift went live with big “Tour Fever” discounts on the KICKR CORE 2 trainer as well as the full Zwift Ride bundle (frame + trainer).

Sale prices are in effect through August 9, 23:59 BST (19:59 EDT/16:59 PDT):

RegionProductMSRPSale PriceSavings
UKKICKR CORE 2£499.99£399-20.20%
Zwift Ride Bundle£1,099.99£899-18.27%
USKICKR CORE 2$549.99$399-27.45%
Zwift Ride Bundle$1,299.99$999-23.15%
EUKICKR CORE 2€549.99€399-27.45%
Zwift Ride Bundle€1,199.99€999-16.75%

Zwift Ride with KICKR CORE 2

The Zwift Ride delivers a high-quality Zwift riding experience in a complete, full-featured package. That includes the smooth reliability of virtual shifting, the consistent connectivity of the KICKR CORE 2, and an easily adjustable frame so you can dial in your fit.

Buy Now

Note: if you purchase the Ride bundle via the links above, Zwift Insider will be paid an affiliate commission by Zwift to help support this site. Thanks!

Zwift offers three add-ons for the Ride frame:

Adjustable Crank Arms

The Zwift Ride frame ships with 170 mm cranks, but you can purchase Zwift Ride Adjustable Crank Arms for $99US. These support 5 crank length options: 160 mm, 165 mm, 170 mm, 172.5 mm, and 175 mm.

Multi-User Seatpost

The Zwift Ride frame is easily adjustable for riders of various sizes, but cyclists are often quite particular about which saddle they use. Households with multiple users may want to purchase an extra Zwift Ride Seatpost, so each user can mount their preferred saddle and simply swap out the entire post.

Tablet Holder

Zwifting on an iPad/tablet? The Zwift Ride Tablet Holder mounts securely to the front of the Ride frame, keeping your setup clean and compact.

Wahoo KICKR CORE 2

Already have a bike, but want a reliable and affordable smart trainer? Wahoo’s latest CORE smart trainer builds on the reliable and well-regarded original CORE, adding integrated WiFi, more stability, and race mode for ultra-fast power data. Simply put: you won’t find a more reliable, accurate, and feature-packed trainer at this price.

Buy Now

Note: if you purchase the KICKR CORE 2 via the links above, Zwift Insider will be paid an affiliate commission by Zwift to help support this site. Thanks!

Questions or comments?

Share below!


Zwift Speed Tests: TT Bike Frame Ranking Charts

Zwift Speed Tests: TT Bike Frame Ranking Charts

Your chosen bike frame and wheelset both affect speed in Zwift, so it makes sense for racers to do a little research and choose the best tool for the job. This is especially important in a time trial (TT) race, since there is no drafting and all your speed is entirely dependent on you and your bike!

While Zwift’s 4-star rating system for weight and aero is simple and easy to understand, performance varies even among frames with the same star ratings, because the stars are just an approximation. On top of that, Zwift’s addition of bike upgrades means racers need to take into account how a frame will perform when fully upgraded, not only when it’s first purchased.

Therefore, we’ve created several charts ranking all the TT bike frames based on their performance on flat roads and climbs, in un-upgraded and fully-upgraded states.

If you’re just looking for recommendations on what to buy, here are some helpful posts:

Note: To simplify the charts, we have excluded frames no longer sold in the Drop Shop. Data on these charts is automatically updated as we perform fresh testing, so what you see below is always an accurate reflection of what’s in game.

We begin with a simple chart showing how much time a particular frame will save you across 1 hour of riding at 300W (4 W/kg) compared to the most basic TT frame in game (the Zwift TT). These are “stage 0” frames, meaning no performance upgrades have been applied.

The chart is sorted from the best-performing frames to the worst, and you can sort based on flat performance or climb performance.

Time Savings Over 1 Hour (Stage 0 Frames)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

When sorted by flat performance, you can easily see that the bottom ~5 frames have similar CdA (aero) settings in Zwift.

If you sort by climb performance, the speed falloff from one bike to the next is more even across the board. (This applies to road bike frames as well.)

The Canyon Speedmax CFR is the clear winner here, both on climbs and flats. The Trek Speed Concept and Ventum One, on the other hand, are both clear losers with their startlingly poor climbing performance.

This chart is just like the one above, except these are “stage 5” frames, meaning all possible performance upgrades have been applied.

Read all about Bike Upgrades here >

Use the toggle to sort based on flat performance or climb performance.

Time Savings Over 1 Hour (Stage 5 Frames)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

We shouldn’t see any major rankings changes here in terms of flat or climb performance, since all frames receive the same upgrades between stages 0 and 5.

Except there’s a bug (see “Misconfigured Frames” below), which means the Cervelo PX-Series and Ventum One both drop several slots between stage 0 and 5 in terms of flat performance, while improving more than the other frames in climb performance.

Apart from the misconfigured frames, all other frames gain roughly the same performance improvements between stage 0 and 5. (This test data has a margin of error of approximately 1 second, so you’ll see the frames reshuffled a bit due to this.) That performance improvement is almost 50 seconds on the flats, which is huge in a TT!

Next, we have one of our favorite charts, ranking frames based on total time savings across our flat and climbing tests. This chart lets you easily see the best all-around performers, and whether their performance leans to the aero or climbing side.

Use the toggle to see data for stage 0 frames, or fully-upgraded stage 5 frames.

Time Savings, Stacked (Stage 0 vs Stage 5 Frames)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

There is clearly one TT frame sitting at the top: the Canyon Speedmax CFR. The Cadex Tri, Felt IA 2.0, and Scott Plasma RC Ultimate follow afterward with similar overall time savings, although the Cadex gains its time in the flats, while the Scott and Felt gain time in the hills.

Some readers have asked us to show frame performance at lower power numbers, which is a perfectly reasonable request. Here’s a chart, sorted by climb savings, which you can toggle between 2 W/kg (150W) and 4 W/kg (300W).

Time Savings for Climbing (2 W/kg vs 4 W/kg)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

Making this change has the interesting effect of making lightweight bikes move up the climb rankings while the more aero-focused bikes drop.

This makes sense, of course. At lower speeds (2 W/kg), wind resistance is much lower, so aero performance matters much less than it does at higher speeds (4 W/kg).

Misconfigured Frames

All of the TT frames on Zwift are supposed to be using the duration-based upgrade scheme. But for whatever reason (we assume it’s a misconfiguration), Zwift has configured the Cervelo PX-Series and Ventum One as distance-based upgrades, like standard road bikes.

This means that the upgrades applied to these frames as you progress from stage 0 to 5 are different than the upgrades applied to other TT frames. The end result? As mentioned above, the Cervelo PX-Series and Ventum One improve a bit more than their peers in flat performance between stage 0 and 5, while losing a bit in climb performance.

What About the Espada?

Pinarello Espada

The Pinarello Espada is the only TT Halo Bike currently in Zwift. It is not listed above because it’s impossible to test the Espada frame without also testing the Espada wheels, since they are inseparable.

The Espada, it could be said, performs like a top-quality TT frame from the 1990’s. It loses ~25 seconds to the fastest TT frames in game paired with the fastest disc wheels across an hour of flat riding, while losing ~20 seconds on an hour-long climb to those same fast frames with disc wheels.

Testing Methodology

The data above was generated using our standard bot testing procedure. Our bot rides alone on Zwift, set to 75kg weight, 183cm height, using the Zwift TT frame and Zwift 32mm Carbon wheels. The aero (flat) test route is Tempus Fugit, the flattest course on Zwift, while the weight (climbing) test is done on Alpe du Zwift since it’s a long, steep, and fairly steady climb.

All of the data used by these charts comes from our public Google sheet of test data.

Questions or Comments?

We’d love to know what you think of these charts, including suggestions for improvements. Share your comments below.


Notable Zwift Events for the Weekend of July 25-26

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This weekend wraps up the men’s Tour de France, so we’re featuring some rides in Paris held on virtual versions of roads the pros will ride. We’ve also got an interesting new race series beginning on Sundays, and more to see below. Scroll down for our picks!

✅ Popular  ✅ Unlocks

Zwift’s big Tour Fever series began last week alongside the IRL Tour de France, and everyone’s jumping into group rides and races!

This week we’re on stage 3, with Three Musketeers (37.8km, 208m) as the long route and Crepe Escape (19.6km, 123m) as the short route, which includes much of the finishing circuit the pro men will be riding on Sunday to wrap up the TdF.

Multiple time slots this weekend
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/tourfever2026stage3

✅ New Race  ✅ 10x  ✅ James Bailey

Here’s a wild new race concept from the mind of Zwift events whisperer James Bailey: TEN back-to-back races, lasting a total of ~1 hour and 55 minutes. Riders are categorized using compound score, everyone starts together, but you’ll be able to tell who you’re racing against by the letter on their jersey.

Big heads are enabled, of course (this is an event from James, after all). And boost powerups as well, giving you a 1-second boost of power. (Two given at the start of each race.)

Races get progressively longer, starting at 2km and finishing at or over 5km. Sign up for all 10 events at once to keep things simple!

Sunday, July 26 @ 2pm UTC/10am ET/7am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/turboten

✅ Banded Ride  ✅ Beginner-Friendly  ✅ Route Badge  ✅ New Route

The friendly Bikealicious crew is leading a banded group ride on the brand-new Double Espresso route (33.7km, 232m). Grab this route badge if you haven’t done so yet, which comes with a 610XP bonus.

Saturday, July 25 @ 9pm UTC/5pm ET/2pm PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5648430

✅ Champs-Élysées  ✅ Stage Race  ✅ Popular

The final stage of the popular SISU Tour happens this weekend, and of course it’s being held on Paris’ Champs-Élysées route (5 laps for 36.3km, 208m). Ride the virtual Champs the same weekend as the pro men ride it to wrap up Le Tour!

Learn all about SISU Tour 2026 >

There are lots of time slots for each stage, so everyone can find a time that works for them.

Multiple time slots this weekend
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/sisutour

✅ Kit Unlock ✅ Upgrade Hack ✅ Popular

Want to accumulate lots of miles quickly? Join this popular group ride, which puts everyone on the fastest TT bike in game (Canyon Speedmax CFR with DT Swiss disc wheels) with double draft enabled.

On the last Sunday of each month, the ride is extended to be a 100-miler, and finishers unlock the new WOW in-game kit.

Everyone is on Big Flat 8 this week, and there are four pace groups to choose from.

Bike upgrading hack: on rides with forced bikes, whatever bike you’re on when you join the event is the bike that accumulates the distance/elevation/time. So, for example, you could accumulate lots of distance toward a gravel bike upgrade while riding the Canyon Speedmax CFR in this event.

Sunday, July 26 @ 12:45pm UTC/8:45am ET/5:45am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5649054

How We Make Our Picks

We choose each weekend’s Notable Events based on a variety of factors including:

  • Is the event unique/innovative in some way?
  • Are celebrities (pro riders, etc) attending/leading?
  • Are signup counts already high, meaning the event is extra-popular?
  • Does the ride include desirable unlocks or prizes?
  • Does the event appeal to ladies on Zwift? (We like to support this under-represented group!)
  • Is it for a good cause?
  • Is it just plain crazy (extra long races, world record attempts, etc)?
  • Is it a long-running, popular weekly event with a dedicated leader who deserves a shout out?

In the end, we want to call attention to events that are extra-special and therefore extra-appealing to Zwifters. If you think your event qualifies, comment below with a link/details and we may just include it in an upcoming post!

Tiny Race Series – July 25 Routes – Rolling World Tour

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Tiny Race Series – July 25 Routes – Rolling World Tour

See zwiftinsider.com/tiny for current Tiny Race details.


Top 5 Zwift Videos: FTP Tests, Riding IRL, Paris Expansion

What happens when a Zwifter tries riding outside? In this week’s top video, watch as one rider takes to the roads of China.

Also included in this week’s picks: using an FTP test to set a baseline, opinions on the Paris expansion, racing a virtual “Tour de France,” and an intro to ZwiftPower.

After lots of Zwifting, Liam Shaw leaves the virtual world to ride the roads of China. Will the skills he has picked up riding around Watopia transfer to his riding on the real roads?
Triathlete TMCreative tackles an FTP test to get a better understanding of where his fitness is heading into a big block of training.
Bike Bonk Biff rides the new Paris expansion. Is it now a world worth riding?
As the pros tackle the iconic Tour de France, Mats & Miles embarks on his own challenge and races for 9 days straight on Zwift. Watch as he shares a recap of his 9 days of racing.
ZwiftPower is one of the best resources for Zwift racers. If you aren’t familiar with it, check out Titanium Ben’s latest video.

Got a Great Zwift Video?

Share the link below, and we may feature it in an upcoming post!

Zwift Speed Tests: Bike Frame Ranking Charts

Zwift Speed Tests: Bike Frame Ranking Charts

Your chosen bike frame and wheelset both affect speed in Zwift, so it makes sense for racers to do a little research and choose the best tool for the job.

While Zwift’s 4-star rating system for weight and aero is simple and easy to understand, performance varies even among frames with the same star ratings, because the stars are just an approximation. On top of that, Zwift’s addition of bike upgrades means racers need to take into account how a frame will perform when fully upgraded, not only when it’s first purchased.

Therefore, we’ve created several charts ranking all the road bike frames based on their performance on flat roads and climbs, in un-upgraded and fully-upgraded states. These charts are automatically updated with our latest speed data.

If you’re just looking for recommendations on what to buy, here are some helpful posts:

Note: To simplify the charts, we have excluded slow frames and frames no longer sold in the Drop Shop.

We begin with a simple chart showing how much time a particular frame will save you across 1 hour of riding at 300W (4 W/kg) compared to the stock Zwift Carbon frame. These are “stage 0” frames, meaning no performance upgrades have been applied.

The chart is sorted from the best-performing frames to the worst, and you can sort based on flat performance or climb performance.

Time Savings Over 1 Hour (Stage 0 Frames)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

When sorted by flat performance, you can easily see that the top 15 frames are very close on flat ground, separated by less than 3 seconds across an hour. There is also a big chunk of bikes near the low end which are all rather slow on flats, but perform within 2 seconds of each other. Our guess is they all have the same frame CdA value in Zwift, and any time differences are due to frame weight variation.

If you sort by climb performance, the speed falloff from one bike to the next is more even across the board. The Specialized Tarmac SL9 is king of the hill, but remember, this is before any performance upgrades. Let’s move on to the next chart to see which fully-upgraded frame climbs fastest!

This chart is just like the one above, except these are “stage 5” frames, meaning all possible performance upgrades have been applied.

Read all about Bike Upgrades here >

Use the toggle to sort based on flat performance or climb performance.

Time Savings Over 1 Hour (Stage 5 Frames)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

We don’t see any major ranking changes in terms of flat performance, but that’s no surprise. The Bike Upgrading system is structured so that performance differences between different frame types increase as you progress through upgrade stages. To put it another way: climbing bikes become even stronger climbers, and aero bikes become even more aero.

Sort the results by Climb Performance, and you can see obvious evidence of this. The all-arounder Specialized Tarmac SL9 is no longer king of the hill at stage 5, as the S-Works Aethos has received more weight reduction upgrades than the Tarmac. And the Trek Emonda, the other climbing bike on the list, moves up dramatically in the rankings compared to its stage 0 counterpart, beating the S-Works Tarmac SL9.

The takeaway? If you want a true, pure climbing weapon in Zwift, you’ll want to upgrade the S-Works Aethos.

Next, we have one of our favorite charts, ranking frames based on total time savings across our flat and climbing tests. This chart lets you easily see the best all-around performers, and whether their performance leans to the aero or climbing side.

Use the toggle to see data for stage 0 frames, or fully-upgraded stage 5 frames.

Time Savings, Stacked (Stage 0 vs Stage 5 Frames)

Flat savings
Climb savings

Takeaways

The non-climbing bikes don’t move around a lot between the stage 0 and stage 5 versions of this chart, and this makes sense, since they all receive the same upgrades.

What you do see, though, is the climbing bikes moving up the rankings by several slots for stage 5, since they gain so much time on the climbs thanks to their weight reduction upgrades.

Some readers have asked us to compute time gaps at lower power numbers, which is a perfectly reasonable request. Making this change has the interesting effect on climb times of making lightweight bikes move up the rankings while the more aero-focused bikes drop.

Time Savings for Climbing (2 W/kg vs 4 W/kg)

Flat savings
Climb savings

What About the Halo Bikes (Tron, Project 74, etc)?

Halo bikes are not listed above because it’s impossible to test their frames without also testing their wheels, since they are inseparable.

Here’s a chart where you can compare the Tron and other Halo bikes against top-performing frames + wheel pairings >

Testing Methodology

The data above was generated using our standard bot testing procedure. Our bot rides alone on Zwift, set to 75kg weight, 183cm height, using the Zwift 32mm Carbon wheels. The aero (flat) test route is Tempus Fugit, the flattest course on Zwift, while the weight (climbing) test is done on Alpe du Zwift since it’s a long, steep, and fairly steady climb.

All of the data used by these charts comes from our public Google sheet’s test data.

Questions or comments?

We’d love to know what you think of these charts, including suggestions for improvements. Share your comments below.


Speed Tests: Tron vs Top Performers Chart (Un-Upgraded and Fully Upgraded Versions)

Speed Tests: Tron vs Top Performers Chart (Un-Upgraded and Fully Upgraded Versions)

Our wheel and frame performance charts are useful tools, but they don’t clearly answer one crucial question for many Zwift racers: how does frame X paired with wheelset Y perform compared to other top setups, including the Zwift Concept Z1 (Tron) bike?

Additionally, those charts don’t get updated as regularly as data elsewhere on our site (it’s a problem; we’re working on it). So we’ve created this chart, which pulls from current, live data on the very latest frames and wheels in Zwift.

The chart below compares the relative performance of un-upgraded and fully upgraded versions of the game’s fastest frame and wheelset combinations, allowing you to determine which setup works best for you. We’ve charted how many seconds each setup saves across an hour of riding compared to a basic bike/wheel setup (Zwift Carbon frame + Zwift 32mm Carbon Wheels). This means you’ll find the top performers higher on the Y-axis and further right on the X-axis.

Select frames and wheelsets below. Each frame you select (unless it’s a Halo bike) will be combined with all selected wheelsets, creating a single dot for each frame+wheelset combo. Hover for details.

Frames

Wheelsets

Select at least one bike to display the chart.
Bikes with wheel combos also require a wheelset selection.

Observations

While the Specialized Project 74 is clearly a standout performer on the flats, it’s worth noting that moving to an all-arounder setup like the Specialized Tarmac SL9 + Princeton CarbonWorks Wake 6560 wheels costs 17 seconds on the flats, but gets you 70 seconds on the climbs (assuming both bikes are stage 0). Not a bad trade.

Next, you’ll notice that the Aethos regains its position as King of the Mountain when viewing fully-upgraded frame performance. The fully upgraded Aethos really is a climbing weapon, and moving from an all-arounder like the Specialized Tarmac SL9 to the Aethos means you’re basically just trading flat seconds for climb seconds on a nearly one-to-one basis.

Example: the Aethos + Swiss Side HADRON Ultimate 650 wheels lose 24 seconds to the Specialized Tarmac SL9 on the flats, but gain 21 seconds on the climbs. That’s a pretty solid trade if you’re a rider who struggles on the climbs more than the flats.

Of course, when considering performance, one must also consider the work that goes into upgrading the bike. Getting a fully-upgraded Tron is going to take significantly more riding than upgrading a production bike like the Pinarello Dogma F 2024!

There is certainly more to observe from this chart and our more complete wheel and frame charts, but for now I’ll leave it to the Zwift community to look at the numbers and share thoughts. Ride on!

Your Thoughts

What conclusions do you draw from this updated chart? Share your thoughts below!