All About Zwift’s New “Bike Upgrades” Functionality

Bike Upgrade: the Basics

Every bike frame in Zwift now has 5 “stages” of upgrades available. As you ride a particular frame, you work your way toward completing the current stage. Completion progress is visible in your garage:

Completing the work required unlocks the ability to purchase that upgrade for your bike:

There are five types of bike upgrades:

• CDA (aero) improvements
• Weight reduction
• Drivetrain Efficiency improvements
• Drops earning increase (5%)
• XP earning increase (5%)

Why Upgrades?

It seems that, with every new feature Zwift releases, there are people who comment, “Why did Zwift put the development resources into building this feature? I won’t be using this. Etc, etc…”

Bike Upgrades add another carrot to the game – a fresh incentive to get on your bike and put in the work. Will that carrot be attractive to all Zwifters? Of course not. No feature is. But Zwift is betting it will appeal to many.

Additionally, most experience Zwifters have millions of Drops saved, with nothing to spend them on (I’ve currently got 81 million.) Bike Upgrades give Zwifters a place to spend our Drops.

Lastly, Bike Upgrades add a strategic element for racers who may want to put some thought into which bike(s) to upgrade and when, for maximum in-game performance.

Upgrade Variations

While every bike in Zwift now has 5 stages of upgrades, it’s not the same upgrades for every bike. The upgrades available for a particular frame are based on two factors:

1. Bike Type: climbing bikes get more weight reductions, TT bikes get more aero upgrades, and all other bikes get a more even mix of upgrades. Example: a maxed out TT frame compared to its un-upgraded version is about 45 seconds faster over an hour on flat roads, and 26 seconds faster on an hour of climbing. By contrast, a maxed out S-Works Aethos is about 21 seconds faster over an hour on flat roads, and 58 seconds faster on an hour of climbing, compared to its un-upgraded version.
2. Bike Price: entry-level bikes get bigger performance increases in the early upgrade stages, while latter stages unlock Drops or XP bonuses. Higher-level bikes don’t unlock Drops or XP bonuses, but rather spread the performance increase upgrades across all 5 stages so you really have to put in the work to max out a top-level frame.

Additionally, the type of work you must do to unlock upgrades, the amount of work you must do to unlock an upgrade, and the cost of each upgrade vary between bikes based on three factors:

1. Bike Type: climbing bikes require accumulated elevation, TT bikes require accumulated time, and all other bikes require accumulated distance. Example: to unlock upgrade stage 1, the S-Works Aethos (climbing frame) requires 2000 meters of climbing while the Cadex Tri TT requires 6 hours of use and the Felt AR 200km of distance.
2. Upgrade Stage: each stage requires more effort to unlock than the stage before. Example, the S-Works Venge requires 200km of riding to unlock stage 1, but 440km for stage 5.
3. Bike Price: just like outdoors, higher-end bikes cost more to upgrade. Example: in the climbing bike category, the S-Works Aethos requires 4000 meters of climbing and 750,000 Drops for its stage 5 upgrade, while the more entry-level Trek Emonda SL requires just 2000 meters of climbing and 200,000 Drops for its stage 5 upgrade.

Upgrades vary widely in price. A basic bike’s stage 1 upgrade only costs 25,000, while a Halo Bike’s stage 5 upgrade costs an astronomical 5 million Drops!

Performance Improvements

The big question on everyone’s mind is: just how much faster will upgraded bikes be?

While we can’t tell you exactly what each stage’s upgrade will trim off of your time (not yet, anyway), we can share overall time improvements for a “stage 0” (completely un-upgraded) frame vs its maxed out “stage 5” version. Here is the time savings you can expect across an hour of riding at 4 W/kg:

Note that the 1-hour time savings above is estimated based on test results with our bot (75kg, 183cm tall, at 300W). Flat tests are done on Tempus Fugit, while the climb test is done on Alpe du Zwift.

Halo Bikes

This update from Zwift also adds a new, highly prestigious set of bikes to Zwift: Halo Bikes! These are fast and unique bikes that take a lot of work to unlock, a ton of Drops to purchase, and oodles of work and Drops to fully upgrade.

There are four available today:

• Pinarello Espada
• Specialized Project ’74
• Cannondale R4000 Roller Blade
• Concept Z1*

* the Concept Z1 (Tron bike) is unique on this list, because many Zwifters already own it after completing the Climb Mt Everest Challenge. This is still the only way to unlock it, but if you want to upgrade your Tron bike, you have to fully upgrade 3 Zwift frames first.

Halo Bikes can be seen as brand loyalty rewards, because unlocking a brand’s Halo Bike requires you to first fully upgrade three frames from that brand. Simply unlocking a Halo Bike doesn’t mean you own it, though. You still have to purchase the bike, at a hefty price of 10 million Drops. Yes, you read that right: 10. Million. Drops.

Once you own it, a Halo Bike can be upgraded in 5 stages, just like every other bike in Zwift. But the work and cost of each upgrade is around 5x more than even the best non-Halo Bikes! So while Halo Bikes will be somewhat rare, fully-upgraded Halo Bikes will be rarer still.

Watch this space! We’ll be publishing a dedicated post all about Halo Bikes in the coming days, sharing performance details and more. Until then, catch the Halo Bikes in action from March 18-April 7 in Watopia with Robopacers Big Mig, Jacques, and Coco.

Upgrading Tips

Zwifters – especially racers and riders who collect unique in-game bikes – will probably be asking two questions:

Question #1: Which bike should I upgrade first?

If you’re a racer, it’s probably smart to upgrade the bike you race the most. Maxing out high-end race bikes like the S-Works Venge or Pinarello Dogma F 2024 requires 1600km of riding and 1.9 million Drops. That’s no small ask, but it is also doable in 3-5 weeks for many experienced riders.

If you just want a particular Halo Bike, and aren’t concerned with race performance, you’ll get there quickest by upgrading three lower-end bikes, because lower-end bikes can be upgraded to stage 5 much quicker than higher-end bikes.

Question #2: Are there ways to speed up the upgrade process?

The simple answer is “yes,” but a full explanation could be an article in itself. As explained above, depending on which type of frame you’re riding, upgrades will be unlocked based on accumulated elevation, distance, or time on the bike.

Shortening your upgrade time, then, means figuring out how to accumulate more elevation, distance, or time on the bike. A few ideas:

• To gain elevation faster, do your structured workouts on climbs like Alpe du Zwift or Ventoux. The workout won’t feel any different, but you’ll be gaining more altitude than you would riding on a flat route.
• To gain distance faster, ride in groups. Robopacers are an obvious choice, but group rides or races are also a good option.
• To get more time on the bike, try adding another long, slow zone 2 endurance ride to your week. These sorts of rides do wonders for your riding, delivering increased mitochondrial density, improved lactate clearance, and new muscle capillaries, among other things.

One last tip for upgrading as quickly as possible: once you’ve done the work to unlock an upgrade, spend the Drops to buy it! Because until you purchase it, your work on the bike won’t go toward unlocking the next step.

Your Thoughts

Got questions about bike upgrades? You might check out Zwift’s support post for Bike Upgrades.

What bike are you going to upgrade first, and why? Comment below!