Hack: How to Hit the Brakes in Zwift

Usually, Zwifters want to go faster, not slower. But there are situations where having some “virtual brakes” would be handy:

• When you ride through the fence on a group ride and want to get back to the “good side” quickly
• When you accidentally drop a riding buddy and want to get back together quickly
• When you want to take a cool photo from a particular spot

There’s a simple brake hack for anyone using a keyboard on Zwift: just hit “A” to bring up the pairing screen. This immediately applies the brakes, stopping you within a few seconds.

To get out of the pairing screen and return to riding, hit the Escape key. Easy!

Here’s a quick video demo:

Improvement Suggestion

Oddly enough, even if you keep putting out power, your rider will not move with the pairing screen up. This has bitten me in the butt many times when I’m in a group ride and accidentally hit A on the keyboard.

My suggestion: Zwift shouldn’t apply the brakes at the pairing screen unless my wattage or cadence is at 0. This saves us from accidentally getting dropped, and shouldn’t cause any problems.

Have You Hit “A”?

Have you ever used this hack (on purpose or on accident)? What was the situation? Share below…