Cyclists are notorious gearhounds, and while our budgets (and significant others) may not support our real-money purchases, we get to indulge ourselves virtually on Zwift! The in-game “Drop Shop” lets us spend Drops (the virtual currency earned by real effort) to “purchase” virtual frames and wheelsets.
Why Buy?
Just like outdoors, the virtual frames and wheels you use on Zwift influence your in-game speeds. Lightweight items help you climb faster, and more aero items offer dividends at higher speeds on flatter ground and descents.
If you’re racing on Zwift or just chasing speed PRs, you owe it to yourself to buy a high-performing setup. Everyone else is doing it!
How To Make a Purchase
Step 1: Click “Garage” 
Step 2: Select Frames or Wheels from Drop Shop side 
Step 3: Select a manufacturer 
Step 4: Click price (bottom left) to purchase 
Step 5: Click to confirm purchase 
Step 6: elect to equip or not
In order to make a Drop Shop purchase (or change your bike using stuff you already have in your Garage) you have to be logged into the Zwift game and on the actual Zwift map. But you can’t be moving.
Click Menu, then “Garage” in order to go to the Garage/Drop Shop page.
From this page, select which portion of the Drop Shop you want to access – the frames or the wheelsets. Then select a brand to browse items, and click a particular item for details and a purchase option.
Click the item price at the bottom-left to make the purchase. Click “Confirm” to purchase, then choose whether to immediately equip (use) your new stuff or not.
Your purchase is now in your garage, and can be selected whenever you wish. Here’s a step-by-step walk through the screens of a Drop Shop purchase:
Video: Buying from Zwift’s Drop Shop
Here’s a quick video showing how to make a Drop Shop purchase:
Gotta Be Stopped
Reminder (because this trips a lot of folks up): you can’t even get into the Drop Shop if your avatar is in motion. You also won’t be able to access your Garage in order to swap bike frames or wheelsets.
Once you stop moving, you’ll be able to do both.
How Pricing Works
Most of these frames and wheels are virtual versions of real-life bike parts, and their Drops price reflects real-life pricing, with 1 Drop being roughly equal to 1 US cent. (So a $10,000US bike frame will cost roughly 1,000,000 Drops, while a $1500US wheelset will cost 150,000 Drops.)
Level Locks
Most items in the Drop Shop are level-locked, meaning you have to reach a certain Zwift level before you can make the purchase.
Learn all about XP and levels for Zwift riders >
What Should I Buy?
Now this is the big question! Each bike frame and wheelset has its own characteristics in terms of “aeroness” and weight. The best setup for you depends on the route you’ll be riding, what sort of rider you are, and how you plan to approach your ride.
It can be confusing, but we’ve put together the “Zwift Shopping Guide” which lists recommended purchases at each Zwift level. You may also be interested in our speed test charts:
- Wheel Performance Charts
- Frame Performance Charts
- Wheel and Frame Performance Scatter Plots
- Tron vs Top Performers Scatter Plot
Questions or Comments?
Share below!
Has there been any mention on whether the shop will be expanded to sell clothes and other accessories? There’s plenty of free kit available but it would be nice to be able to buy some different looks as well.
Ooooh! Someone should tell Zwift I’d happily pay a million drops for a throwback Marco Pantani pirate casquette!
Haven’t heard any murmurings at ZHQ. But I’d love to see this happen!
Is there anyway of removing bikes from your garage? I’ve got some bikes that I don’t use anymore as I’ve upgraded (for instance after levelling up and having and access to a new bike being unlocked).
I would like a couple of “closets” where I could still keep less used clothing and gear 🙂
There is not.
So never buy more than you want to use. Its a bore to have to scroll through too many bikes you never, use since you can not get rid of them again. Same reason I stopped the Italy Challence before finishing to avoid getting one more bike, which I wouldn´t use.
I use one of the best allround setups: new Canyon Aeroad and DT Swiss. So my drops are pretty unuseful. I’m level 33.
you can get a better bike, the specialized s works or the cervelo s5 they are faster than canyon aeroad. if you have tron, even better
This probably a dumb question, but I assume once I buy a frame or wheelset, the cost is deducted from my total drops? The reason I ask is that I’ve unlocked the Trek Edmona but I’d really like a Synapse or a Tarmac. If I buy the Edmona and it wipes out my drops, then I have to wait even longer to accumulate enough drops to buy the other frames.
If I buy a new bike et a set of wheels with my drops, will it be longer ton reach a new level? Or are the levels determined by xp?
I am wondering if buying stuff from the drop store will slow me down in the progression on levels because I would have to gt back to a certain number of drops before being able to reach level 16 for example.
Hi, can you please help and explain to me these two questions.
Would be really Nice to be able to buy wereld for my handbike, seems impossible at the moment!
Wereld=wheels
when there will be an update for the garage?
it would be nice to resell your not using bikes and wheels and get some sweat drops.