If you’re racing on Zwift, using the fastest frame and wheels available can cut some significant time off your efforts. But figuring out where to spend your hard-earned Drops can be confusing! So we’ve put together this table which lists the fastest frame and wheelset available at every Zwift level.
Keep in mind this list applies only to road bikes on flat and rolling routes. The data here doesn’t apply to climbing races or time trials using TT frames. (That info will come in other posts.)
Fastest Frames
| Level | Fastest Frame | Time Savings |
| 1 | Zwift Steel (Free) | 0s |
| 3 | Zwift Carbon (55,000) | 5.1s |
| 5 | Parlee ESX (153,200) | 30.9s |
| 8 | Liv Langma Advanced SL 2025 (1,000,000) | 65.2s |
| 10 | Canyon Aeroad 2024 (1,100,00)* | 68.1s |
* The Canyon Aeroad 2024, Felt AR (level 23), Cervelo S5 2020 (level 36), Specialized Venge S-Works 2019 (level 37), Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 (level 40), and Pinarello Dogma F 2024 (level 40) all turn in times within ~1 second of each other in our flat tests, so we consider them to be essentially equal in flat performance. They differ significantly in climb performance, though (learn more) so you’ll want to pay attention to that metric when choosing a bike.
Fastest Wheelsets
| Level | Fastest Wheelset | Time Savings |
| 1 | Zwift Classic (Free) | 0s |
| 3 | Zwift 32mm Carbon (100,000) | 6.2s |
| 6 | Shimano C40 (300,000) | 16s |
| 7 | Mavic Cosmic CXR60c (150,000) | 26.4s |
| 12 | Shimano C60 (325,000) | 31.6s |
| 15 | Roval Rapide CLX (500,000) | 33.4s |
| 16 | Roval CLX64 (525,000) | 40.1s |
| 25 | Zipp 808 (425,000) | 42.1s |
| 28 | Enve SES 8.9 (550,000) fastest non-disc1 | 52.9s |
| 29 | DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 651 | 52.4s |
| 37 | Zipp 858/Super9 (750,000) | 54.7s |
| 40 | DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 85/Disc fastest disc2 | 58.7s |
1 The Enve SES 8.9 wheels are just slightly faster than the DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 65 in our tests, but that small 0.5s advantage is within our test’s margin of error. Additionally, the DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 65 outclimb the Enve SES 8.9 by 11.3 seconds over an hour.
2 Disc wheels perform better on TT frames than road frames, so the performance gap between disc and non-disc wheels will be larger on TT frames vs road frames. The data above applies to road frames only.
Total time savings of fastest frame and wheelset over stock Zwift setup (Zwift Steel frame and Zwift Classic wheels) across 1 hour of riding: 68.1+58.7=126.8 seconds
Times above based on our flat speed tests, done with a solo 75kg, 183cm rider at 300 watts on Watopia’s very flat Tempus Fugit route.
Strategic Shopping
It may seem simplest to just purchase each frame or wheelset on the list as soon as you level up, but if you want to maximize performance you also need to take Zwift’s Bike Upgrade functionality into account, since it rewards riders who stay on the same frame long enough to fully upgrade it. Simply put: it doesn’t make sense to buy each frame/wheelset on this list, since you won’t be able to fully upgrade it before having access to buy the next fastest frame. So you’ll need to choose your purchases/upgrades wisely.
Speaking of upgrades: all the time data in this post is from un-upgraded versions of the frames. Upgraded frames will be even faster. Get more details here >
Don’t have enough Drops? Keep riding – you’ll get them soon enough! (Learn how to earn more Drops here.) And if you’re wanting to level up faster, check out How to Earn More XP and Level Up Faster on Zwift.
What About the Tron Bike?
The Zwift Concept Z1 (Tron) bike is much faster than the stock Zwift Steel+Classic wheels setup, and in fact just slightly faster than the fastest setup shown above.
The Tron bike doesn’t climb well, though, a fact you’ll want to consider if you are racing a course with any significant hills.
We didn’t include the Tron in the chart above since you can’t separate the Tron’s frame from its wheels, and there is no set level where the Tron bike is unlocked. That said, we think it’s certainly a bike worth unlocking! Here’s how to do that >
Want to look closer at the Tron bike’s performance compared to other top racing setups? See Speed Tests: Concept Z1 (Tron) Bike vs Top Performers.
Improvement by Level
The biggest performance gains come early in a Zwifter’s level progression. Here’s how much time you would be saving at each level if you upgraded to the recommended setups above:
You can see that purchasing the fastest frame and wheelset at level 10 delivers 74% of the overall possible improvement. And once you’ve hit level 40, the only way you’ll get faster is by racing smarter and training stronger!
Digging Deeper
Want to dig deeper into the speeds of various frames and wheels? Check out our ranking charts and public test data.
Your Thoughts
Hopefully this helps you select a bike for your next race, no matter your Zwift level. Got questions or comments? Post below!
Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike's performance relative to others may also change. We don't always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.
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