Steering was launched less than a week ago as a Zwift FutureWorks test, and ever since we’ve seen lots of questions from riders who want to test it out but can’t find the new course.
We’re here to help, with a quick guide to finding and riding Zwift’s new MTB course: Repack Ridge!
Zwift Companion Required
Make sure you have Zwift Companion installed and running on your mobile device, (ideally) mounted on your handlebars.
It must be running and connected to your live Zwift session (you should see your arrow moving on the map as you ride) in order for you to gain access to ride Repack Ridge.
Zwift Companion is required in order to access the steering demo because steering only works through the Zwift Companion app on your mobile phone.
Where Is It?
Zwift’s new Repack Ridge MTB course is a one-way side trail off of the Titans Grove. Here you can see its location in relation to downtown Watopia and other points of interest.
If you enter Titans Grove from the north and ride south for another 2 miles you will arrive at the trailhead, which is on the right.
Which Route Do I Choose?
There is no route choice which puts you directly on Repack Ridge–the best you can do is choose a route which will take you to the trailhead after a few miles of riding.
Choose “Dust In the Wind“, “Muir and the Mountain” or “Quatch Quest” Watopia routes for the most direct line to the new trail. This way you won’t need to select any manual turns until the (?) prompt comes up near the new trail (see below).
Riding the Course
As long as Zwift Companion is connected to your ride, and you approach the trailhead from the north, you should get an intersection popup where you can choose to turn right onto Repack Ridge. It looks like this:
Select the right turn (?) and you will be taken to the start of the trail, where you must confirm that you want to try the Zwift Steering Test.
Then just center your bars (with the phone mounted on them) and proceed as directed. Have fun! It’s time to unlock that Zwift Mountain bike!
Hiello ¡¡¡
I wanted to ask if it is possible to do the TrailTrack in the opposite direction, or only one way. I also assume that once finished if I return along the road to the junction I can take it again without having to complete the chosen route, is it possible?
Thank you ¡¡¡¡
No, Repack Ridge is currently a one-way trail.
Hello, I am curious about steering … do people ride trainers without the front wheel mounted on a lift? Doesn’t sitting on a stationary real bike, screwing the steering left and right while the wheel stays in the same place, cause stress on the headset? Can these rides be done without steering?
Yes, it can mess up your bike if you don’t have a turntable of some sort under the front wheel. And no, you can’t ride Repack Ridge without steering!
I don’t understand this… I have the front wheel sitting one a mat on the floor. There’s no problem steering. I have the phone strapped to the stem with pieces of old inner tube. My Wahoo Kickr trainer is on a folded rug so steering does tend to cause the trainer to move a bit. I have a plastic lift I used to use with my old Road Machine dumb trainer (which contacts the rear tire) but I’ve not tried it here. Repack Ridge was a LOT better than I expected. I felt the same reaction I feel when actually… Read more »
I tried to get on the trail a few times, but Companion never showed the buttons to turn onto the trail. I used Companion to turn around and ride past it a few times so I know Companion is working. After giving up, I later used Companion to turn onto the desert route and that also worked. Is there something else I need to do? I assume the trailhead is where there is a dirt path and wood bike stalls with mountain bikes in them?
The only way to get access to the trail is from North – if you com from there you’ll see a ‘?’ sign turning right – there is no way to enter from the south – maybe that helps
Same w me. Not getting right turn prompt entering from the north.
Hello
I mounted the mobile phone on the bar but can not steering.what is wrong?
Hallo,
I have no steering. App is Running. What is the problem? Samsung Smartphone is using.
did a message pop up about steering? if not you didn’t go far enough
This is so cool. Tried it today for the first time and did several loops. worked perfect. when can we expect more courses?
hi, may I ask what computer you run zwift on and what phone you ran the companion?
I have 2012 macbook pro (core i5 2.5GHz + 8Gb) and there was a delay of about a second for the steering that really made the experience horrible, couldn’t stay on the trail…
I had to turn the steering sensitivity down to around 20%. Otherwise it’s too twitchy. It was amazing once I set the sensitivity, though.
As a beginning Zwifter, it appears I cannot access Repack Ridge, because unless you’re on Level 10, you can’t get onto the trails leading up to it. Am I correct?
Incorrect. Some of the routes may not be available to you, but you can certainly get to Repack Ridge.
I used it yesterday with my Kickr Climb and it was pretty cool. The course is tougher than I expected and about as realistic as it can be in a virtual world. The short climbs are tough…I hope I’m not harming the Climb with the steering, but inputs are small to effect directional change on the course. Maybe Wahoo will come out with some sort of turntable for the Climb, but it worked.
Do you need to be at a certain level to get the prompt…I had been by serval times and no prompt? Thanks
Nope. Just make sure you’re connected in Companion app, and going in the right direction.
Doesn’t work for me either, I have my iPad mounted on the handlebars, running Zwift and the companion app map with the moving arrow comes up in the top right corner. Rode past the Repack ridge entrance in both directions about 20 times to make sure. No right turn option pops up at all.
Hi I ride to the trailhead but nothing pops up for a choice to go onto it. I am pretty sure I have zwift companion running too- what am I doing wrong??
How do I know I am connected to companion app for my ride?
It’ll show your location in Companion on the live map of its connected properly.
I find it tricky to get the companion app to connect. I had to restart the companion app while I was riding. Then it lost connection while I was on the trail, but when I hit “center steering” it reconnected. This may have just been a coincidence. Perhaps it’s related to wifi connection.
Still can’t get onto trail 🙁
No prompt or ability to turn onto it! Would using a smart trainer ( opposed to one with external sensors) help?
Nope. The only requirement is to have Companion connected to your ride… and to approach the turn off from the right direction.
I’ve tried a few times to get on the trail. Companion app is running but no prompts despite following all instructions. Bummer. Looks like fun.
Please Zwift Powers that be -fix these bugs for us mountain bikers who want to try this course
Is it possible to ride the mtb course several times, as laps? Or do I have to return and pair the phone each time I start the track?
Neither 🙂 – just leave the trail, head north on the normal road, pass the northern entry for a littel distance, turn again and choose the ‘?’ for reentering. There is no need to pair the phone – just ride the track and return to without steering
Rode the course twice today. You must enter at the same point each time. Ride past the turn in and reverse course to re enter. Great fun, I hope this is just the beginning.
Repack ridge Does not work for me either, I have my iPad mounted on the handlebars, running Zwift, and the companion app map with the moving arrow comes up in the top right corner. Rode past the Repack ridge entrance in both directions about 20 times to make sure. No right turn option pops up at all.
Any ideas ? What am I doing wrong ?
You have to have companion running on a separate device (your phone, for example) from the device running Zwift.
Had exactly the same problem – no sign at the trailhead. Eventually solved the problem by approaching from the south, riding past the trail and then doing a U turn. Still no sign but managed to turn onto the trial using the shortcut key on a remote keyboard.
If I’m going for the Dust in Wind route achievement and I ride Repack Ridge rather than the tarmac portion that it replaces, will I still get the badge as long as I complete the ride and go through the desert start/finish at the end? I’d hate to do the whole ride and not get the badge because I did the mtb portion.
Doubt it. I wouldn’t chance it!
Do I need to be on a MTB to ride the trail? or will it automatically switch me to a MTB when I tun onto the trail? It would be weird to ride that trail on a Parlee ESX…
It’ll switch you.
Thanks a lot for this description and your support 👍🏻🙏🏻🚴🏼
Hello, tried Repack Ridge for the first time today en really enjoyed it. I hope there is going to be more of this. I had to slide the steering sensitivity down to 15% or so to be able to stay on the straights, but then sensitivity was too low for the steep corners. May be a matter of getting used to?
I own the Elite Sterzo Smart – it works perfectly. But I have 4 questions: Is it planned to create another MTB trail? Can I save somewhere my results after finishing the MTB ride? It shows me my result for a few seconds and disappears without any possibility to save Is it planned (and when if so) to use Elite Sterzo Smart to select the way instead of cursor keys or mouse? It would be very convenient just to use handlebar on the bike to choose the way or to make the U-turn without using any keyboard… If it would… Read more »
Hi I’m not getting the right turn pop up when approaching repack ridge. U turned several times and nothing. Now what?
That generally means you don’t have the Companion app connected to your live Zwift session. Get that going then ride by again!
Hi,
after numerous attempts yesterday I finished the repack ridge successfully. But now I’m unable to find the new offroad mtb trails. Where are they? Also in Watopia?
Thanks a lot!!!
I did my first ride on Repack Ridge today. I loved it. I think Zwift needs 20 more of these trails. Way more entertaining to be able to steer my way down a single track vs just watching my avatar ride the road. Thanks for the info
As of 1/29/21 I can’t access Repack Ridge. This is what has happened so far. I got my Kickr Bick, Joined Zwift. With engineering and fabrication background it was obvious I could modify the handle bars on Kickr Bike to allow it to freely steer. This is an easy modification. Using Zwift Companion mounted to handle bars had a blast in Repack Ridge, steering through the course while working out. Then on 1/29/21 the initial pairing and ride screens showed for the first time for me the future works steering option using button side of Kickr handle bars. From that… Read more »
I just finished a round on the ridge. Works fine.
Tried once , but using my phone and bluetooth , it was all focus on correcting steering all the time instead of the ride . The steering was too un realistic
does it work with electronic steering? (I ride on a Wahoo Kickr Bike)
As of the latest update, Zwift says the Wahoo KICKR Bike can steer on Repack, yes.
What about if you have the Neo Tacx Bike that has a locked front end, which I have? Is there a way to ride the trail?
started to explore repack ridge, realised I didn’t want to do it as it was a “steering test” so exited the course…at which point my avatar and bike took off, and I had a fun 15 minutes flying over the scenery (much of it water). Then it looked like I was heading into a cliff, and I went straight through the rock and out the other side. It might be a bug, but what a fun bug!
Hi! Sorry to bother you! I have a question, how does Elite Sterzo Smart work with zwift now? I don’t have a zwift companion and I just have a zwift on both a windows 10 PC and an android tablet. Can I somehow use Elite Sterzo Smart on my equipment? And preferably on a PC? If so , what else do I need
to connect ? I have sensors on a mountain bike connected to ant+ – usb.
Noticed a bug yesterday:
Used Repack Ridge during a ZRL TTT warm up.Stopped and saved the ride half way through Repack Ridge and then joined the ZRL event from the main menu.
Although I was back on my TT bike, it seems that some properties (aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance) were still based on the MTB steering ride. I needed to push 1wkg more than the others to stay in the draft and finally abandoned.
Would be great if Zwift can correct this, but up until then do not use Repack Ridge for race warm-up