This week’s big Zwift update adds a new, highly prestigious type of bike to Zwift: the Halo Bike! These super unique bikes take a lot of work to unlock, a ton of Drops to purchase, and oodles more work and Drops to fully upgrade.
There are currently four available:
- Pinarello Espada
- Specialized Project ’74
- Cannondale R4000 Roller Blade
- Zwift Concept Z1
Let’s dive into some details about how Halo Bikes work, then look at what makes each of these bikes special, including the results of our performance tests.
Table of Contents
Unlocking Halo Bikes
Halo Bikes can be seen as brand loyalty rewards, because unlocking a brand’s Halo Bike requires you to fully upgrade three frames from that brand.
Example: fully upgrade (all 5 stages) the Pinarello Dogma F 2024, Pinarello Bolide TT, and Pinarello Dogma F10 to unlock the ability to purchase the Pinarello Espada.
Simply unlocking a Halo Bike doesn’t mean you own it, though. You still have to purchase the bike (which includes a wheelset that cannot be changed), at a hefty price of 10 million Drops. Yes, you read that right: 10. Million. Drops.
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Upgrading Halo Bikes
Halo Bikes can be upgraded in 5 stages, just like every other bike in Zwift. But the work required to unlock each upgrade, and the Drops cost to purchase those upgrades, is around 5x more than even the best non-Halo Bikes. Wow!
That means it will cost you another 10 million Drops to fully upgrade a Halo Bike, on top of all the riding just to unlock each upgrade stage.
When it comes to performance at each upgrade stage, bikes of the same type will basically gain the same performance increases at each stage. (You can see this by comparing the pattern of dots on the scatterplots of the Project 74, R4000, and Concept Z1 below.) So, for example, a stage 3 Pinarello Dogma F 2024 frame will have gained the same boosts as a stage 4 Specialized Project 74 Halo Bike, since both are classified as road racing frames.
Below, we’ve listed the details of each upgrade stage for each bike.
Pinarello Espada Details
In 1994, Miguel “Big Mig” Induráin set a new hour record, breaking the 53-kilometer mark for the first time in history with a distance of 53.040 kilometers in Bourdeaux. And he did it atop the Pinarello Espada, a bike which quickly became legendary itself!
This bike was introduced to the game in April 2024 for the Pinarello Espada Challenge, and it has the distinction of being the only Halo Bike classified as a TT frame.
Designed by Fausto Beroglio, the carbon-framed, Campagnolo-equipped bike weighed in at 7.5 kilograms and was custom-molded to fit Big Mig. Only four versions of the bike were ever created, and Induráin won both of the long time trials at the 1995 Tour de France on a version modified to allow shifting.
Performance by Upgrade Stage
Like all frames in Zwift, the Pinarello Espada can be upgraded in five stages, with each upgrade resulting in a performance improvement. The Espada’s upgrade stages are as follows:
- Ride for 20 hours, pay 400,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride for 30 hours, pay 800,000 Drops for a weight reduction
- Ride for 40 hours, pay 1,200,000 Drops for a drivetrain efficiency improvement
- Ride for 50 hours, pay 2,600,000 Drops for a weight reduction
- Ride for 60 hours, pay 5,000,0000 Drops for an aero upgrade
If you’re wondering precisely how each upgrade stage impacts the bike’s performance, here is a chart showing speed test results at each upgrade stage (using our standard 75kg/183cm bot riding at 300W):
The Espada, it could be said, performs like a top-quality TT frame from the 1990’s. It loses ~26 seconds to the fastest TT frame in game (the Cadex Tri) across an hour, so you won’t want to use this for TT racing.
It’s also a heavy bike. It loses to nearly every TT frame when it comes to climbing, even at 4 W/kg, where its stellar aero performance still factors in significantly. It loses over 30 seconds in an hour of climbing compared to the best TT climbing frames (Scott Plasma RC Ultimate and Felt IA 2.0).
Specialized Project ’74 Details
The Project 74 bike from Specialized was conceived by Robert Egger to honor the founding of Specialized in 1974. Forged by the desire to “Innovate or Die”, this bike was Egger’s answer to the challenge of thinking outside the UCI box and beyond the double triangle.
Performance by Upgrade Stage
Like all frames in Zwift, the Specialized Project 74 can be upgraded in five stages, with each upgrade resulting in a performance improvement. The Project 74’s upgrade stages are as follows:
- Ride 550km, pay 400,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 1050km, pay 800,000 Drops for a weight reduction
- Ride 1600km, pay 1,200,000 Drops for a drivetrain efficiency improvement
- Ride 2150km, pay 2,600,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 2650km, pay 5,000,000 Drops for a weight reduction
If you’re wondering precisely how each upgrade stage impacts the bike’s performance, here is a chart showing speed test results at each upgrade stage (using our standard 75kg/183cm bot riding at 300W):
On flat roads, the Project 74 outperforms the best aero road setups in game, beating even the Tron bike by ~10 seconds across an hour. It’s the most aero road bike available in Zwift today. Take that, UCI!
On climbs, though, it’s a different story! This bike is actually the worst climber of the non-TT Halo Bikes, losing ~75 seconds to the best climbing bikes over an hour.
Cannondale R4000 Roller Blade Details
The Cannondale R4000 Roller Blade is a visionary concept bike from the mid 1990s featuring four inline skate wheels instead of a regular front wheel.
Performance by Upgrade Stage
Like all frames in Zwift, the Cannondale R4000 Roller Blade can be upgraded in five stages, with each upgrade resulting in a performance improvement. The R4000’s upgrade stages are as follows:
- Ride 550km, pay 400,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 1050km, pay 800,000 Drops for a weight reduction
- Ride 1600km, pay 1,200,000 Drops for a drivetrain efficiency improvement
- Ride 2150km, pay 2,600,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 2650km, pay 5,000,000 Drops for a weight reduction
If you’re wondering precisely how each upgrade stage impacts the bike’s performance, here is a chart showing speed test results at each upgrade stage (using our standard 75kg/183cm bot riding at 300W):
The R4000 is faster than the Concept Z1 on flat ground, but just a few seconds behind the Project 74. It beats the Tron bike by ~6 seconds across an hour, which means it beats all of the best “production” bike/wheel combos in game when it comes to flat performance.
On climbs, the R4000 is, like the Project 74, not a great performer (but anyone looking at this bike would assume this). It outclimbs the Project 74 by several seconds, but is handily beat by production climbing bikes, losing ~67 seconds over an hour to the best climbers.
Zwift Concept Z1 Details
Zwift’s Concept Z1, aka “The Tron Bike”, has been in game since early days, and as such was the first “Halo Bike” in Zwift. Unlike the other bikes above, the only way to get the Tron is to finish the Climb Mt. Everest Challenge (including the extra bit).
This bike has some unique features, including rider posture idiosyncrasies and wheels that light up differently based on power output. (Dial in your slider just right and you’ll find some cool dual-tone lights!)
Performance by Upgrade Stage
Like all frames in Zwift, the Concept Z1 can be upgraded in five stages, with each upgrade resulting in a performance improvement. The Concept Z1’s upgrade stages are as follows:
- Ride 550km, pay 400,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 1050km, pay 800,000 Drops for a weight reduction
- Ride 1600km, pay 1,200,000 Drops for a drivetrain efficiency improvement
- Ride 2150km, pay 2,600,000 Drops for an aero upgrade
- Ride 2650km, pay 5,000,000 Drops for a weight reduction
If you’re wondering precisely how each upgrade stage impacts the bike’s performance, here is a chart showing speed test results at each upgrade stage (using our standard 75kg/183cm bot riding at 300W):
The Concept Z1 is the fastest aero performer you can get with a reasonable amount of work in game, since the Project 74 and R4000 bikes will take significantly more time and effort! That said, the Concept Z1 just barely edges out the top aero performers, gaining ~1 second across an hour of flat riding.
Those top aero performers, though, handily beat the Concept Z1 on climbs, which means you may not want to use the Concept Z1 in a race that has any significant hills. Learn more about how the Concept Z1 compares to other top performer road frame+wheel combos by checking out our “Speed Tests: Concept Z1 (Tron) Bike vs Top Performers” post.
Questions or Comments?
What do you think of Zwift’s new Halo Bike concept? Which one are you working to unlock first, and why? Share below!
Well, if I ever get the Tron bike it will probably be the only one I worry about… But now the weather is warm again so my Zwifting is limited. Too bad outside-ride climbing data doesn’t integrate! That would be amazing.
if you have a powermeter on your bike you could run Zwift on your smartphone carrying it in your pocket… 😉
Yes, but not good for the planet…
For about 30 minutes before my phone battery dies. 😂
So to upgrade the Tron, do I first need to upgrade 3 Zwift bikes? If so which are the easiest three to upgrade?
Basically all the Zwift bikes are low-budget bikes, meaning they’re the easiest to upgrade. So just pick your three.
Which frame are “zwift bikes”? Is there is a list somewhere? I’ve never opened the drop shop so excuse my naivety (74M drops and counting😑).
Go here and look at the bottom of the list: https://zwiftinsider.com/frames
So then the answer is “Yes”? If I already have tron, then I need to upgrade three bikes…and then go back to riding my tron at that point?
Correct, Andrew.
zwift bikes are the easiest to unlock. road bike, carbon & TT (all of which are easier than their brand counterparts)
Is there more bikes for “brand” you must have before upgrading the Z1?
I have about 15 million drops and already own the Tron bike. What’s the process to fully upgrade it – is there a bullet list of how to do that quickly?
Look at items 1-5 under the Concept Z1 details above.
Yes, but that’s only the Tron bike itself — to clarify, what 3 Zwift bikes would make most sense to upgrade to unlock being able to upgrade the Tron?
I don’t know there is a difference. Pick 3 that are probably already in your garage. Or get another, they are cheap.
Per the Bike Upgrades notes here (https://zwiftinsider.com/bike-upgrades/), the Concept Z1 (Tron bike) is unique on [the halo] 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.
the TRON is 10million, + 8,000 km of riding for complete upgrade O_o
“Is there a bullet list of how to do that quickly?” Nope. Because it’s impossible to do that quickly. 😆
Perhaps “efficiently” is a better choice of words. I’m mostly wondering what 3 Zwift bikes to work on first, before turning back to the Tron bike.
I’m surprised that no one has really figured this out. I’ve fully upgraded my Lab71 (all-rounder hills), my Canyon Aeroad (for flat, sprinty courses), the Cadex for TTs, and am halfway for the Aethos (climbs).
I’ve decided to go the Tron route instead of updating two more Cannondales to get the expensive (and admittely…ugly) roller bike since I already own the Tron.
I’m trying to figure out the most efficient way myself…which is another way of saying the least time required.
I’ve been thinking the Zwift Aero, the Zwift mountain bike, and then…the handbike since it’s the most aero? Or maybe just the Zwift carbon?
Details about which bike is easiest to upgrade depends on your riding style, but the following can be said about the Zwift bikes:
So unless you really hate climbing and want to avoid it at all costs, the mountain bike should be the quickest one to upgrade by far. Use it only on long climbs and switch to a duration-based bike for flats and (most importantly) downhills.
For most people, the TT bike will be quicker to upgrade than any of the duration-based ones (unless you almost exclusively do rides above 40km/h average, e.g. fast group or robopacer rides). As the third bike, the Zwift Handcycle is the best choice if you only ride solo. Once you’re doing a few group or robopacer rides, the Zwift Aero will most likely be faster. It seems almost impossible to put the difference in numbers.
Gosh. There is so much information and choice, I honestly don’t know what to do.
Need more new routes before bike upgrades which will be unachievable for many including myself as the UK will be going into summer so I will be riding less on Zwift probably from now until the end off October.
Looks like the 3 non-Tron halo bikes are just novelties then? I guess the meta for the time being will be max out the SWorks SL8 for not-flat races, and max out the Tron for flat races, and ignore everything else.
Why not max out the Specialized Project 74 for flat races? It’s faster than the Tron… and nobody else will have it!
It’s only 10s/hr and I don’t do races on Tempus. Even just getting Tron maxed out will take a year at my historical average riding rate.
Less than 10hrs from having the Specialized Project 74 , this comment has been the fuel to go after the SP74 . When I got the Tron in 48 days that was alot of work , but getting to level 100 topped that in 14 months . The cherry on the top will be the Specialized Project 74. Thats for the fuel Eric
The Chart for seconds saved on the Espada shows the Espada as far and away the fastest bike on flats in game. This chart doesn’t agree with the written narrative. Which one is telling the truth?
Espada is a TT bike. All TT bikes are faster than road bikes but you do not get the draft benefit and cannot use them in many races. It isn’t faster than the best TT bikes.
Aaron, you’re hired! Saving me having to reply to all these comments. 😅
Will work for drops..and maybe some kms towards these upgrades! 😂
Eric, am I missing something… I’ve downloaded the public data and looking at Stage 5 TT bikes, the Espada hands down is fastest TT bike. Do I need to add wheel times to the other TT frames? Yes it loses ~ 30 seconds to Cadex Tri on climb, but on flat showing almost 50 seconds better.
Yes, you need to add wheels savings to the other TT frames.
Thanks for this comment as well , made me go after the Specialized Halo . Road bike can be rode in more races than a TT bike . Less than 10 hrs from unlocking the Specialized Halo bike .
@Eric Schlange
A fully upgraded Tron seems to be the fastest climber and on the flats with 67/144 beating the Tarmac SL8 with Zipp 454.
Or haven’t you posted the maxed out numbers yet of the Tarmac ?
You’re comparing the 5 upgrade Tron to a base Tarmac. If you assume the Tarmac gets a similar proportional upgrade as the Tron, then it should be still much faster on climbs and will remain a touch slower on flats.
Yes. What Aaron said. Both bikes will get the same proportional upgrades, so it’s really a question of which is fastest at stage 5. And that would still be the S-Works Tarmac SL8 (at climbing, at least – Tron still a bit better on purely flat roads).
are you certain that the stage 5 Tarmac SL8 will be a better climber than the stage 5 Aethos?
I figured that when giving it more thought…
Switching from Tron to upgrade the S-works Tarmac SL8 🤗
Are these upgrade amounts cumulative or per stage? 2650km total for stage 5 or 2650 after doing each amount for the previous stages?
Also, do you have a chart for what the amounts are needed for the lower bikes? (total miles needed to get the lowest tier bike to stage 5)
Hey Lefty- I believe it’s a total of 8000km (4971miles) of riding and 10million drops to max out one of these Halos (except the Espada is 200 hours)…not including the work you have to do to the 3 regular manufacturer bikes before you can get started.
No doubt it’s a mountain of work!
Hey 🙂 That’s what it seems like. You know I’m good for a mountain of work. I’m over here trying to calculate which bike to upgrade for my record attempt haha!
Right now it seems to me that the best thing to do is get and ride the SL8 pretty exclusively. If it’s pretty similar to the Tron’s upgrade you can expect to save around 12 seconds with the first aero upgrade alone. I think it’s also less than half of the effort per upgrade level so with only 200km in the SL8 is the fastest thing out there and the delta only widens with each upgrade level. The only real choice becomes which wheels to use for the course you’re on.
Long term it’s also a step towards the Project 74 which looks to be the fastest thing on two wheels that’s not a TT. But that could take well over a year for even a dedicated Zwifter.
Alright Aaron wins the Zwift “Insider of the year” award for his stellar answers!
I echo Aaron. I put in the sweat equity and upgraded SL8, Aethos, and Sworks Venge to 5 then bought the Project. As I have so many drops saved over the years, I did not ride with pacers much (can get boring riding same route). Took me longer this way, but had more fun mixing it up. To keep things fresh, I’ve also been working on upgrading one gravel bike (crux), Cadex Tri, and 3 Zwift bikes as well. Because bike diversity (take that DJT) is you know, fun🚲.
Are there any whispers about future Halo bikes from other manufacturers? I’m probably upgrading the Aeroad first regardless, because I don’t have enough levels for the other top bikes, but I’m also hoping that I can use that as progress towards a Canyon Halo bike some time in the future.
Would love to see the Speedmax Moonshot CFR come in as the overall fastest TT bike.
Does upgrading S-Works bikes count towards the 3 Specialized upgrades needed for the Specialized Project ’74 Halo bike?
Yes. S-Works is just a sub-brand of Specialized…
Can I upgrade my SWORKS helmets too? JK
Tron is in an odd spot now. Much harder to upgrade than the SL8, only 1 second faster on the flat and much slower uphill
So I need 5×3 = 15 improvements on Zwift bikes (should finish the first one today) and then 8000km = 5000 miles on the Tron bike to finish the full upgrades.
Sounds like a decent goal to get that done before the end of the year.
Smarter choice would obviously be to first get all the add-ons for the new S-Works Tarmac though to make the fastest bike in game even faster?
How much Faster is the Specialized Project ’74 compared to the sl8 with all 5 upgrades And the fastest disc Wheels? If i understand the article correct 10sec per hour +/- and it is a lot slower up a hill. Is that correct?
Is there a chart comparing all maxed out bikes (halo and “normal” bikes)?
Not yet. Working on it!
Are the Halo bike upgrades more significant than the high-end bike upgrades? They are definitely more expensive in time invested and drops. Would be interesting to know if a Halo bike that started off worse than a high-end bike at Stage 0 ends up better than the same high-end bike at Stage 5 – just due to magnitude of upgrades. Looking forward to the chart.
@Eric Schlange Did you get to any conclusion on this matter?
I’m currently working on fully upgrading my SL8, and would like to know if the Project 74 is something worth to pursuit, since “on stars” it doesn’t look very attractive….
I take this opportunity to thank the huge work you’ve been doing all this years for the Zwift Community, Amazing Job!!
Ride On!
LS
🙏
I’m guessing there are no visual changes to the Tron once it achieves Halo status Eric? Seems a shame. Not sure I want to ride around on the Carbon/Steel/Buffalo/etc for weeks to get something that looks identical to what I have now 😆
As far as I know, there are no visual changes when you upgrade any bike. But I agree it would be cool if there was!
Bummer… I’m a Felt/Colnago guy. So I guess no upgrades for me 😢… But I do have the Tron Bike…In your opinion, do you think getting the Max Up-Grades for the Tron will give it back some of its Climbing ability 🤔
Sure, because upgrades include weight reductions.
Feels pretty ironic that the Tron bike, earned through hours of climbing, is now a rather lousy climber.
who cares? The tron is ugly as sin, unrealistic and you can’t tell when you’re drafting on the thing. I got one, rode it once and never rode it again.
not ugly. just change the pretty colors! And mix in electric socks!!
So when you compare these frames to other frames (ie “It loses ~26 seconds to the fastest TT frame in game (the Cadex Tri) across an hour”) you are comparing the un-upgraded versions of both? And then the comparison of the upgraded versions would be similar because they both get upgraded by similar amounts/ways? Am I understanding correct?
That was the way that I read it.
Correct, Tim.
Do we know anything about upgrading gravel bikes? I ask because my first 3 targets to upgrade will be the S-Works Tarmac SL8, the Aethos, and the Cadex Tri, which should set me up for just about all the racing I do. After that, the only other frame I sometimes race is the Specialized gravel bike. If I could upgrade that, that would be the 3rd Specialized bike I’d need to go for the Specialized Halo bike so I could have the fastest bike if I ever raced a completely flat route (would probably have to be really flat to make it worth it over the SL8). If you can’t upgrade gravel bikes (or if there is no point after the rolling resistance changes), then I’d probably just upgrade something cheap from Specialized to go for the Project 74.
Gravel and MTBs have upgrade paths. They’ll take longer to do though. MTBs seem to require climbing, gravel bikes require distance.
The Aethos now has no point, the SL8 is a better climber stock, and the upgrades are proportional. So I’m not going to upgrade the Aethos personally, and I say this *after* having climbed 2000m on it and unlocked the first Aethos. I then read up on it and realized the S-works SL8 is a better climber even, while being more aero than the Aethos. I don’t believe the Aethos occupies any spots on the efficient frontier now and is basically not useful
No, the upgrades are not proportional since Aethos is a “climbing bike” and follows the climbing bike upgrade path, while SL8 follows the typical upgrade path. So I suspect that Aethos will be a faster climber when comparing the stage 5 versions of the two.
After level 5 upgrades, the Aethos should be something like 20 seconds faster over an hour of climbing than the SL8 with the same wheelset due to upgrades making it 60s faster in climbing (but only 22 seconds faster on the flat), while the SL8 at level 5 will only 36s faster climbing (and 30s faster on the flats) than it is at level 0.
Yes, this is my expectation as well. Maybe Eric will confirm.
Not sure on exact numbers but yes, Paul and anderfo, as a climbing bike the Aethos will get more climbing upgrades than the SL8. More on this in a future post for sure.
Okay – I grant that, forgot that the upgrades won’t quite be proportional. I expect the level 5 S-Works SL8 to be very near the Aethos in pure climbing though, and with better aero may in fact even out or exceed it in *most* (non-Alpe / non-VenTop) races. All I can say is I’m definitely upgrading an SL8 first.
@Eric Schlange I had a question and an observation though –
Obviously way too addicted to progress bars over here ;-), but hey, it’s motivating some good endurance training.
Zwift “banks” your effort DURING your activity. So if you hit an upgrade level mid-ride, you’ll get a popup banner. But you can keep riding and you won’t “lose” additional miles toward the next upgrade step.
When you end your ride and click to buy the upgrade, your additional miles are then credited to the next step.
BUT (and this is a big but) – if you don’t buy the upgrade before saving your activity, those banked miles WILL be lost. They only last until you save your ride.
As for your Zwift Carbon question – if bikes are neutralized, they’re fully neutralized. Neutralized bikes have hardcoded performance parameters in them, so everyone’s bike has the same performance regardless if whether they’ve upgraded it or not.
Subtle game mechanics there, but a clear explanation. Thanks Eric
I heard separately that if you enter a race with neutral bikes your effort will be banked against whatever frame you had prior to entering the pin and being force-switched to the neutral bike. That was from a pretty detail-oriented person as well (may have even been coming second-hand from you originally). Adding these details to the main article might help others puzzle through all this stuff.
Now I’ll just be waiting patiently for your stage5 regular bikes + tron + halo bikes + new wheel physics efficient frontier graph after your bots ride a billion miles and upgrade everything for comparison 😉
erasing my comment – Eric answered
SL8 is only the better climber if you maintain 300 watts up your long climbs. Not happening for this old girl. Aethos is still the star for long steady 2-3 W/KG climbs per the charts.
Smart choice! Will be fun to have an upgraded Crux!
Hey, Eric!
How about a chart comparing all the 4 Halo Bikes in terms of climbing and flat performance?
Hope this is close enough: https://zwiftinsider.com/halo-bikes/
Art, is this the visual you were hoping for? Remember the Espada is a TT bike, the others are road bikes.
Hi evryone.
@Eric Schlange after rereading both normal bikes update and this, I see a difference in upgrades between both.
In normal bikes you have improvements on CDA, Weight, Drive train efficiency, XP and drops.
In the halo bikes you have CDA, Weight, Drive train, CDA and Weight. Although, except for the Pinarello, the last 2 upgrades are much smaller in time gains.
My question, is that, it looks like the normal bikes only get gains in time with the 3 first upgrades, the last two is for 1 XP more for km, and for drops production. But, in the table of the other article you include the gains between stage 0 and 5.I don’t know if that info is from Zwift, or if you tested and basically did all the upgrades without seeing what happens in the middle.
Can you do for some of the normal frames ghraphics ot time evolution like the halo bikes, for example with the new S-Works tarmac,Pinarello 24, Canyon 24, etc.
Also, I’m guessing that an article about TT bikes is in the works as well.
Thanks for your hard work, Eric.
Based on the information currently available, I am considering the following:
1. Upgrading the SW SL8 for climbing,
2. Using Project 74 for flat roads. Coincidentally, unlocking Project 74 requires 3 fully upgraded Specialized bikes, which would serve a dual purpose.
Will it be possible to recognize a Halo Tron bike?
@Eric Schlange There are several of us asking this same question. Could you find this information, it would be greatly appreciated.
Fully upgraded bikes look the same as non-upgraded ones.
Oh buggar!! At least Zwift could have made it a different colour like chrome. Please, please Zwift dangle that carrot to us for this to be a cool Halo Tron 🙏
So, most likely a dumb question but; you have to actually ride the distances ON the actual bike you’re upgrading? In game?
If so, will just riding the bike prompt the upgrades?
You only get upgrade credit toward the bike you’re riding. So to upgrade your Tarmac SL8, you have to ride your Tarmac SL8.
There needs to be a visual difference between a stage 0 bike and a stage 5 bike. Colour, glow, a number hanging below the saddle, anything… but you’ve got to be able to show off or 90% of the value of upgrading is missing.
So if you already own the Tron can you just start upgrading it?
Nope. Gotta upgrade 3 other Zwift frames to level 5 first 😬
Any chance to access your garage via the companion app? Could be a good add on with so much focus heading that way atm.
I don’t want to hassle upgrading a pile of Zwift bikes to upgrade Tron. I want the R40000 upgraded. The Cannondale bikes are already great out of the box so I think I’ll spend time upgrading Supersix Evo Lab71> System 6>Supersix Evo>R4000. Then I can start on Specialized. Probably the Aethos first so I can get a great climbing bike.
I’ve purchased the S-Works Tarmac SL-8 and started building up the KMs to upgrade it. Even it’s base form the SL-8 feels very rapid and drafts nicely indeed 👌
does the white Tron count as a halo bike which can be upgraded?
Yes, because the white Tron is just a colorway for the Tron bike. It’s just a paint job…but Zwift treats it as one bike regardless of paint.
How much is a rental?
I have no problems putting in lots of effort. Unlocking the tron bike was no problem in that regard. But riding three dumb zwift bikes and upgrading them all to just starting the upgrade process on the tron bike is stupid. I have zero interest in riding those boring zwift bikes. They could have doubled or tripled the tron bike requirements but not being able to ride my tron bike for a long time is just a dick move.
My Uncle Borat read special comment from a mister Marco. Uncle Borat make a saying “waa waa weee waaa” one times when he heard village boy make riding slow zwift bikes many many miles and gained big big strengths. So excite!!
at 112kg and age 68 will any frame make much difference to my times ?
I do have 25 million drops to spend though ! 😉
yes. Age is just a number. Watts turns the pedals at any weight. Heavier riders do have a momentum advantage on flats….
Hi Eric, for Z1 Concept upgrade the post above suggests you ride a distance and pay a price. From that I’d take it the distance ridden is on the Tron. But your other “bike upgrade” article says you have to fully upgrade 3 Zwift bikes.Which is it, ride the Tron a distance or upgrade 3 other Zwift frames? Cheers.
It’s both.
Fully upgrading three Zwift frames gets you access to be able to begin upgrading your Tron bike.
Yeesh! I’ll be doing Alpe reps on a Zwift MTB for a while.🤣 Cheers Eric.👌
Love it! Gaming, and Zwift is a game, is all about chasing those carrots. Of course, the big carrot is fitness but that’s not a very tangible one. These Halo Bikes with the upgrades feel like the perfect, long awaited addition to the drop system.
Wish there was a Specialized TT bike that was a top performer in Zwift. SL8 and Aethos are easy picks to upgrade, but I don’t want to spend time upgrading a third Specialized bike that I would never use again (also too bad the Venge is worse than the SL8 on flat). Hoping for something in the future on the TT side.
CRUX? It turns in the fastest jungle laps.
Yes decent choice if you need that kind of bike. I can’t see myself putting in that kind of time on a gravel bike in Zwift though.
Sworks venge is 2 seconds faster than SL8 on flats.https://zwiftinsider.com/charts-frames/
Hey Eric,
This is coming a little late… If you see it?
I’m a little lost regarding the Tron Up-Grade.
It says in the Garage that you must Up-Grade
three Zwift Bikes before you can Up-Grade the
Tron Bike… Each Zwift Bike requires that You
ride each Bike a minimum of 100K each for their
first Up-Grade. After the 100K each can You move
to Up-Grading the Tron, or do you have to complete
all 5 Stages on each of the Zwift Bikes first?
Thank you
.
..
…
Gotta complete all 5 stages of 3 Zwift bikes.
Look at your latest excel sheet posted 3/25/25, I agree it’s heavy bike but number tell different story for aero performance than your description. The Espada should be very far more superior for flat route let say for stage 5 (283s saved) vs. Cadex Tri. (234s saved) Please confirm.
Also would like to see the latest TT test with chart if it’s available.
That’s against the cadex+lousy carbon wheels. The Zipp 858/super9 give an extra 66s on zwit tt. Let’s assume they give the same bonus on a high-end tt bike.
Thanks. Good point indeed. If it’s true the Espada really have no place if you focus on just performance.
That is what I decided too
I just want to be able to clear the “junk” from my garage 😭
It doesn’t look like much of a need for a Halo bike if tests show the best performance on flat and they’re lousy climbers. More of a “look at me” type thing, so I’m not sure I’ll be pursuing this. If you ride/race a lot, upgrading the three frames you ride the most in game is probably best, which is what I’m doing. As for the Tron, way to screw us over after all the climbing we did to obtain it! I love the Tron, and it was a great all-rounder, especially for certain races! Why not just give us another climbing challenge instead of having us upgrade three crappy Zwift frames? Or let us ride the Tron itself and pay in drops for each upgrade after so many miles or climbing done? That would’ve made more sense for those who have unlocked it.
If you just started zwift today…which halo is faster/cheaper to unlock? The production brands you need to buy the frames at the various levels (or complete challenges) but the sheer elevatation needed for a Tron bike is a long way off for new users.
“The Espada loses ~26 seconds to the fastest TT frame in game (the Cadex Tri) across an hour, so you won’t want to use this for TT racing.”
Is this right? Your spreadsheet say it saves 221.7s over the hour and the cadex saves 184.7. Thats 37s faster. 48s at level 5.
Ahh that’s with the cadex having the basic wheels.
I was wondering the same then remembered wheels 😜
anybody that know a good plan for getting lots of drops, I almost only doing workouts all week so it’s hard to get time for a ride with the RoboPacer
Ride a gradient – faster drops the steeper you go.
Started riding Climb portals + plus Climb of the week, win win
I read all of this. I have the Tron bike, but still don’t understand how to upgrade??
Upgrade 3 regular Zwift bikes to level 5 first then it will allow us to start upgrading the Tron. Most are not prioritizing that though.
Hey, Eric!
In your raw data, the Pinarello Spada is 231″ (stage zero) and 283″ (stage five) faster than the baseline comparison, and the Cadex Tri 184″ (stage zero) and 234″ (stage five). NEVERTHELESS, in the body of the text you wrote that the Spada TT is ~23″ slower than the Cadex Tri…. Is it because of the wheelset used in the public test?
Yes. Put a fast disc wheel on the Cadex Tri and it’s much faster!
Apologies if I missed it, but I don’t see any explanation of what the zero value represents on these charts — i.e. what is each bike’s performance being compared to? And is the comparison the same for all of these bikes?
The “default” lvl 1 Zwift Carbon bike.
I’m a Clydesdale rider and don’t really pay much attention to bike weight because my own weight probably offsets it. At least IRL. For those of us on the heavier side, will we see the same speed or climb improvements if we have our accurate weight info entered in our profile?
Yes, you should see the same (or very close to the same) improvements.
@Eric Schlange , are the performance steps for a bike like a dogma 2024 similar to their Halo equivalent? Looking at the steps for the specialized Halo, it looks like most of the performance gains are in the first 3 upgrades. Also thanks for all your articles! Invaluable.
Yes, performance steps for halo bikes and high end bikes are actually identical. Glad you’re finding the posts useful!