We’ve already discussed how Zwift has increased the rolling resistance of dirt portions of Watopia for certain tires/wheels. But we haven’t yet talked about the one bike in game which is set up to roll faster in the dirt: the new Zwift Mountain bike!
According to my sources inside Zwift, every wheelset except the new mountain bike wheels is using the same rolling resistance right now, meaning all the road bike wheels are going to roll pretty slow on dirt.
This isn’t immediately obvious unless you ride a long stretch of dirt, like the all-dirt Jungle Circuit. Here, riders are finding their speeds with road wheels to be 6-8km/hr slower than tarmac speeds.
So we did some test laps with various road setups, as well as the Zwift Mountain bike, to find out if the mountain bike was really faster in the dirt, and if so, by how much.
The Results
At 300 watts steady (4w/kg) the Zwift Mountain bike turned in a Jungle Circuit time of 13:47.
The Tron bike (and other fast bikes) come in right around 15 minutes flat at the same power levels.
No bike/wheelset combination comes close to the Zwift Mountain setup when riding the Jungle Circuit… at least not right now. Of course, Zwift will be releasing more wheels that roll better in virtual dirt. Then things will get interesting!
But for now, if you’re heading to a race on the Jungle Circuit, you’re going to want to try the Zwift Mountain bike! Here’s how to unlock it.
How Does It Perform on Tarmac?
The mountain bike doesn’t perform well on tarmac–it’s by far the slowest bike on pavement, turning in a lap time of 38:34 on a single lap of our Volcano Climb test route (at 300 watts, 4w/kg steady).
For comparison, the fastest road setups finish this route in 35 minutes flat, while the slowest finish it in just under 36 minutes.
Thoughts On Dirt Strategy
This sets up an interesting race situation in which riders may choose a fast road bike setup for racing the Jungle Circuit in hopes of dropping the mountain bike riders before hitting the dirt circuit.
Will that strategy work? Possibly, depending on how many Jungle Circuit laps the race includes. Most races involve 1.5-2.5 laps around the Jungle Circuit. With only ~5 miles of tarmac leading into the Jungle dirt, road riders will have to push hard from the start to drop mountain bikers and create a big gap before hitting the dirt circuit. Then it will be up to the mountain bike riders to reel in the roadies on the dirt. It’ll be a battle!
Couldn’t you just change to the MTB mid race ?
Yes, that’s another option! It’ll take you probably 15 seconds to do it, but that would be worth it, wouldn’t it?
You’d have to come to a complete stop to do so. It won’t let you change bikes if you’re still pedaling.
I takes to much time.
Hitting ‘A’ on the keyboard to bring up the device pairing screen stops you within a second or so for a swift bike change, or a downhill bike change.
Just seems so weird to me that the MTB is significantly faster than a road bike on the jungle. To me, dirt is still much more akin to tarmac than an off road trial with roots, rocks, etc where a full suspension MTB really shines.
The dirt sections have DESTROYED group riding, saw 20-30 people chopped out by a fenced ride that traversed dirt section. I refuse to get the upgrade until fixed, and I am still turning decent watts and speed on dirt, only way I upgrade is new tarmac routes and this latest Upgrade stays of my devices until fixed, not to mention the increase in drop outs reported, by not doing the upgrade you go faster on dirt and avoid glitches
Hmmm… in my opinion, those refusing to upgrade are a big cause of the frustration here. To each his own, I suppose.
Eric, turns out I have the upgrade but I’m still flying through the dirt sections, current set up iPhone mirror to TV, In game bike Specialized Tarmac Pro with ENVE wheels, solid 2-4 moths faster and I coasted through dirt sections. Today I noticed slower speed but still held low watts and passed others doing almost double the watts. Weird stuff on Zwift!
If you’re on the latest version (ending in 097) I don’t think you’ll be flying off the front. Can you check which version you’re on?
If you ARE on the 097 version… let me know exactly which ENVE wheels you’re running, and I can do a test.
Miles per hour not moths