What determines if your Zwift avatar gets out of the saddle or stays seated?
Your avatar will stand when:
- You are putting out more than double your FTP watts
- You are on an incline over 3% with a cadence below 73 and greater than 30 while traveling at a speed of 7 kph+
Thanks to updates rolled out in late 2019, everyone else sees your avatar come out of the saddle at the same time you do.
Default Behavior
If you have no cadence meter paired, Zwift will automatically stand you out of the saddle on any climbs over 3%.
Does It Slow You Down?
Any cyclist worth their chamois knows that standing upright with your hands on the hoods outdoors is a less aerodynamic position than remaining seated. Do you get more virtual air resistance when your avatar stands on Zwift?
We tested it, and can report that your in-game aerodynamics do not change when your avatar sits or stands.
The Tron Bike Exception
There is one exception to the 3%/72RPM rule, and that is the Tron bike. Zwift’s animators did not include an out of the saddle climbing posture for this frame, so you will never see a Tron rider standing up on climbs (or sitting up in the draft, for that matter). There is a sprinting posture, however.
Changelog
- Aug 30, 2024: changed the cutoff of 70RPM to 73RPM… any cadence between 31-72RPM currently results in a standing avatar.
- Aug 4, 2020: discovered that if your cadence is 30 or below, your avatar sits down. Added this.
- Dec 31, 2019: Zwift changed the standing threshold back to 70RPM, and made it so everyone else sees your avatar stand on climbs at the same time you do.
- Dec 10, 2019: Zwift changed the sprinting threshold from a flat 460 watts to 2x your FTP, and made it so everyone else sees your avatar sprint at the same time you do.
- October 2019: Zwift released an update which changed the standing cadence threshold from 70 to 80.
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