Yesterday, Zwift introduced a new concept in the Drop Shop – four fresh colorways of a frame that is already in game, the slippery Canyon Aeroad 2024. These four new bikes are painted in distinct designs from the MyCanyon collection.
The MyCanyon custom program was announced earlier this year, offering customers the opportunity to create a bike using a personalized mix of components paired with a unique, high-end colorway.
MyCanyon features nine different colorways, but this week’s Zwift release includes a select four:
- MyCanyon Fabrio – Gold Dust: “A stunning golden yellow finish couples with striking mirrored decals. It’s a bike that radiates energy, and is as special as gold dust itself.” Read more >
- MyCanyon Mano – Carina Red: “Home to many massive stars, including several that are 100 times bigger than the sun, Carina glows bright and bold. Painted using a hand-stamping process, this frame has a deep and fiery red color that looks three-dimensional under the surface.” Read more >
- MyCanyon Opus – Felipe Pantone: “Inspired by the interplay of speed and technology, Felipe’s design represents organized chaos with some unexpected twists and turns as the bike moves. It’s modern speed, just like the Aeroad CFR.” Read more >
- MyCanyon Opus – Elena Salmistraro: “Imagining a bike in motion, speeding towards the sun, light dancing on its surfaces, Elena used a kaleidoscopic color concept in her design, making a perfect combination of modernity and fun that is ideal for attracting attention.” Read more >
Opinion: An Odd Departure
Zwifters have asked for more bike colorways for years, particularly when it comes to popular race bikes. But Zwift has always been oddly hesitant to release more paintjobs.
The S-Works Venge, the most popular non-Tron race bike on Zwift for years? Available only in a dull gray to this day. The Pinarello Dogma F 2024? We’ll create a fun Zwifty colorway, but if you weren’t there to do all the races in September 2024, you missed your chance! The S-Works Tarmac SL8, the new favorite race bike? You can have it in any color you’d like. As long as it’s white.
It seemed logical to predict Zwift eventually releasing fresh colorways for frames and wheels which we could purchase using Drops.
But this is not that.
Instead, if you buy one of the new MyCanyon bikes, it adds an entirely new bike frame in your garage:
Sure, this is how it would work in the real world. But why does it need to work that way in Zwift?
Four big issues I foresee with Zwift using this method to release new colorways:
- UI confusion (it’s not how the system has worked up until now): Many Zwifters already have multiple colorways unlocked for particular frames in their garage. You select the frame, then select which colorway you’d like. In fact, confusingly, the Canyon Aeroad 2024 has three different in-game colorways that work this way, meaning this week’s change adds four new colorways that work completely differently.
- Upgrader anger: If riders love their Canyon Aeroad 2024, then they’ve already worked to upgrade it. Now, if they buy a new colorway, that new bike won’t upgraded at all.
- Crowded garages: The request for Zwift to let us clean out our garages – even if it just means deleting items entirely without getting any Drops back – has been echoed so many times that it’s basically a community meme. This setup just makes our garages more crowded, when Zwift could have utilized the existing functionality of consolidating multiple colorways under one frame.
- No model names: This is a minor issue, perhaps. But there’s no indication in the Drop Shop of what model of Canyon bike these four new frames actually are, apart from the fact that they look like the Aeroad 2024. But are they actually the same? Do they perform identically? (Zwift tells me yes, but that’s not clear in the UI.)
Let me be clear: I’d be happy if The Drop encouraged me to drop major Drops on a sweet colorway. I’ve got 83 million+ Drops to burn, after all! So please, Zwift, go ahead and create super-exclusive and incredible-looking colorways. Give some of them crazy high prices, in fact. You could even do limited-edition releases. Make it feel special to be one of only a few owners.
But releasing them as standalone bikes just seems all wrong. So I hope Zwift decides to modify the Drop Shop, allowing us to purchase colorways for frames we already own without further crowding our garages.
What’s Next?
Zwift’s This Season on Zwift announcement made it sound like additional colorways would be coming after the initial Canyon release (“Stay tuned for more Drops coming to the Drop Shop this season!”)
I haven’t heard of what’s coming, or when. And frankly, I hope they fix the issue above first. But we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of the look of these new Aeroads? Will you be buying one? What do you think of the whole concept of buying new colorways of frames to add to your garage? Share your thoughts below!
My Aeroad already updated to Level 5 , I don’t want to do it twice
100% agree !!! … but THIS mindset is also the main problem for many of us (and ME too !!!). Without these upgrade options, I think many of us would buy a fresh new, nice looking AND slippery frame and ride this with much fun at once. But now we think : I don’t want to ride this lame duck if I have the same frame with L5 in my garage. And that’s totally crazy because in general I like these upgrade options because with this system we have a much needed long-term carrot to work on our frames with spending drops for it.
I mean you could add a series of painjob options as further upgrade unlock levels to any given frame……
I agree! I have invested in upgrading my Aeroad 2024 (because it’s also my real life bike) and now I would have to spend an insane amount of drops to have it another color and would end up with a level 1 bike. Really disappointed by this way of launching the feature (which I otherwise really appreciate). Hope Zwift hears your voice and rethinks their approach.
Same here, I hoped AND expected that we can spend some drops for new color schemes for the frame we already own and have upgraded. So I’m disappointed in the moment.
But in general, I love the idea of seeing more color options in the peloton. 2 of the 4 new versions look great for me but I will wait (before wasting drops) if ZHQ hear Eric’s and our voices to change the system hopefully.
What would be good is to be able to delete old bikes/wheels not wanted.
For me, the option of creating folders such as “Old Glories”, “Funny Stuff” or “Racing Machines” would be more than enough. I really do not need to discard anything (except if I get some cash in return), it is a matter of placing things in order.
I was hoping they would make the color options like the Tron, where you could choose the color of the frame from various options via a sliding scale. And as for the cleaning up the garage, would love to see maybe 2 or 3 sheds within the garage for 1. Race bikes, 2. Fun bikes and 3. Anything else. Not sure how difficult that would be to do, but separating bikes would make things easier to find.
Yes! What Chris said!! A shed or ceiling hangers for those bikes and wheels in our garages which exist to decorate and or which we ride only rarely.
This is the dumbest way to implement this 😀
Now imagine if they gave us some kind of custom color selector! Like a color slider or something! 🙂
As I mentioned when the concept was originally announced. I’d consider it if it was a modification for the bike I already owned (and is fully upgraded) but not a chance if it was a stand alone, new bike.
I can vaguely understand they need something for long term members that have millions of drops and nothing to spend them on, but yea, very disappointed in this implementation.
As I said in that same thread, I’ll consider buying it when I have 83 million spare drops like Eric, should get there in about 4 yrs.
What a stupid way to implement this 🙁
I’ve worked a lot to upgrade my Aeroad, so starting all over again is not happening. Having five versions of the Canyon Aeroad 2024 seems pretty retarded.. and one of the five has built-in colors, but the others don’t. That is so retarded that it sounds like someone [Canyon] is demanding all that exposure in the game. Or paying for it. Either way, I’m flabbergasted.
Who at Zwift keeps coming up with these ideas that people don’t want?
The saddest thing is we are paying for it. It seems like Zwift lost the plot. Utterly disappointing.
They’re fired!
Perhaps it’s VP-level executive non-rider that never used Zwift that made this decision?
its ALWAYS middle management in any company that are the F-ups
It has always seemed strange to me how you can change the colour on some bike but not all of them.
I wouldn’t object to their being a 6th upgrade level for a bike that had no performance benefit but enabled the colour change slider.
Or as suggested purchase additional colour schemes for the bikes I’ve fully upgraded as I also have tons of drops.
I suspect its something to do with the manufacture i.e. Specialized wanting the SL8 S-Works to be white like it was in real life (and I have).
Great idea to implement a 6th upgrade level for individual color schemes and/or sliders. Additionally, we then also could see if another racer rides on his perfect leveled frame … a thing we can’t see in the moment.
This is why I decided to upgrade Specialized bikes and work on the Project 74 Halo. I already have a Tron, but an upgraded Tron looks identical so you wouldn’t know it was a Halo bike!
That bugs me too. It would make sense for it to have a set of subtle visual differences.
Great idea!
Loving issue #2. Do they still fully understand their code. This can’t be intentionally.
Definitely a messy way of doing this!
I don’t believe I have an Aeroad, so I’d probably get the Salmistraro version, but seems a poor way to do it.
I’m glad I waited for these bikes to upgrade them; I wasn’t sure about this part.
Some of these are equipped with DuraAce and some of these are equipped with Red. The question is, since the components are different, do they perform any differently in the game? Inquiring minds… inquire.
Zwift tells you yes, but…
You know what they could (should) have done is whichever bike you ride, if they have to keep these bikes separate for whatever reason, is to transfer the upgrade progress over to all of the bikes with the same base name. Associate AeroAd with these bikes for nomenclature, and go about it that way.
I’m sure all of this has to do with some marketing agreement to which we’ll never be privy to on the outside. Hey though, if Canyon ever comes up with a Halo bike, at least people will have a reason to upgrade three really great performers that otherwise perform all exactly the same. 😂
In theory, different group sets could lead to different bike performance (because they each have their own weight assigned). But Zwift has it set up where all the groupsets perform the same, currently.
Completely agree with your commentary. Zwift’s implementation is bad, not what riders wanted at all.
I just fully unlocked the Specialized Project 74 and own the whole drop shop so still have over 42 million drops. Definitely, I buy anything new asap…haha
There are already sliders in the game for frames that have more skins and now they come up with whole new bikes ?
Do they even talk to eachother there at Zwift ?
No matter how cool some of them look, I am so not going to bother with this. If it was for the current frame and just another kit for lets say 500k bonds I could think about it. But this is a hard NO.
and than I havent even mentioned that you have to upgrade the same bike once again …
Why this upgrade? and no sign of a special Canyon when upgrading 3 of their bikes. They could have reserved this GOLD Aeroad or color change for that.
Its like someone in the Zwift HQ says:
“Let´s give people brand new colors for the already existing bikes. We know the best way improve this in-game? Sure, so… let´s do the opposite…”
Yeah, this is dumb. Rather they just add different color presets like they did for the old Aeroad for the different Zwift Academy paint jobs
Issue two in particular makes a person wonder how messy their code really is.
i am so ticked at Zwift! Bought the Aeroad and now they want me to pay for it all over again AND upgrade it again??? Are they out of their minds???? NO CHANCE!!!
Eric,
Your garage screenshot of the Aeroad 2024 shows 3 color scheme choices.
I have the top 2: original (black) and the Zwift Academy schemes, where did the 3rd choice come from?
Now that they have all these variations of the Canyon bike, will I be able to fully upgrade 3 of them and unlock a Halo Aeroad?
What are the three existing Aeroad Colorways in Zwift? I only see the black one. Is it 100% sure that the new ones have the same performance like the old 2024 model? Have you tested one of the new versions? Another point is the unlock level, I’m currently at Level 29 and close to unlocking Stage 3 upgrade, so I would invest my drops in another wheelset than an identical frame with another color. Would choose black anyway if it had a color slider…
This is probably the stupidest innovation that I could imagine. Aerode Level 5 already, and I will stay with that thanks.
Not sure if I agree with the stupidest, my list (no particular order)
Emojis in names, all I can see is S.ir(Poop)(Poop)aLot
Aero Lightning Socks visual effect, especially at such a low speed
Zwifting Friends Notification without the ability to disable
I can’t believe someone was paid for this idea . So ridiculous
I don’t know, maybe causes a stir, creates discussion, distracts from things like lack of new road creation, climb portals are horrible (remember RGT had basic procedurally generated landscapes with ‘magic roads’, and with Zwift it’s floating diamonds and crap?), and other basic shortcomings, like a lack of good camera options to watch your cool new ride (like ability to adjust your drone and then slave the camera position relative to avatar). And on and on…
You are totally right about the climb portals they are awful.
Thanks—just bugs me. I’m supporting Zwift right now (riding Z since 2015) because of their sponsorship of TDF Femmes, probably the best bike race I watched all year. So love them for that. Dump on them for dumb stuff like canyon colorways…
Stupid me – I didn’t read this article first. I went to the drop shop and bought the Aeroad 2024, only to find out I couldn’t change the paint job…
I did that with the Tarmac and started upgrading it… then wondered why mine was a different colour to everyone else’s… 🤣
I agree entirely – I’m a casual zwifter, I am level 59. I have just about upgraded my Aeroad 24 after hours andmany drops. No way can I justify buying the same bike and upgrading it. However I would happily just buy a sweet new colour scheme if it was, say, even half a million drops.
Just make the bike more expensive (more drops) and perhaps available at a higher level, but give players the option to swap colour schemes. I’m still a big believer in making the game and unlock achievements harder (like old school harder).
Why are we not talking about how pace partners are doing advertisement reads for canyon now? Thats such poor form imho
Zwift is a marketing company
I actually like the idea of the bots talking about Zwift specific things. Like hey tour of watopia stage 2 is this week don’t forget to sign up, or reminders about a route of a week, a workout of a week and even new items available for purchase in the drop shop.
However it is a murky gray area because it could eventually be “go buy this new canyon bike at you local bike shop. Say Zwift sent you”. once it crosses the line from in game drops to real world currency it can be a slippery slope.
WELL !!!!! I don’t own a Canyon is “Real Life”… So all this
doesn’t bother me… BUT ! I’m sure some from the Zwift HQ
will be reading all the Comments… And be say’n…
“Man we sure Messed this one Up! ” 🤔😂
I don’t think I’ve ever made a post dumping on a new Zwift feature, but making these separate bikes instead of purchasable skins is so unfathomably dumb I must join the chorus of boos.
@Eric Schlange I guess I am confused by this because Zwift already had multiple Aeroad paint jobs on the 2021 version of the bike. One was a slider for doing a customization on the color, and the other is a tile below that for the… 2023 zwift academy(???) colorway if you completed that. I forget what the year or event was.
when i saw the initial update, i thought they were just really overpriced paint jobs. I am a little confused by this.
I imagine it is repeated below many times, I have a max lvl Areroad so I won’t be buying another.
I’m very disappointed that once again I’m forced to upgrade my already fully upgraded frameset.
Eric, 2 questions please …
1) Can you already confirm that the 4 new frames really have the same performance numbers as the Aeroad 24 ?
2) Do you hear if ZHQ discuss to change this implementation ?
Yes, I’ve confirmed that have the same performance.
ZHQ has definitely heard what Zwifters are saying about this implementation. But they haven’t told me about any specific plans to change it. (My guess is that’ll happen. It’s just a matter of when.)
Many thanks Eric 🤗, fingers crossed for a change asap 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
I think we got a very minor update this week and now the Pace Partners are pushing the new colorways slightly less hard.
My feel is that I won’t be upgrading the same bike twice, never.
I rarely see the paint anyway using the 3rd person view.
For the garage issue (not being able to sort bikes) I’d say we go on a strike and all ride tempus fugit on the zwift steel bike until we get what we want😀
This really seems like a missed opportunity. I agree with others. Just make a level 6 where you can unlock custom paint jobs.
Zwift dropped the ball on this one and I think the community should rightfully call them out on this. I would put it right up there with the new UI debacle from many years ago.
As some long time zwifters may recall on a zwiftcast it was announced a new UI is on the way and years later it just ended up being a slight modification of 1 screen on appleTV. The issue being Zwift knew the entire community was hype for a new UI and Zwift did nothing to course correct after that announcement
I hope they take these new paint jobs offline for now, refund anyone who spent the drops on them and put this back in the oven to relaunch down the road.
Setting the color ways up as individual bikes is just garbage UI and a terrible design team. You should have the ability to go to the main bike and click a sub selection for color ways that you’ve purchased or unlocked. Although given the way that Zwift works, has listened to the community, I’m not shocked.
What is even crazier is some older frames have or have had the option of painting them any color you wanted (Trek Madone for ex.).
The other is fact they adding color only for select frames/brands (Canyon for ex.) while for the rest we can suck it (super ugly boring colorless (or gray, as some might call it) Venge).
I think there should be additional ways to earn drops with all these new frames ,upgrades and wheels. It’s nice that they add new colors but what good are they if I can’t afford to spend drops on them because I’m upgrading a few bikes.Can’t even afford the new ENVE wheels atm.
This is a terrible idea.
Separating color schemes into their own bikes with independent upgrades is exactly the type of decision made by folks at Zwift that have literally never ridden on Zwift
Shortsighted at best…Honestly, I think Zwift took the path of least resistance for their backend, adding 4 bikes with different colors, rather than adding them as skins, thinking “well players need a place to burn their drops”
IDEALLY, Zwift will introduce a paint shop with official branded colors to be added as skins for a given frame (charge the equivalent drops for a premium frame purchase IRL, instead of a full racing build), and allow CUSTOM one-at-a-time paint jobs for a premium price like a million drops for a given frame following all the performance upgrade unlocks (you can paint it as often as you like after paying the base unlock)…new paint booth features can be further unlocks for later introduction.
Allowing paints, decals, skins, and wraps, similar to those available in various car racing video games, would add a lot of fun and interest for individual riders and teams on Zwift.
(They can contact me for consulting on this 😉)
I wonder if this is mainly Zwift’s way of catering to those who used bots to already get all of their halo bikes and get them to level 5. Give them something else to do. That’s really the only thing that makes sense to me about having these as completely different bikes.
If there were a Canyon Halo bike that I really wanted, I’d MAYBE get 3 of these as I already have an all rounder, a TT bike, a climbing bike, and (almost a) gravel bike at level 5 (once I finally get done with my gravel bike I can finally get my first Halo which will be aero for flats, which is the only area my other bikes don’t cover), but I’d probably just get the lowest level Canyons and upgrade those instead because it’d be faster.
Hey Zwift, what if all of your Canyon Aeroad 2024 upgraded in unison ? If you upgraded one of them to Stage 4, then all of the Aeroad 2024s that you own are at Stage 4, seems like a fair compromise ???
More Zwift lack of thought , at 60 I’m hoping to upgrade lvl 5 halo bike before I expire , hehe , this garage nonsense needs an overhaul of some kind , lets hope more thought is put to it than the paint scam