The latest Zwift update is now available on all platforms: Mac, PC, Android, iOS, and AppleTV.
Not sure if your Zwift install is up-to-date? Here’s how to check >
This update includes new routes and badges, frames and wheels, some significant training plan/workout changes, and of course a pile of bug fixes. Here are the details…
New Frames and Wheels
Two new bike frames have been added to the Drop Shop:
- Specialized Crux (Level 17+, 869,800 Drops): 2 stars for aero, 3 for weight
- Trek Speed Concept SLR 9 (Level 32+, 958,500 Drops): 4 stars for aero, 1 for weight
The Crux looks like it may be the lightest gravel bike in game, which will make things interesting when racing in places like the Makuri Islands Temple KOM and Watopia’s Jungle Circuit. We’ll run tests and publish results ASAP.
Two new gravel wheelsets have been added as well.
- ENVE G23 (no level requirement, 17,800 Drops): 3 stars for aero, 1 for weight
- Roval Terra CLX (no level requirement, 17,800 Drops): 3 stars for aero, 1 for weight
This is a notable development, actually, because until now, all the gravel bikes in game used the Zwift Gravel wheelset. (Similarly, all of the mountain bikes use the Zwift Mountain wheelset.) So this is Zwift’s first expansion into offering wheelset options for gravel bikes.
Both wheelsets are low-priced with no level requirement, so they are very attainable by all Zwifters. Presumably, they perform at least slightly better than the stock Zwift wheelset. But we’ll run tests and find out!
Groupset Bugs Fixed?
Zwift’s list of bug fixes in this update includes this line: Fixed an issue with the SRAM RED 2021 rear derailleur being slightly underpriced, and a tad bit too light.
Our tests are indicating they’ve fixed the groupset issue that slowed the Cervelo S5 2020 – it seems to have returned to its original speediness. (We’re not just why the text says it was a “tad too light” though, because that wouldn’t make the frame slower…)
We’re hoping this means Zwift has also turned their attention to the longer-standing Dura-Ace 9200 bug. Our tests so far seem to confirm this, but we’ll publish hard numbers ASAP.
New Makuri Islands (and Other!) Routes
Two routes (and badges!) have been added to the Makuri Islands world. Not fresh tarmac, just fresh routes on existing roads:
- Chasing the Sun: the longest and climbiest Makuri Islands route yet, this one takes you on two KOMs and four sprints.
Total distance/elevation: 35.1km/278m - Electric Loop: a flat, short circuit, this route is similar to Twilight Harbor, but in the opposite direction.
Total distance/elevation: 8.9km/30m
In addition to these free-ridable routes, several event-only Watopia routes arrived with this update… with names that may be familiar to Zwift Insider readers. While Zwift hasn’t confirmed this, we wonder if they plan to use these new routes for the upcoming Tour of Watopia, whose homepage was just refreshed. Double XP, new route badges… registration opens February 22. More on this soon, we suspect!
New Workouts of the Week
Workouts have been added to the on-demand list for the month of February and March. You can also see the current week’s workout, which you can do on your own or in a Wednesday Group Workout.
- Feb 14-20: Bahati Foundation Workout
- Feb 21-27: Maize Wimbush’s Windup
- Feb 28-Mar 6: The Bernal
- Mar 7-13: Kristin Armstrong – A Gentle Reminder
Workout FTP Bias Change
You can now adjust your workout’s FTP bias down to -25% and up to +25%. Formerly, the limit was -10% to +10%. You can do this via the Companion app, or by clicking the bias arrows on screen, or using Page Up/Page Down on your PC keyboard.
Training Plans Now On-Demand
Zwift’s three most popular training plans (Build Me Up, Pebble Pounder, and Gran Fondo) are now available as on-demand workouts. This lets Zwifters do the workouts with zero schedule constraints.
It’s worth noting that signing up for the actual training plan may still be the smart move. Zwift says, “We continue to encourage you to commit to our full training plans as they are developed by professional coaches to achieve specific goals, provide structure, and follow suggested workout progressions. Plus, who can forget about those sweet sock unlocks!”
See forum discussion on this topic >
In the forum topic above, Zwift says, “In our next phase of work, we are continuing to fuel flexibility within our training plans, including unlocking workouts for longer periods and extending time in which workouts can be completed. These updates are under development and expected to roll out in the coming months.” That’s good news, as Zwifter have complained about the inflexibility of Zwift’s “flexible” training plans since the day they rolled out.
Bug Fixes and Misc Improvements
Here’s Zwift’s list of fixes and improvements included in this update, with notes in italic from us:
- Flexible Training Plan Workouts now unlock at 12:01am on Monday. We’re not sure when they unlocked previously, but this seems like the right time to unlock stuff for the week.
- Connectivity alerts will immediately disappear when the issue is resolved and will only remain on screen for 60 seconds if the issue remains unresolved.
- Added a label above the Challenges UI in the pause menu to help Zwifters find their Challenges. Hopefully this means we’ll get fewer emails asking “How do I sign up for the Tron challenge?”
- Fixed an issue where an invalid day would be selected in the date of birth UI in certain situations.
- Fixed an issue where the date of birth change would not be saved if unit of measure is changed before saving.
- Fixed an issue where the save button would not work when updating run paces in the Zwifter profile.
- Fixed an issue where suggested run paces would be saved even if the Zwifter cancels the change.
- Fixed an issue causing XP to be awarded for certain skipped workout blocks. Take that, cheaters!
- Fixed an issue causing certain workout blocks to appear invisible in the Workout Editor.
- Fixed an issue with the gradient display in London when riding in the countryside. Is this the fix to the long-running London gradient bug? We sure hope so.
- Fixed an issue causing activity title changes to not properly sync with 3rd party partner sites.
- Fixed an issue with some segment times not being displayed correctly.
- Fixed an issue where Pace Partner pace would be truncated.
- Fixed an issue causing all running Pace Partners to show Category A.
- Fixed an issue causing bikes to spawn at a strange angle. All bikes will now spawn parallel to the road.
- Fixed an issue causing riders to swerve in some situations on the Railways and Rooftops and Sprinters Playground routes in Neokyo.
- Fixed an issue that allowed some runners to make a U-turn in an event.
- Fixed an issue where some Zwifters would be stuck at “Finding Riders” when late joining an event. Seemed like a fair consequence for showing up late, but if Zwift wants to be nice…
- Fixed an issue causing a dead end to appear in the Neokyo mini-map.
- Fixed an issue causing flickering in certain parts of the Rooftop Rendezvous route.
- Fixed an issue where the whale in Watopia was flickering between timelines. We’ve ensured they will now remain in the best timeline. More evidence of Zwift’s parallel universes.
- Updated the name of our famous pizza socks to actually be called Pizza Socks in the garage. Who says Zwift’s dev team isn’t doing big things? Take that, haters!
See Wes Salmon’s notes on this update release in the Zwift forum >
Questions or Comments?
If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!
“Fixed an issue where Pace Partner pace would be truncated” – i wonder what they mean by truncated. That’s odd terminology
I assumed it was referencing the Pace Partner join screen, which shows the pace of each bot.
Sound bug still not fixed?
What sound bug?
I believe this will be the issue with distorted sound that effects a small number of Android devices. There is a workaround for this.
Do share please I’ve got the problem
On the groupset bug fix, it says “underpriced”… does this hint to groups now being a purchase from the shop?
Groupsets actually have a price assigned, we just don’t see it. It’s included in the frame price. Which makes me wonder if the price of the Cervelo S5 2020 changed? Hmmm… (checks the game)… nope. Same price.
Very interesting on the gravel bikes + gravel wheelsets. I’m hoping that if you equip a bike with a gravel wheelset that they stay associated with each other.
Does this update also now show if we do not have one of the future unsupported correct graphics cards
That’s what Zwift said would happen. “Anyone Zwifting on a computer using these GPUs will begin to see messaging in-game with the February game release v 1.22…”
I haven’t confirmed that it’s happening… no old Intel GPUs here to test with. 🙂
I’ve the 1.22.1 upgrade today, and i dont have see a message about wrong GPU (i use a Intel HD2000, on the list of wrong GPU)
Release some new routes and tell everyone about it in an email but don’t make that world available. Great plan.
Zwift often pushes their planned release dates by 1-7 days… so tying it to a particular guest map schedule just isn’t something they try to do.
It’s really about time they ditched the rotation and just opened all the world’s up. It’s getting tedious having to wait and hope a world you want is in line with your schedule. I know we can use the workaround but we really shouldn’t have to.
I had the same reaction as you initially, but Makuri Islands will be available tomorrow, Wed and Thurs, so only a few hours to wait (on AppleTV, so no workaround available). Sadly, it’s not new tarmac, so nothing to experience for the first time, just a couple of badges to tick off the list.
There is a work around for every device. Just create a meet up on the selected course/route that you want to do. Invite someone your not going to annoy. You can quit the meet up straight away once in the pen. you will start riding the route you selected for the meet up.
And still no support for Wahoo direct connect. Such a shame. Zwift doesn’t even care to reply on when this will be supported. All other major platforms support this already.
Is the elevation gain for “Chasing the Sun” in the email that Zwift sent out wrong?
Zwift says: Distance: 34.6km // 21.5mi, Climb: 698m // 2,290ft
The article says: Total distance/elevation: 35.1km/278m
Which is right?
I created the Strava segment for it, and based my numbers off of that. See https://veloviewer.com/segment/30988311
Likely a lead in distance. Anywhere from 0.5-2km lead in, is pretty common.
The distance is not the issue — it’s the elevation (698 meters vs 278 meters). It looks like Eric’s numbers are more accurate than Zwift’s.
I just created a club event for it, comes up as 35.1km / 316m total.
This is interesting, I’ve gone into my garage and selected my Canyon Grail. The bike is displayed with ENVE wheels both in the garage preview and in game! However under the Wheels section only the Zwift gravel wheels are listed (despite the wheels on the bike very obviously being ENVE – they look very nice btw).
Begs the question, do I have ENVE on my gravel bike? Do I not? (And, waiting for those performance tests: does it matter?)
Should be pointed out that I have /not/ purchased the ENVE gravel wheelset, but do have various depths for the road frames in my garage
Yeah, there’s some sort of bug with those ENVE wheels. Not exactly sure what’s going on there.
The new ENVE gravel wheelsets don’t even appear as an option in my ENVE Shop after the update, but the ENVE wheelset shows up on my gravel bikes.
you have to have a gravel bike equipped. When you go into the drop shop on a gravel bike they give you different options. They don’t tell you this, so I assume it’s a secret gravel shop.
Thanks for this information. So now I’m going to go check the mountain bike just in case there is a double super secret shop with wheels there! lol
Same. I spent the 17k and bought new G23s just because I don’t trust Zwift not to give me fake G23s filled with lead.
Thanks for update Eric. I received an email from Zwift with different elevation for Chasing the Sun. “• Distance: 34.6km // 21.5mi
• Climb: 698m // 2,290ft
• New route, new badge, 690XP “
I created the Strava segment for them, and based my numbers off of that.
Looks like the 30 Day PR remains. Could you ask someone at Zwift why on Earth this hasn’t been changed to 1 year, or Lifetime?
Yeah I’ve always thought that was a pain. I’ve got them written on a white board next to the bike to keep track of.
I think it’s if your fitness has declined it gives you realistic times for yourself(I do not agree with this)
Some of us get slower as we get older.
It’s a minimum viable idea, fit for when zwift was just a small portion of today’s watopia. “Of course you’ll ride the same roads again multiple times in 30 days!” After that, not been updated to reflect reality, like dozens of other features.
I’ve always assumed this was some sort of delberate move to appease people like strava or push you to other thrid party apps (who may be paying / supporting zwift). It’s basically insane though, of all the tons of data they deal with, storing a couple of kb per ride for a few years seems like a no-brainer. and could even be an upsell to a tiered membership.
Any idea when the former rebel routes when will go live for badge hunts? Zwift needs some longer routes that are not mountains. So triple flat loops would be nice on easy or recovery day. While eastern eight is favorite of mine with it a good long workout with climbs and pacing in on the flats. Downtown titans would make a great a sub hour race route. Looking forward to the gravel route is if it puts in the titan grove-desert dirt road whoever posted about over a year back. Where the road work bacides are near the of top… Read more »
My guess is these will be first used for Tour of Watopia (signups begin Feb 22). Then after ToW they’ll be available as event-only routes.
At least the three former rebel route write ups are done so less work for you when thoes go live for free ride or event only.
You can ride them now by the looks of it if you edit the prefs.xml file and change the value. I just tested with the Signature for Three Little Sisters and the route was available to ride. Should get 755xp when I ride and unlock tomorrow.
Done all the rebel routes expect for the two very long rides. So will have go back and redo these four again.
What changed with coco cadence? The ride was harder to stay with this morning which was much better than previous easy pace.
Nothing that I know of.
Did my own non-scientific test. Cadence is approx. 5 min quicker over 42km today versus yesterday. Something has definitely changed that wasn’t announced.
I was quite surprised when Diesel caught me up, I was riding between 2.2 & 2.5 w/kg and the pace partner rode past showing 1.5 w/kg. I wonder if they’ve adjusted the drafting for riding with pace partners.
I agree. It seemed like Diesel was pushing a little harder on my last ride with him. I’m ok with that, because he seemed a little slow for 1.5 wKG before.
Definitely seems C Cadence is faster. I covered 40.9km with her in an hour yesterday. Hadn’t been breaking 40km in past efforts.
Valoro mucho cualquier tipo de mejora en el juego, en todos sus aspectos: rutas, bicicletas, corrección de errores, workouts… Pero echo en falta siempre nuevos tramos en los mapas, expansiones de verdad… Necesitamos más ascensiones tipo Alpe du Zwift…
We all want fresh tarmac, for sure!
we are still waiting for the expansion of the map, they promised mount fuji and nothing for now
Don’t hold your breath.
New York (2018) and France (2020) have never received an update.
Watopia’s last expansion was in 2020…….London’s was in 2018!!
Richmond got updated after many years.
I’ll wait for your speed tests to confirm that they fixed the groupset weight issues that’s been slowing bikes. Until then, I’m sticking with the Tron. The fact that they didn’t specifically mention anything means to me that any fix is likely tentative at best. Fingers crossed …
can we rename this website as zwiftqa? i think their QA spend their days relaxing waiting for your post before logging their bugs to the internal bugtracker
Great news about the FTP bias change. I often start a custom workout unsure of whether it’ll be a strong day, or if I’ll really be struggling. The 10% change hasn’t actually been enough, either way.
Any further detail reference the 3 new running routes that have appeared?
Not at this time – they’re event-only and, I would guess, for use in ToW.
I thought it was just two routes? “Handful of Gravel Run” and “Italian Villas Circuit”? Did I miss one?
Mayan Bridge Loop.
I’m not a fan of “Event Only” route badges.
I don’t like the fact that I’d have to join an event to achieve a route badge.
Me neither although it’s been the only way I’ve run Bologna. I wouldn’t mind if the timings weren’t all over the job when running in events. Your finish time differs from ZCA, Strava and ZP owing to the way the timings are calculated.
Is the Alpe du Zwift Camera Bug fixed already?
which ones that
Yes, seems to be. That thread has been quiet in the Forums since mid-January, after Zwift published version 1.21.1 and declared that issue resolved.
what article will the new gravel bike and wheels be?
The one called “All About Zwift’s New ENVE and Roval Gravel Wheels” or something like that…
cue the complaints about zwifters missing races since they have to download and install the update at the last minute
I’m just glad for a Monday update so I’m not dealing with updating (and potentially uninstalling/reinstalling due to bugs) right before a ZRL race when I’m stressing and pushing to get logged in/warmed up.
Did they ever fix the U-turn bug? I was doing a race that only went part of the way up Ven-Top over the weekend and, once the race was done and I went a bit further so I’d end at an even number (to satisfy my OCD-ish tendencies), I couldn’t turn around to coast down using either the keyboard or the Companion app. I’ve U-turned on other routes recently, but couldn’t do it on Ven-Top, which was a bummer, because, after all the time I’d spent climbing, I wanted a free xp for going back down. Not enough to keep… Read more »
If you were still in the event then it won’t let you do a u-turn. Sounds like the race was finished though. To do a u-turn you need to have a minimum speed, I believe it is 5 kph, otherwise it won’t happen.
Huh, I didn’t know about the minimum speed. I was cooling down at Z1 up Ven-Top, so I could have been going under 5 kph. That’s totally possible.
The ability to Favorite workouts would be nice as the options continue to climb.
Looks like the new homepage for the Tour of Watopia shows the Specialized SL7 with Sram instead of Shimano shifters…
On the Watopia Leaderboard, there’s a new white dot to the left of the tangerine Repack Ridge dot. Maybe a placeholder for an upcoming Leaderboard segment? And that might mean new roads coming to Watopia.
Seen here – no data in it
That would be awesome. I tried Repack Ridge for the first time last week to see if I could use the companion app on my kindle fire to steer it (I couldn’t). When I finally got off the course after pinballing from side to side, it didn’t put me back on the titans grove road, but, instead had me flying above the dinosaurs and out over the dessert. Kind of fun, but I’d rather have some real new roads.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1293142272
LOL. Exact same thing happened to me with my iPhone setup. R.R. steering has been horrible for me ever since Zwift eliminated the ability to change the sensitivity. No reason to bother trying it again.
I ended up flying off to the SW, through the mountains, and under the radio tower. I just kept going to see what would happen when I entered the black abyss (water and sky, with Watopia behind me).
“Fixed an issue where some Zwifters would be stuck at “Finding Riders” when late joining an event. Seemed like a fair consequence for showing up late, but if Zwift wants to be nice… I accidentally hit this during TDZ makeup week; was planning to join one starting in like 10 minutes but the one that started 20 minutes ago was at the top of the events in the upper right, and I clicked it by accident. It was…odd. It hung for a long time at “Finding Riders”, and just before I was going to force-quit it suddenly spat me out… Read more »
i want a choice MERIDA
Eric! I am not sure we give you enough credit for the work you are putting into this. Thank you so much for these great updates and the rest of the stuff you are doing.
Thanks Berg!
Is there a way to go straight to the group ride you have signed up for when loading Zwift? I always have to go to the wrong world first only to then be redirected
Not at this time.
Without testing, guessing that the DA9200 bug has been fixed.
Before the last update the tarmac SL7 had gone down to 3 stars aero, 2 stars weight.
Now it is back to where it was before with 3 stars for aero and weight.
This was the only indication I could find as the other DA bikes remained 3* for both even with the bug.
All the groupset slowdowns appear to be fixed. But we’re still testing stuff because we’re noticing speed changes on other frames too. Nothing crazy… just weird and not yet explained by ZHQ.
I’m sure you’re testing the Uranium, now bug-free for the first time. Does this promote it to the new fastest frame? Thanks for all the awesome work!
Interesting! Thanks for posting this so quickly!
I noticed I couldn’t see the gravel wheels in the Drop Shop until I switched my bike to a gravel bike – bit confusing as this seems like a new game mechanic.
Also, the ENVE logo seems to be missing on all wheels branded that way. (I’m on an iPad Pro, FWIW – maybe the bug is device-specific)
Is the Trek Speed Concept SLR 9 the new best TT bike ?
Hey. Do me a favor? I changed its color for testing, but now I can’t bring it back to red. Is this something you’re willing to check?
It is not. Canyon still fastest.
I don’t really care about new routes. I rather want new roads…
Mount Fuji?!
Some of those Build me up workouts are great. Very happy to now have them on demand
when will it be possible to enter levels above 50? !!!
No matter who answers that question the answer is always: sometime after you reach level 50. 🙂
“Event only” routes don’t have badges and don’t give XP bonuses, so I don’t think the five new routes listed in the Makuri Islands area of the badges are Watopia special events for the Tour of Watopia. I don’t remember any special event routes in last year’s Tour of Watopia. I think these five badges are new Makuri Islands routes yet to be released.
Definetely not truth, I got XPs and a badge for Neokyo Crit Course, which is event only route.
Neokyo Crit Course was the first event only route to get a badge xp.
But maybe I know something you don’t know! *winks*
I’m so happy the new Trek Speed Concept is finally here. There does seem to be a slight bug with its color. I tried checking the available color through the, spray? icon, and now I can never get it back to its original red. For some reason, the top most of the gradient shows purple again (Like the lowest).
I rode the Electric Loop yesterday in Neokyo and thought I was hearing an improved audio soundscape. I heard occasional drumming and other unique city noises I hadn’t perceived before. Is this a thing? Are they also improving audio experiences on the platform in these updates? I’m always intrigued by the level of detail in these worlds. Although, I don’t hear as much talk about the audio experience in-game per se.
Keen on the new numbers after the groupset fix. Will the S5 get back the crown over all frames again? Will the much cheaper Uranium still be in the range of the S5? Will the SL7 and the Aeroad be top performers again?
That’s what makes these updates fun: first there’s the stuff we find out when it’s released, then we find out how the new or existing equipment performs.
Anybody else find themselves significantly slower after the upgrade? I was instantly out the back and working at FTP to keep up with the sweeps on a standard recovery group ride, while everybody around me seems to be at a much lower w/kg. I’ve also seen reports that “the pace partners are much faster”. Windows, Kickr Core, and Tron if it matters.
I too find my avatar going slower on a given route, for a given wattage, post-update. I hope someone who’s more on top of their Strava records will be able to confirm something’s changed.
same feeling – significantly slower about 40-50 watts I guess. Not sure whether this happens after the Zwift update 1.22.1 or the Wahoo Kickr V5 firmware update 4.2.7or a combination of these. Both updates installed on Feb 15th
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Hi Eric, would you say that the percentile ranking (flat and climb) from your elaborations would change significantly from the groupset bugfix? More specific: I am close to the drops-amount for the Focus Ignazio (lvl 8 at the moment). This should still be a valid choice for low lvl, right? Thanks for any answer!
If the bug is fixed you might wanna wait for the Aeroad at lvl 10…
Ahh thanks Thomas!
Just did some reading on the Zwift Insider Analysis on the Aeroad 2021 tweak. It seems to me that a planned nerf was implemented in Oct 2020, rather than a bug (the bug was it being too light before), no?
Can you explain why it should be effected by the last patch, Thomas?
True, there was a planned nerf back in Oct 2020, but the Aeroad 2021 was still a top all-rounder. Especially at lower LVLs.
But then it was affected by the Sep 2021 Dura Ace bug, which made it 19 sec slower in Eric’s climb test, until now. Perhaps?
Thanks again, Thomas! Guess I’ll better wait for the elaboration that Eric announced.
Yeah, Aeroad 2021 is what you want now. It’s back to it’s old (good) performance. More detail in an upcoming post…
Ugh and I just bought the Focus.
If only they could add the “TT Tune up” workout
Sounds like they’ll be adding more. Doing it by popularity it seems.
Thanks Eric. Great job on this website by the way
Hi,
After installing the latest Update, I had trouble with the Companion App, I was unable to connect to the course I chose, what can I do?
Chasing the Sun – just what we needed, another route which goes up the tower KOM, the single worst section of any map in the game. It makes me want to rage quit every time up either side of that dirt climb.
Sounds like somebody needs a gravel bike. ;P
Ugh – switching bikes is a terrible workaround. Certainly would be faster up that climb though but slower everywhere else.
Thank you for the site! Great information.
With regard to the speed tests, I have always wondered if gender has any impact at all on speed provided every other parameter is the same.
Hi. I cannot find the directions for riding “Handful of Gravel”. Do you know where I can find them?
John
Somehow I missed the new video minimums going into effect in March. 3 of us are each using a Dell Optiplex 3010, and using the on-board Intel 2500 graphics. Looks like we need a better graphics card. Do we have until the end of the month of March? I JUST got the warning TODAY!
I would guess when the next update comes out for Zwift. They seem to come out once a month about in the middle of the month.
Since looking through the update, some frames have now been updated/upgraded to better all rounders to maybe rival the Scott RC and the Tron concept:
Cannondale Supersix Evo – 3* aero, 4* weight,
Chapter 2 TOA – 3* aero, 4* weight,
Felt FR – 3* aero, 4* weight,
Pinarello Dogma F – 3* aero, 4* weight
Scott RC – 3* aero, 4* weight,
All of these have added a * to their weight listings moving up from 3* so will be interesting to see how they stack up on rolling courses with high aero benefit but even better weight.
Sorry to be “that” guy but I noticed right away the frame rate is so low it is nauseating.Just updated last night as I received a message that said you have one more day until this update is mandatory. I run Zwift on an iPhone 11 and stream it to an Apple TV. I have had no issues and really enjoyed Zwift since I joined a month ago. However with this update I noticed immediately the frame rate was lower on the iPhone than it used to be. The graphic intensity was higher but I checked and there was no… Read more »