We’ve also selected a Zwift Big Spin hack, zone 3 training, an Alpe du Zwift personal record attempt, and a race finale recap.

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The great Mike Hanney, creator of Zwiftalizer, has dropped another helpful video packed full of tips to avoid data dropouts on Zwift. Watch it below, or read our summary below that!

Tip #1: Use Wahoo Direct Connect

Owners of certain Wahoo hardware can eliminate the need for Bluetooth or ANT+ altogether by purchasing the $100 KICKR Direct Connect module from Wahoo. KICKR Direct Connect is compatible with KICKR MOVE, KICKR v5, KICKR V6, KICKR ROLLR, KICKR BIKE SHIFT, and KICKR BIKE V2.

Note: I would expand this tip by suggesting you use your Wahoo device’s built-in WiFi connection if available. KICKR V6, KICKR Move, KICKR BIKE SHIFT, and KICKR BIKE V2 all support WiFi connections.

Tip #2: Use Ethernet

One of the best ways to reduce or eliminate interference from WiFi is to not use WiFi! Hardwire your Zwift device (PC/Mac/AppleTV) into your network.

Tip #3: Use 5.0 GHz WiFi

Using only 5.0 GHz WiFi instead of 2.4 eliminates the interference 2.4 may have with ANT+ signals.

Tip #4: On 2.4 GHz WiFi, Avoid Channel 10

Channel 10 uses the exact same frequency as ANT+ (2.457 GHz) and will thus interfere with those signals. If you must use 2.4 GHz WiFi, use channels 1-5, and do not use the auto channel selection feature on your WiFi router.

Tip #5: Remove Physical Obstacles

Low-power radio signals do not travel through objects well, so remove obstacles between your trainer and Zwift device.

Tip #6: Turn Off Other WiFi Devices

Lots of devices in the home use 2.4 GHz WiFi, which could interfere with ANT+. Turn them off, or force them to use 5.0 GHz.

Tip #7: Use USB 2 Ports

Use the black USB 2 ports on your computer, not the (usually blue) USB 3 ones. USB 3 is an interference generator – Intel wrote this white paper all about it.

Tip #8: Enable High Performance Power Plan

If your power plan in Windows is set to “balanced” or “power saver”, set it to “High Performance” as this will increase the performance of your PC for gaming.

Tip #9: Disable USB Selective Suspend

Windows 10 includes the “USB Selective Suspend” feature which puts USB devices into a very low-power state when not in use. This may cause dropouts when Windows thinks your ANT+ dongle’s USB port isn’t in use when it actually is.

Tip #10: Use USB 2 Extension Cable

Use a simple USB 2 extension cable to move your dongle away from your computer’s WiFi card and into unobstructed proximity to your trainer setup.

Tip #11: Always Plug In Your Laptop

If you run Zwift on your laptop on battery power, you’ll never get good performance since the CPU will be throttled down to save power.

Tip #12: Disable Old ANT+ Protocols

On the Tacx Neo, disable the old ANT+ protocols to “clean up” the signal. See this video from GPLama with more info >

Tip #13: Disable Garmin Connect

Stop the Garmin ANT agent if it’s running in your system tray so it doesn’t try to take over control of your ANT dongle from Zwift.

Tip #14: Don’t Put the Dongle Too Close

If you place the receiver too close to the transmitter, the signal can get distorted and lead to corrupted data.

Tip #15: Update Firmware

Update your trainer/power meter firmware if possible. Newer firmware may improve device pairing, support updated ANT or Bluetooth profiles, or include options for turning off old profiles.

Tip #16: Avoid Sweat

Sweat kills electronics. Put your dongle in a small plastic bag and seal it with a cable tie.

Tip #17: Change Your Batteries

A regular dropout pattern in Zwiftalizer is a sure sign that the battery in your heart rate monitor or power meter is dying.

Tip #18: Line of Sight Positioning

Ensure that your ANT+ and Bluetooth devices have line of sight to your ANT+ or Bluetooth receivers, and those lines of sight don’t overlap with the line between your WiFi router and receiver.

Wrapping It Up

Thanks for the great video, Mike. Be sure to support his work over at Zwiftalizer.com if you found these tips useful!

Questions or Comments?

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Win your next Zwift race (as a non-sprinter)

In a recent Zwift Racing League event, Ed Laverack put in a massive race-winning attack near the end of the race. Watch as Ed breaks down his race, explaining how he won without being a sprinter.

Can I Finish Repack Rush Without Pedaling?

Zwift Game Updates v1.57 // Peak Zwift 2024 RESULTS // Willunga Climb Portal

Wahoo KICKR Run Hands-On

Wahoo has just announced its latest innovation – the Wahoo KICKR Run. Chase the Summit unpacks all of the details of this new treadmill.

Teaser: Chasing Down a Dream | Zwift Academy 2023

With the Zwift Academy Finalists recently announced, it’s time for the final stages of selection for the 2023 Zwift Academy. Get a preview of this year’s finals!

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Watopia is always available, and the other two worlds (Makuri Islands and New York in the screenshot above) rotate on a set schedule that changes monthly (see the Zwift course calendar).

Zwift restricts the available worlds to keep roads feeling “busy” since the social side of fitness is part of Zwift’s special sauce. But what if you are more concerned with riding a particular route than having other Zwifters nearby? Maybe you’re chasing route badges, or trying to finish a tough workout, and you have a particular route you’d like to ride that is in a world that isn’t on today’s schedule.

The good news is, it’s pretty easy to access the route you want. Here are four ways to do it…

Method #1: Fake Workouts

This is going to be the easiest method for most people.

Simply choose any workout from the homescreen, click “Start Ride”, and the game will pop up a window asking you to select a world and route. This gives you access to all the free-ridable routes in the 10 open worlds (so no Bologna or Crit City).

Once you’re on your chosen route, you can get out of your workout by tabbing through the intervals or skipping them using the Companion app. (Tip: if you use this trick regularly, you might consider creating a simple, short, custom workout that is just a minute of free riding, so you don’t even need to skip the interval.)

Method #2: Meetups

Meetups are perhaps the next easiest way to access the 10 open worlds. When you create a Meetup, you select which world and route it’s on, and you have access to all the open worlds and routes, just like the Fake Workouts hack delivers.

There are two hassles with the Meetup method, though:

1. You must invite a friend to the Meetup. This has to be someone who follows you. Some people have created second trial Zwift account for just this purpose!
2. You must give the Meetup a start time/date. That means you can’t just pop into your desired map… you may need to wait a few minutes.

Learn all about Meetups on Zwift >

Method #3: Club Events

While Clubs are meant to be gathering places for groups of Zwifters, anyone can create a Club and host events from it.

Club events give you access to the same 10 open worlds as the two methods above, but also (somewhat oddly) let you create events on Crit City’s “The Bell Lap” route (but not Downtown Dolphin).

There are two hassles with the Club Events method:

• Creating your Club takes a few minutes: you only have to set your Club up once, but it takes a few minutes to set the various options.
• You must give the event a start time/date. Like Meetups, this means you can’t just pop into your desired map… you may need to wait a few minutes.

Learn how to create Club events on Zwift >

Method #4: <world> Tag Hack

The <world> tag hack is perhaps the most common hack used by Zwifters over the years. Nowadays the ease of the Fake Workouts method has diminished its use, but it still holds a special place in the hearts of many.

So how does it work?

You have a prefs.xml file in your Zwift user directory (which is in your Documents/Zwift directory on PC/Mac). Before starting up Zwift, open this file in a text editor like Wordpad and simply add one of the following tags to force Zwift to place you in your desired world.

To ride Watopia, add: <WORLD>1</WORLD>
To ride Richmond, add: <WORLD>2</WORLD>
To ride London, add:<WORLD>3</WORLD>
To ride New York, add:<WORLD>4</WORLD>
To ride Innsbruck, add: <WORLD>5</WORLD>
To ride Yorkshire, add: <WORLD>7</WORLD>
To ride Makuri Islands, add <WORLD>9</WORLD>
To ride France, add: <WORLD>10</WORLD>
To ride Paris, add: <WORLD>11</WORLD>
To ride Scotland, add: <WORLD>13</WORLD>

This text should go just after the opening <ZWIFT> tag near the top of the file. (If you place it inside of a section like “<DEVICES>” then it will not work.)

Important: Do not insert bogus values into your preferences file! Invalid values will just make Zwift behave unpredictably or even crash. Follow the instructions above carefully and you’ll be safe.

Using Zwift iOS? This method can still be used, but it’s more of a hassle. Here’s how to accomplish this same hack on your iDevice.

Using Apple TV? You’re out of luck when it comes to <world> tag hacking.

Sample

Here is a sample prefs.xml file which forces Zwift to always allow Richmond access (added text is bold):

<ZWIFT>
  <WORLD>2</WORLD>
  <DEVICES>
     <LASTCADENCEDEVICE>720996</LASTCADENCEDEVICE>
     <LASTPOWERDEVICE>720996</LASTPOWERDEVICE>
  </DEVICES>
  <CONFIG>
     <RICHMOND_BRANCH_PREFERENCE>0</RICHMOND_BRANCH_PREFERENCE>
     <BRANCH_PREFERENCE>4</BRANCH_PREFERENCE>
  </CONFIG>
  <WORKOUTS>
     <USE_ERG>1</USE_ERG>
  </WORKOUTS>
</ZWIFT>

Shoutout to ZwiftHacks

If you’d rather not edit your prefs.xml file directly, you can also use the handy ZwiftPref (for MacOS) or Zwift-Preferences (for Windows) tools from ZwiftHacks to accomplish the task via a simple user interface. (These tools let you tweak other Zwift settings as well.)

One Final Caveat

The title of this post says “(Almost) Any Zwift Course” because the methods above only give you access to Zwift’s “open” worlds. Bologna and Crit City are considered event-only worlds, so you can’t hack your way into them using these methods (although Club events will get you into Crit City).

Additionally, the methods above may still not get you into certain “event-only” routes like Watopia’s 2022 Gran Fondo or France’s France Classic Fondo. (Some methods, like Club events, will get you access to certain event-only routes. It may be best to do a bit of experimenting if you have a particular event-only route in mind.)

Questions or Comments?

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2024 USA Cycling Esports National Championships

USA Cycling held their Esports Nats on Zwift last week, and Zwift Community Live provided commentary for the men’s and women’s races. Great broadcast, great competition, deserving winners!

Unlock The Tron Bike FASTER With These Tricks

Humbled In My First Ever Zwift Race

Live Race Walk Through – Taking a good win against a huge quality field

Ryan Dummer races the B category of stage 1 in the ZRacing Flat Is Fast series. And somehow, he manages to provide insightful commentary as he rides… and takes the win!

My Best Sprint +3600XP in 45 minutes! Zwift Level 70

Like Ryan above, Erik from Don’t Get Dropped Cycling recently took on Stage 1 of the ZRacing Flat Is Fast series. Thanks to the big XP powerups and a level up he managed 3600XP in just 45 minutes! (Check out his well-timed steering that helped grab him 2nd place on the day…)

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Here’s an example of an overly springy view – notice how the view of my avatar is bouncing forward and backward:

If you’d like a less springy view, Zwifter Steve Clogg recently shared a little hack with the ZPCMR (Zwift PC Masters & Riders) group on Facebook for disabling the springy camera on PC or Mac.

Editing Config Files

Turning off the springy camera requires a simple edit to your Zwift config file. (The hardest part of the edit is finding and opening the file. This can be a bit confusing if you’ve never done it before.)

• On Windows these are located under: C:\Program Files (x86)\Zwift\data\configs
• On Mac OS they are located under: ~/Library/Application Support/Zwift/data/configs

You’ll need to edit the config file corresponding to the graphics profile Zwift is auto-assigning to your machine (basic, medium, high, or ultra). And you’ll need to have administrator privileges on your machine to do so.

Not sure which profile Zwift is using? Drop your log.txt on http://zwiftalizer.com

• On Windows, the logs are located under: HOMEPATH%\Documents\Zwift\Logs
• On Mac OS, the logs are located under: ~/Documents/Zwift/Logs

Changing Springy Camera Option

To turn off the springy camera, add this line to your config file:

set gUseSpringyCamera=false

To turn the springy camera on, change the line to this (or just remove it entirely):

set gUseSpringyCamera=true

Sample Video with No Springy Camera

Watch a clip with the springy camera disabled:

Notice how the actual camera angle is different, as well as perfectly stable. Perhaps not the preferred view for everyone, but if you’ve got an overly springy setup on your Mac or PC, this may be just what you’re looking for.

More Graphics Hacks

If you’re on a PC or Mac, there are lots of tweaks you can make to these graphics config files which may improve your game experience. Read “Zwift Config File Graphics Tweaks: 2019” for ideas.

Questions or Comments?

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Ever since S4Z arrived on the scene, I’ve heard complaints from Apple TV users along the lines of “If S4Z helps you in races, then it’s unfair because it doesn’t work on Apple TV!” But did you know Apple TV (or for that matter, Android or iOS) users can also use S4Z? You’ll need a PC or Mac to do it, but it doesn’t have to be a high-end machine.

Here’s a recording of me Zwifting on Apple TV while using S4Z in a recent race:

How It Works

The big caveat is that you’ll need a Windows, Mac, or Linux box to use S4Z, even though you’re running Zwift on Apple TV. So this solution isn’t for everyone, but if you have a laptop or desktop available (even if it’s not very powerful), you can install S4Z on it and use it as a “second screen” to enhance your Zwift experience.

Read our intro post to learn how to set up Sauce for Zwift >

How can S4Z display your live Zwift data when it’s not running on Apple TV? When you set up the S4Z app, you enter the credentials for your Zwift account plus a second “monitor” account. These logins are used to query Zwift’s servers, grabbing your data in (near) real time.

So as you ride on Apple TV, your data is being sent to Zwift’s servers, then S4Z on your computer is grabbing and displaying that same data. Fancy, right? One might think the data would be laggy, but S4Z is using Zwift’s high-performance custom UDP-based protocol, so there’s no discernable lag time.

(It’s worth mentioning that this is how S4Z works for everyone, even those running Zwift on a PC/Mac with S4Z on the same machine. S4Z emulates a Zwift game client and grabs your real-time data from Zwift’s servers to display on screen.)

Streaming AppleSauce

For my video above, I used free OBS software on a PC to combine audio from my microphone with several visuals: the Zwift session from Apple TV, S4Z windows from my PC, and a live camera.

How is that done? That’s outside the scope of this post, but I’ll write about Zwift Streaming with Apple TV soon. Stay tuned!

Questions or Comments?

Ever used S4Z with Apple TV? Or maybe you’re planning to try it now? Share below!

Tips For Unlocking Zwift’s Tron Bike

From 3.4 to 3.9 W/KG in 6 Weeks | 41st Birthday FTP Test

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio x Matt Stephens | A conversation over coffee

Zwift Racing League: 2023-24

Leonard Goh reviews all the details for the upcoming Zwift Racing League season. Additionally, he covers some of his favorite moments from the 2022-2023 season!

Zwift Racing – Race The Worlds

Lee C Cycling provides commentary for his recent Zwift race, where he nearly got his first-ever win in category B!

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How Much Faster After 6 Months Of Cycling? New Ramp FTP Test

It’s Just A Game // A Short Film About Zwift

Zwift Race | Cat B Tips / Tactics

How to Gain XP Quickly

The Mussette shares the trick that earned him 5320 XP in only 48 kilometers of riding on Zwift.

FTP Test (Ramp test)

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I especially love to give Ride Ons, so when I’m riding with a group for any significant amount of time, chances are good that any nearby riders will get a thumbs up from me.

After racing and riding with Zwift’s new Play Controllers for a few weeks, I noticed that the Ride On bomb dropped using Play’s Z button was on a slightly faster timer than the Companion app’s Ride On bomb. (Neither allows you to just tap the button repeatedly – you have to wait several seconds between button presses to deliver Ride On bombs.)

Were they on totally separate timers, and could I therefore trigger both simultaneously to give twice as many Rides Ons?

Turns out I can. Here’s a video demo:

Using this method you can drop 10 Ride Ons to nearby riders every ~8 seconds, making it easy to give everyone nearby a Ride On, even in a group of 50-100+ riders.

Questions or Comments?

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