All About Zwift’s New Atomic Cruiser Bike

The new Zwift Big Spin series has just kicked off, and many riders are joining the events in hopes of spinning and winning novelty unlocks like the tri-spoke wheel and orange headphones.

Chief among the Big Spin unlocks, though, is the “Zwift Atomic Cruiser” – a tribute to “futuristic” mid-century bikes like the Spacelander. To be clear: there’s no way to purchase this bike. The only way to unlock it is to finish a Zwift Big Spin event and have the prize spinner land on the bike space, which is the lowest probability prize on the spinner.

Here’s how it is described in Zwift’s Drop Shop:

“Look up ‘joyride’ in the dictionary, and you’ll find a picture of The Atomic Cruiser – the first Grand Prize of The Big Spin. Stylish at any speed, this blast from the past is a classic speedster.”

This frame is rated 2 stars for aero and 2 for weight. But Zwift’s star ratings aren’t precise enough to communicate actual performance in game in a useful way, so we ran the Atomic Cruiser through our battery of speed tests.

Here’s everything you need to know about the performance of the new Zwift Atomic Cruiser frame in Zwift.

Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance

The Atomic Cruiser may look like a super-aero rocketship, but unfortunately… it’s not.

Its test time of 51:43 means it is slower than every other road frame in game, apart from the mighty Buffalo Fahrrad. It is 21 seconds slower than our “baseline” Zwift Aero frame and 29 seconds slower than the fastest frames in game on our test course, which is two laps of Tempus Fugit, totaling 34.6km.

Climb Performance

Clearly, Zwift’s Atomic Cruiser is not a lightweight frame. We think Zwift was pretty generous in making the frame as light as they did, considering it looks like it should weigh more than any other frame in game!

The Atomic Cruiser turns in an Alpe climb time of 50:07, which is 39 seconds slower than our Zwift Aero baseline and 77 seconds slower than the best climbing road frame in game – the Specialized Aethos. Once again, it is slower than every other road frame in game, other than the Buffalo Fahrrad.

Note: all test results above are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using Zwift’s stock 32mm carbon wheelset.

Conclusions

It’s probably best to think of Zwift’s Atomic Cruiser in game like you’d think of having this same bike IRL. It’s a novelty frame that will grab eyes and stir up nostalgia, but you don’t want to ride it if you’re looking for speedy performance.

So pull it out of your garage on recovery days, enjoy a cruise, and don’t forget to smile.

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