I've been wondering about this! Thanks for the video very informative!

When in ergo the program doesn’t put any gradients and only controls the power. Do this same test normal mode and you’ll see that the feeling is quite different.

Well you said it right. It is cutting the gradient, and it is not alterd gearing at all. People think that is the same but it isn't.

People don't seem to understand that pushing say 300 watts on the flat is the Not the same as pushing 300 up a gradient 😂 I can tell you that it's a lot harder on max difficulty setting than say 50%

You can use a lower difficulty setting to cheat. I gave it a try. I am an "A Rider" according to Zwift Power. I did the Zwift Fondo many months back and set my trainer difficulty to Zero. Once the course hit that front range climb that can take you to either the jungle or epic reverse, the attack begins. With Zero difficulty I was able to turn the Grade into zero instead of 10%. I was nailing 400 plus watts for that 2 mins or so and kept with the front. Normally at 100% trainer difficulty my legs can't deal with the amount of torque required to produce 400 plus watts for 2 mins on a 10% grade. Certainly not without standing and stomping. In real life you can't just opt to reduce or eliminate a grade. The best you can do is to choose a different cassette option for the IRL Event. However it is not the same a Zero Percent Trainer Difficulty. If you want to be strong when it is time to get on the road, use 100% Trainer Difficulty. Especially if you want to climb strong IRL.

Its like having a bigger cassette, when sliding difficulty down. Easiest way to think about it.

If you just wants to play a game and not get any fitness then turn it all the way down. If you are wanting fitness turn it up to 100

Hi there, nice to see another Scandinavian cyclist here on UKposts, there’s not many of us 🙂

The better way to do this is with two copies of Zwift with two accounts (for a short climb free account should suffice) on two systems. Pair both via Ant to your trainer or power meter. Start both avatars in the same location (you can adjust position in a single game by going into pair mode in the other.) Once both avatars are positioned in the same location, both paired, start your test. Both games will receive the same power data assuming no dropouts. If dropouts are an issue, use a trainer that can support multiple BLE connections (e.g. Wahoo Kickr) and pair both games using BLE.

for me i was faster up hill @ 50% but seemed to have drag on the flat and downhill ... @ 100% the ride felt more realistic 5% hill felt like 5% and downhills fast .... wahoo kickr

It depends on what you are using Zwift for, which can be different between sessions. If you want to train to ride IRL (especially climbs) then it makes sense to go 100% because the real world has no difficulty setting and you will run out of spinning gears so learning how to vairy your cadence is important. If your focus is overall fitness or achievement within the game it doesn't matter, its not cheating and you should go with what feels best and/or more realistic to you.

It's just way of altering gearing that is all in other words, if you've got a bicycle that's got high gears and you put it on the trainer. You alter the difficulty and you've got a differentr geared bike. People forget it's only a game. As for me I don't race at all and I'm quite happy to alter the training difficulty to make it easie.r

Slow down. You speak too fast for me.