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Spartak
Powered by M&M's
- Location
- Bristolian
Race invites sent
Everyone I hope should have the meet up invite. In case I’ve inadvertently missed anyone let me know.
📆 Wednesday 19th August @ 1840h Uk time. Hopefully that can work for most people. I’ve pushed back the start time by 10 minutes for a bit of extra commuting time(or warm up time for those taking it too seriously)
🏁 Champs Elysee x 5 laps. Total distance is 36.2km including the lead in.
No hills...
2 new pain caves?Talking of Rutland. The project is no more, up forsale.
We are hopefully getting these instead View attachment 541693
We've gone Wurzel
Sort of, we are going totally rural 🐄🐖👩🌾🚜🐔🐑
BurningLegs
Guru
Tssk 🙄No hills...
bobinski
Legendary Member
- Location
- Tulse Hill
Best review I have read so far;
I had a go with the Elite Sterzo Smart last night. I wanted to use it on my 9:30pm ride, and I only had about 5 minutes to get sorted, so it turned out to be a little panicked! =)
First problem: I needed to find a small screwdriver for the battery compartment. FFS, why, Elite? Why?! A clip would do. It's going to be flat on the ground, not like the batteries are going to fall out.
Anyway, found the screwdriver, put the batteries in. Wasn't too fiddly, despite some commentary about them keep popping out.
Put it on the floor in place of my Tacx riser. LED was blinking. Cool.
Here we go!
Started Zwift. No steering wheel icon.
Whaaaaa?!
Checked my Bluetooth dongle was in. It was. Checked in "Add devices", and the Sterzo showed up.
So Bluetooth and the Sterzo were fine. But Zwift steadfastly refused to see it.
A bit more WTF about why was my Bluetooth icon greyed out in Zwift. Eventually I worked out that there's a "Settings" cog in the top right. I've never used it before, but on clicking it up came a box where I could select between Bluetooth on the PC and Bluetooth via the Companion.
Companion was selected.
Nnng! OK, selected the other option and Lo! My Sterzo was detected.
Let's go! I made the start of the event with a minute or so to spare, and we were off to the races. Well, the group ride.
Steering itself wasn't immediately what I expected. The Sterzo has a dead zone, and the self-centring mechanism actually takes a fair bit of force to overcome. Not loads, but more than I expected.
The steering wasn't as sensitive as I'd expected either. I had to turn the wheel quite a long way before my avatar started moving. It's not a natural steering motion; and there's no need to steer back the other way. Let go and you'll tend towards going forwards pretty quickly.
As noted, it's more of a case of selecting your "lane". Think TCR, rather than Scalextric.
(For those of you not as old as me, TCR was a slotless racing car system from the 70s, where you could change lane as there were no slots)
Once you're "in lane" there's no need to steer any more. You'll follow the road; yet despite this, on sharp bends in particular I found myself _wanting_ to steer around them. It was a little weird, really. Since I could steer, I felt like I should steer.
In practice, I think it just takes a bit of adjusting to. I started being able to be a bit less severe in my veering around - but not as smoothly as I wanted to. It's not like steering a real bike, of course.
Anyway, I played around, and tried taking some shorter lines. As others have noted, this does work. But the downside to taking the shorter line is often times being out of the draft. That has pros as well, but it's not a big enough advantage to get far away from a larger pack. Not without an effort anyway, in my experience. So this isn't an "I win" button. It might be an "I don't lose" button, but in itself it's not such a huge advantage that no one else should even bother.
Speaking of the draft, I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I felt like if I was riding up behind someone, I couldn't get past them without deliberate steering around them. There was no riding through them, but not even any edging around them even when doing more power. I only tested that a few times, so it's not a categorical statement; but we do know that you can't deliberately cut through people, so it would make some sense.
Again on the subject of the draft, it takes a lot more attention to get back into it if you do steer out of the bunch. Normally, Zwift does a good job of putting you "in the bunch"; when you have steering enabled, nah. You're on your own, pal. So it's easy to find yourself stuck out in the wind if you're not paying attention.
I guess when more people have them there will be more people in different parts of the road, so maybe finding some draft will be easier.
And if you decide that actually you'd rather have a guided ride, I think that means going to the pairing screen to disable it. I tried not steering for a while to see if it would disable, but it didn't; maybe I didn't leave it long enough. And even if it had, one inadvertent jolt of the Sterzo and it would probably engage all over again.
One final note; the first time I got out of the saddle and put in a dig, my front wheel slewed to the right. Or maybe the left. Either way, it was disconcerting and I sat down abruptly. I guess I just need to ease into it more gently, or hold the bars tighter. Or less tightly. Or just get used to it, but it felt like an out of saddle sprint might be an interesting experience.
I've only done that one ride, and overall I liked it. Not least because I could veer around the road going "Look at me! All steery and stuff! Hahaha! Wheeeeee!"
What I would like to see:
* from Elite:
a way of adjusting the strength of the self-centre mechanism
* from Zwift:
a way to adjust the sensitivity in-game
a toggle to turn steering on or off mid ride (Companion app for example - maybe it's already there, I haven't looked)
more freedom in steering; not just "pick a lane", but something more like the free steering in "Grand Theft Bike"
I had a go with the Elite Sterzo Smart last night. I wanted to use it on my 9:30pm ride, and I only had about 5 minutes to get sorted, so it turned out to be a little panicked! =)
First problem: I needed to find a small screwdriver for the battery compartment. FFS, why, Elite? Why?! A clip would do. It's going to be flat on the ground, not like the batteries are going to fall out.
Anyway, found the screwdriver, put the batteries in. Wasn't too fiddly, despite some commentary about them keep popping out.
Put it on the floor in place of my Tacx riser. LED was blinking. Cool.
Here we go!
Started Zwift. No steering wheel icon.
Whaaaaa?!
Checked my Bluetooth dongle was in. It was. Checked in "Add devices", and the Sterzo showed up.
So Bluetooth and the Sterzo were fine. But Zwift steadfastly refused to see it.
A bit more WTF about why was my Bluetooth icon greyed out in Zwift. Eventually I worked out that there's a "Settings" cog in the top right. I've never used it before, but on clicking it up came a box where I could select between Bluetooth on the PC and Bluetooth via the Companion.
Companion was selected.
Nnng! OK, selected the other option and Lo! My Sterzo was detected.
Let's go! I made the start of the event with a minute or so to spare, and we were off to the races. Well, the group ride.
Steering itself wasn't immediately what I expected. The Sterzo has a dead zone, and the self-centring mechanism actually takes a fair bit of force to overcome. Not loads, but more than I expected.
The steering wasn't as sensitive as I'd expected either. I had to turn the wheel quite a long way before my avatar started moving. It's not a natural steering motion; and there's no need to steer back the other way. Let go and you'll tend towards going forwards pretty quickly.
As noted, it's more of a case of selecting your "lane". Think TCR, rather than Scalextric.
(For those of you not as old as me, TCR was a slotless racing car system from the 70s, where you could change lane as there were no slots)
Once you're "in lane" there's no need to steer any more. You'll follow the road; yet despite this, on sharp bends in particular I found myself _wanting_ to steer around them. It was a little weird, really. Since I could steer, I felt like I should steer.
In practice, I think it just takes a bit of adjusting to. I started being able to be a bit less severe in my veering around - but not as smoothly as I wanted to. It's not like steering a real bike, of course.
Anyway, I played around, and tried taking some shorter lines. As others have noted, this does work. But the downside to taking the shorter line is often times being out of the draft. That has pros as well, but it's not a big enough advantage to get far away from a larger pack. Not without an effort anyway, in my experience. So this isn't an "I win" button. It might be an "I don't lose" button, but in itself it's not such a huge advantage that no one else should even bother.
Speaking of the draft, I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I felt like if I was riding up behind someone, I couldn't get past them without deliberate steering around them. There was no riding through them, but not even any edging around them even when doing more power. I only tested that a few times, so it's not a categorical statement; but we do know that you can't deliberately cut through people, so it would make some sense.
Again on the subject of the draft, it takes a lot more attention to get back into it if you do steer out of the bunch. Normally, Zwift does a good job of putting you "in the bunch"; when you have steering enabled, nah. You're on your own, pal. So it's easy to find yourself stuck out in the wind if you're not paying attention.
I guess when more people have them there will be more people in different parts of the road, so maybe finding some draft will be easier.
And if you decide that actually you'd rather have a guided ride, I think that means going to the pairing screen to disable it. I tried not steering for a while to see if it would disable, but it didn't; maybe I didn't leave it long enough. And even if it had, one inadvertent jolt of the Sterzo and it would probably engage all over again.
One final note; the first time I got out of the saddle and put in a dig, my front wheel slewed to the right. Or maybe the left. Either way, it was disconcerting and I sat down abruptly. I guess I just need to ease into it more gently, or hold the bars tighter. Or less tightly. Or just get used to it, but it felt like an out of saddle sprint might be an interesting experience.
I've only done that one ride, and overall I liked it. Not least because I could veer around the road going "Look at me! All steery and stuff! Hahaha! Wheeeeee!"
What I would like to see:
* from Elite:
a way of adjusting the strength of the self-centre mechanism
* from Zwift:
a way to adjust the sensitivity in-game
a toggle to turn steering on or off mid ride (Companion app for example - maybe it's already there, I haven't looked)
more freedom in steering; not just "pick a lane", but something more like the free steering in "Grand Theft Bike"
Read this last night .... seems fair and as I experienced it on my short ride. Like I said, not all advantage as it's easy to take yourself out of the draft so will take practice and concentration BUT I think it will add a nice change to Zwift. Can't be long until they start to roll it out to the smart-bikes
bobinski
Legendary Member
- Location
- Tulse Hill
My small take on steering from the reviews is that , assuming there is no development of variability or degree of turn;
1. if you are only ever going to be guided into a “lane”, Then the number of lanes there are on a given course is going to be a significant factor. Know your course!
2. that there seems to be little to no mechanical advantage In a unit like this over using a button on a smart bike or even top button for di2 users.
That said I still have my NEO and am so tempted to buy this and try it out 😀
1. if you are only ever going to be guided into a “lane”, Then the number of lanes there are on a given course is going to be a significant factor. Know your course!
2. that there seems to be little to no mechanical advantage In a unit like this over using a button on a smart bike or even top button for di2 users.
That said I still have my NEO and am so tempted to buy this and try it out 😀
<Tommy>
Illegitimi non carborundum
- Location
- Camden, London
The other things is that once you’re in a race in which everyone can steer. Most people will be taking the quickest line around corners so it’ll kind of be neutralised a bit. Although I suppose at that point you could then go the longer way round to mount an attack.
Went back online last night and now Rutland are out of stock. 😢 Looks like I’ll just wait for Zwift to get them back available
bobinski
Legendary Member
- Location
- Tulse Hill
Berty found this place that had them and if you go through home page you get a discount code to cover postage
https://m.startfitness.co.uk/elite-sterzo-smart-steering-frame-ant-tt180601.html
https://m.startfitness.co.uk/elite-sterzo-smart-steering-frame-ant-tt180601.html
The update and steering has the potential to make the racing far more realistic in terms of having to manage your position within the bunch. It will no longer be possible to sit at the back of the bunch and then simply up the power to move through the riders in front as if they don’t exist. You will have to keep moving up the group at strategic points to keep within the top 10/15 riders to be in with the chance of the sprint.
This could potentially be a disadvantage for steering riders in mixed races as I understand a steerer will be blocked in whereas non-steerers will still be able to pass through riders ahead.
<Tommy>
Illegitimi non carborundum
- Location
- Camden, London
yeah I like that aspect of it in theory. The idea that you can’t just sit at the back and then float through the group when it suits you. It’s hard to form a proper opinion without giving it a good go first. At the moment you have that strange phenomenon where you can go from being sucked to the back of the group from being sat at the front. I’m interested to see how the steering effects that. It could be painful dropping back though gaps in the pack and then having to fight like mad to get near the front again.
Hopefully I'll get to join the Crit steerer racer later and if I do I'll try to remember to record it.
This I think is an interesting route with the winding course. Specifically the little climb could be a race changer; you have the sharp right into the start of the climb, followed by a sharp left about 1/2 way, then at the top another sharp right to the finish. It could be easy to choose the wrong 'lane' get boxed in and not be able to switch as you go through the climb. Definitely going to take some time to practice and learn the best tactics.
As I said yesterday, mixed races could be really interesting as a 'steerer' could easily get blocked where others can still ride through other avatars .... quite looking forward to the challenge even if I get dropped as I can't get the draft right
Practice will hopefully make perfect 
<Tommy>
Illegitimi non carborundum
- Location
- Camden, London
Given the choice between having steering and not having steering in a mixed race. I wonder how many people would choose not to have steering.
Seems a bit like taking a knife to a gun fight to me.
Seems a bit like taking a knife to a gun fight to me.
