Oh, and... Q: Swapping bikes/wheels etc. Yay or nay? (That at least would be more true to life when racing, but I'm not sure that I would actually get into racing. I'm wary of going beyond 90-95% effort now because of health problems and holding back in races sounds like a recipe for getting dropped!)
Hi Colin, welcome to this bit of the forum!
My feeling on swapping bikes/wheels is that it makes virtually no difference, unless you're racing. If you're not racing, then it can make it
minutely easier to keep in touch on group rides if you equip yourself with the most suitable bike. For most group rides, you'll be riding in the draft and they're not hilly, so virtually any bike would be fine. Zwift will automatically ask to pull you off a TT bike if you accidentally join a group ride on one, because the TT bike doesn't benefit from draft, except in TTT events. (Some people ride MTBs or gravel bikes in slow group rides to try to achieve the right level of challenge).
When I'm racing, I put myself on the most appropriate bike for the course (gravel bike on jungle-based courses, climbing bike for Alpe/Epic/Ventoux/Innsbruck, TT bike for TTs, Tron for everything else). There used to be quite a difference between the rolling resistance of gravel and road bikes on rough ground, which sometimes made it worthwhile to stop and change bikes mid-race, but Zwift changed this a while ago, which I think was a bit of a shame because it brought a tactical element to Jungle races. I try to use powerups to my best advantage because it's a race!
When I'm free-riding, I just stay on whatever bike I'm on. Only if I'm trying for a PB on a climb would I change to my climbing bike (Aethos and Meilensteins). Otherwise, it makes no odds whether you complete a course in 52 minutes or 51 minutes. If I was a real purist I would keep to the same bike for all my PB attempts so that all of my efforts were more comparable (TBH I only really care about my Alpe time). I generally don't bother deploying PUs while free-riding, but I use PUs on the Alpe if the opportunity presents itself...
When I'm doing a workout, bike choice makes precisely no difference to the workout (except that the avatar speed is slightly varied). Because my turbo supports erg mode, the only things I'm watching when I do a workout are the clock and the upcoming power requirements.
It really doesn't take long to 'earn' the 'best' bikes in Zwift - I earned the Tron bike in about 8 months. Make sure that you select the 'Everest' Challenge!
Some people like to collect bikes, wheels, jerseys etc, and get hung up about minutiae like whether particular bikes can be made to appear as different colours (apparently, some of the bikes' colours can be changed, and some can't). Different strokes...!
