Smart trainers and software

[Mr Purple]

Won my first 'A' grade race today - on 'Break-fast Crits and Grits' which is a rolling hill course finishing on a climb that suits me quite well.

I'd checked the field beforehand and there was one rider I'd definitely already flagged as suspect. I led most of the race before accelerating with him about 5km from the end, making a two man break and then he absolutely destroyed me on the final hill - dropping me by 11 seconds.

Checked his account afterwards - level 22 Zwift with 3500km all time, no linked Zwiftpower or Strava account, a race score of 920 (meaning he wins literally everything) and an alleged weight of 59kg. Given no-one is going to believe any of that I think I'll happily claim the moral victory. Old school weight doping there - I suspect an 80-90kg rider looking at his numbers.

[davehirst]

You sound like an English cricket player.
;-p

[Mr Purple]

You sound like an English cricket player.
;-p

Yep! I have to take my victories in 'A' how I can. Because after all I'm only there to entertain people...

7th out of 782 in TDZ today amongst a bunch of A+ riders. Interestingly there's a Ventoux in that series coming up - time to target 296W for the first 20 minutes just to get upgraded to A+. Then explode.

[Mr Purple]

Another one today. I think at this stage I'll just accept that in every Zwift race there's one obvious cheat.

Today's was aged 50+, had a four race history, level 23 on Zwift, no HRM. 100% win ratio - 78kg with an FTP of 400W. Dumped a fairly decent A grade field by 1:30 on a 14km sprint race averaging 412W.

A bit frustrating to see in action. But I managed to outclimb the other A+ rider in the field for a three second win for second, so I'll take that.

Mind you I also had a Fulgaz KOM taken out today but some idiot doing 37km/hr up a 3.6% gradient with exactly 0W. All his rides are 40km/hr+ average with 0W.

[g-boaf]

Up to 166 Alpe du Zwift laps. That should be 5 so far for the year I think.

I did a tough group ride the other day on Innsbruck with the top female Zwift rider. She’s really fast on the hills - a total machine. Really feeling the effects today.

Outdoor riding is no go, too wet.

It pays on Zwift to try and ignore other riders, particularly the suspiciously fast ones. More often than not it’s a level-up bot or a dodgy trainer calibration or a dumb trainer. The sticky-watts folks are also still around.

Until the exploits are cleaned up I won’t go anywhere near racing in Zwift. Even if they were I still wouldn’t, it’s nicer to ride where I want and when I want on Zwift.

[Mr Purple]

And once again confirming there's one obvious cheat in every Zwift race - the winner today averaged 411W and 110bpm for 45 minutes, including a 456W KOM segment with 51bpm. Strangely enough excluded from the overall results for some reason...

Which meant I took the win out of 570 riders. Pretty happy with that!

[jasonc]

And once again confirming there's one obvious cheat in every Zwift race - the winner today averaged 411W and 110bpm for 45 minutes, including a 456W KOM segment with 51bpm. Strangely enough excluded from the overall results for some reason...

Which meant I took the win out of 570 riders. Pretty happy with that!

570 riders? crazy. well done

[Mr Purple]

570 riders? crazy. well done

Technically a Tour de Zwift event, so not a race unfortunately (always a race).

Thanks though, I'm always just aiming for the top 10 or so in these usually and it was nice to actually make the sprint finish stick!

[Mr Purple]

The motivation is working. One hour power PB finishing midfield in an 'A' grade JETT race this morning.

Those events are mental. Half my group matched the Zwift KOM on the 'Country Sprint Reverse' segment after 44km and the other half of us were a rounding error away from doing it. 43rd of 142,298 overall.

No wonder I couldn't win the sprint on that one!

[Mr Purple]

Actually made a Zwiftpower report today.

Have run into the same rider a few times, 90kg with a 20 minute of 460W. Interesting split Zwift career - 57 races in 2021 where he was 2.3W/kg, no rides for four years on Strava at all, then 9 races in 2025 around 5.4W/kg. Never seen anyone manage to go from 'D' to 'A+' within 9 events.

It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. I'd rather not actually report anyone but I keep on running into the same guy, he's not much fun to chase down when he's holding 1000W for over a minute.

[g-boaf]

Zwift Racing is full of undiscovered potential Tour de France winners. And many of them are 50yo or more!

It’s amazing, I tell ya…

With all the loopholes and dodgy things I see on Zwift I will never, ever race on there.

I just did another ADZ - #167 and no.6 for this year.

[Mr Purple]

There’s always one obvious cheat per race. Today’s had two - the other was a 43kg 5.6W/kg Zpower rider.

It’s annoying because I’m now consistently winning in ‘A’ grade. Just never on the road, someone has to be disqualified first.

[g-boaf]

The old Mac Pro from 2010 fully upgraded started to get a bit too old. No more security updates for it.

Replaced it with an M4 Pro Mac Mini, the default base spec in the M4 Pro version.

The transfer from old goliath machine to the tiny new one took about 40 minutes using migration assistant. Everything is working. Zwift runs, I didn’t check Fulgaz but it should also be fine.

New Mac Mini is so small, barely bigger than Apple TV. Mine has 24gb ram, 512GB storage.

[warthog1]

The old Mac Pro from 2010 fully upgraded started to get a bit too old. No more security updates for it.

Replaced it with an M4 Pro Mac Mini, the default base spec in the M4 Pro version.

The transfer from old goliath machine to the tiny new one took about 40 minutes using migration assistant. Everything is working. Zwift runs, I didn’t check Fulgaz but it should also be fine.

New Mac Mini is so small, barely bigger than Apple TV. Mine has 24gb ram, 512GB storage.

How much does one of them cost?

[jasonc]

The old Mac Pro from 2010 fully upgraded started to get a bit too old. No more security updates for it.

Replaced it with an M4 Pro Mac Mini, the default base spec in the M4 Pro version.

The transfer from old goliath machine to the tiny new one took about 40 minutes using migration assistant. Everything is working. Zwift runs, I didn’t check Fulgaz but it should also be fine.

New Mac Mini is so small, barely bigger than Apple TV. Mine has 24gb ram, 512GB storage.

How much does one of them cost?

Mac mini with M4 chip: Starts at around AUD 1,299 for the base model with 256GB storage.
Mac mini with M4 Pro chip: Starts at around AUD 1,999 for the base model with 512GB storage.

if you are in the microsoft ecosystem, you can get a dell optiplex with a proper desktop processor for that
I do notice there's a dell precision with i9-14900 and T1000 for $1909 that would wipe the floor of with that mac mini with M4 Pro

[g-boaf]

The old Mac Pro from 2010 fully upgraded started to get a bit too old. No more security updates for it.

Replaced it with an M4 Pro Mac Mini, the default base spec in the M4 Pro version.

The transfer from old goliath machine to the tiny new one took about 40 minutes using migration assistant. Everything is working. Zwift runs, I didn’t check Fulgaz but it should also be fine.

New Mac Mini is so small, barely bigger than Apple TV. Mine has 24gb ram, 512GB storage.

How much does one of them cost?

A base M4 Mini with 16gb ram and 256gb storage is $900 I think.

The one I got (more powerful, more ram, more storage) was $2100, it was one of the default in stock configurations. It seems pretty fast for the tiny size and it’s a full computer.

I already had keyboard and mouse and just connected it straight to my 4K TV screen using HDMI.

It was a straight swap over and very smooth running.

if you are in the microsoft ecosystem, you can get a dell optiplex with a proper desktop processor for that
I do notice there's a dell precision with i9-14900 and T1000 for $1909 that would wipe the floor of with that mac mini with M4 Pro

I just searched for the Dell:
https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/dell-de ... 3280wt03au

$3500. I probably found the wrong one, but it is expensive, large and heavy.

I just checked Geekbench (higher numbers better):

Single core:
M4 Pro 12 core: 3929
Intel Core i9-14900: 2882

Multi core:
M4 Pro 12 core: 20696
Intel Core-i9-14900: 17506

https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/9820581 (M4 Pro Mac Mini)
https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/8990681 (Dell Precision 3280)

The numbers are there. I don't get much into what is wiping floors with whatever else, but it looks like the Dell is the one being wiped.

[am50em]

I would look at this
https://www.geekompc.com/geekom-gt1-mega-mini-pc/ rather than a Dell. I have an earlier version which has been very good for my needs.

[jasonc]

The numbers are there. I don't get much into what is wiping floors with whatever else, but it looks like the Dell is the one being wiped.

as someone who manages desktop hardware for a living (over 100,000 devices), the problem with the mini pcs is heat management and dissipation. yes they will go flat out, but for how long till they become thermally limited

https://www.geekompc.com/geekom-gt1-mega-mini-pc/ rather than a Dell. I have an earlier version which has been very good for my needs.

H processor is a 28w processor
same issues as the mac processor in such a small device

[am50em]

Haven't had any heat issues with my geekom.

[g-boaf]

I have temperature monitoring software on the Mini, (was migrated from my old desktop Mac). I did watch the temps while running Zwift and it didn't go very high.

Certainly not like old RX580 GPUs pushing 85ºC.

I might be able to put Final Cut Pro on the Mac and then do some video processing on it and see how it goes with that.

[warthog1]

A base M4 Mini with 16gb ram and 256gb storage is $900 I think.

The one I got (more powerful, more ram, more storage) was $2100, it was one of the default in stick configurations. It seems pretty fast for the tiny size and it’s a full computer.

I already had keyboard and mouse and just connected it straight to my 4K TV screen using HDMI.

It was a straight swap over and very smooth running.

Cheers GB. We are up for a new computer and I am an IT dunce. I might pm you some questions at some point if that is ok?

[g-boaf]

A base M4 Mini with 16gb ram and 256gb storage is $900 I think.

The one I got (more powerful, more ram, more storage) was $2100, it was one of the default in stick configurations. It seems pretty fast for the tiny size and it’s a full computer.

I already had keyboard and mouse and just connected it straight to my 4K TV screen using HDMI.

It was a straight swap over and very smooth running.

Cheers GB. We are up for a new computer and I am an IT dunce. I might pm you some questions at some point if that is ok?

Yep, absolutely.

[warthog1]

Yep, absolutely.

Thanks

[g-boaf]

The new computer is running Zwift fine.

I also paired up the Zwift Play controllers and not a single drop-out the whole time.

So I think the bluetooth (and probably the bluetooth antenna) on the old Mac Pro was not up to the task. It is a big difference having a tiny little box on the desk rather than a big 16kg tower and it doesn't heat up the room. The old one just pumped out heat, great in winter but not good in summer.

[g-boaf]

I got a decent ADZ lap yesterday - 45:38, I paced it very well and my power seems to be getting better.