Zwift Hub and TrainerRoad integration

On a quick skim, that doesn’t seem to include TrainerRoad in their list of apps.

A bit outside the box idea (and just relevant to Win/Mac users), it may be possible to use keyboard shortcuts along with Resistance or Standard modes to fudge “Virtual Shifting”.

  1. If you have a keyboard within easy reach this is pretty easy to apply.
  2. A mouse can do the same via the screen control as well (bottom left side of the workout player).
  3. It would also be possible to use a small wireless keyboard mounted to your bars, and map to these controls.

The QZ app should work because it presents as a trainer on bluetooth and handles the shifting itself. That being said, this is also the reason it gets you banned in Indievelo (TP Virtual) Performance verification.

I have written a short but ugly python script that uses qz app to connect to the Zwift Click or Play, then monitors its log files for gear changes, then sends keypresses =/- to the Indievelo/TPV app. It only works on macOS. It would take thirty seconds to adapt that script to allow you to use the Zwift Click + Hub to increase/decrease resistance on TR if you prefer TR to handle your resistance but don’t want to always use Erg (for sprint workouts for example).

The script is here: GitHub - mnetzwur/tpv-zclick: Use TP Virtual/IndieVelo with Zwift Click

Don’t yell at me, I’m not a software developer, I’m in the humanities. :wink:

Thanks @mcneese.chad, I could totally see myself doing something like that.

This brings up another point- how often do you actually shift gears while using TrainerRoad with a smart trainer in ERG mode? I’m getting the feeling that just using a single cog on a smart trainer in erg mode would work for a majority of workouts, but there will be times where this would be annoying/mess up the workout.

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:joy: Awesome, @cyclhist. I actually thought about something like this very high level when considering buying a Zwift Ride bike, if I would be able to adapt the controllers to work with TrainerRoad. I’m not a software developer either but I work with them and I’ve been known to ChatGPT my way through a few scripts. That being said, I don’t know if I want to buy a $600 smart bike and rely on a janky script that may or may not work at the whim of some firmware update by Zwift.

I agree. Though if you’re not using Zwift there’s probably not much need to update the firmware on the click. I expect someone to take the click driver from the QZ app eventually and implement a proper driver that does this more elegantly. The alternative is (though I think this doesn’t work on macOS because it won’t let you remap media remotes as keys easily) would be to get one of those endless motorcycle media remotes and remap the buttons to do what I am doing here. In the end, all you need is a remote that can send some keypresses to the training app of your choice.

As for your other question, you can’t. But you can adjust workout intensity while in erg mode, which may give you enough of what you need.

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Differs for everyone:

  • I use it frequently since I shift from the small to big ring each time I do a standing effort (then revert for seated.
  • I also swap to big ring for my seated low-cadence efforts, which is less often than standing but part of my long Z2 workouts as I swap with the ~15min blocks for my TR workouts.

It’s possible to do both of those in pure ERG by adjusting your cadence and that is what I started with since the conventional wisdom was to pick a gear for ERG and never change. But I find shifting as above to be faster and more like what I already do outside in similar conditions.

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