Saturday Morning Zwift Ride (1/2)

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Michael T. Bello

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Dec 30, 2020, 11:09:37 PM12/30/20

to NCC Discussion Group

On Saturday at 9 AM, I'm planning the "Serpentine 8” route in Watopia (https://www.strava.com/segments/26742092). This will be a 90 minute ride.

If anyone is interested, just follow me on Zwift (Michael Bello - NCC) and I'll add you to the invite. If you follow me, please send me a note.

A few recommendations...

Zwift now allows late joiners to Meetups. Give yourself a few extra minutes to join the ride anyway (on Zwift 5 minutes before the ride would be ideal).

Please wear the NCC jersey. This makes it easier to recognize who is in the group. On a computer, log into Zwift, once riding, press “P” on you keyboard and enter NCCMAKIT. After that, you can use the jersey on any device running Zwift (laptop, tablet, phone, etc.).

Our previous ride were enhanced with conversations on Discord. After installing Discord, ˙˙use the NCC invite to join the conversation: https://discordapp.com/invite/uXdHm7m.

If you are new to Discord, I recommend this article on ZwiftInsider: https://zwiftinsider.com/using-discord/. Please pay particular attention to Step 4: "Discord automatically places you in the text chat channel, which isn’t where you want to be. Click the hamburger menu (3 lines at top-left) to view all the channels on the server. Click “General” under voice channels, then click “Connect to Voice” to join the general voice chat."

I also recommend testing Discord out prior to the ride. Feel free to contact me if you want to test Discord.

Michael T. Bello

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Jan 2, 2021, 11:30:41 AM1/2/21

to NCC Discussion Group, Michael T. Bello

On a very wet Saturday morning, we had nine NCC riders (Charlie, Chris, Dan, Dusty, Melissa, Mike, Tim, Zinj, and me).

Today's route, the new Serpentine 8 route in Watopia, is mostly dirt. ZwiftInsider recommended using a mountain bike, so most of us switched frames. It looks a bit different seeing the NCC peleton without dropbar bikes.

In our 90 minutes, we went approximately 25.6 miles with 1,371 feet of climbing. The mileage was slightly less than our typical 90 minutes, but the dirt slowed us down a bit. Thank goodness we were using the faster mountain bike option.

Discord was active today. Even before the ride began we were discussing bike frame options. Zinj and Chris continued their power meter discussion. I'm encouraging Zinj to try a new Zwift e-racing controller project (https://zwiftinsider.com/bluetooth-eracing-controller/). We discussed asthma and heating sources. This morning's article in the Gazette (https://www.gazettenet.com/On-the-fast-track-Worthington-s-Payton-Shippee-wins-national-BMX-championships-38024162) about BMX riding was also brought up. We even talked about under 16 riders on Zwift. Melissa has her kids riding the Zwift roads. Finally, Chris took the in game mountain biking concept to the extreme and had a "dropper post" going on his real bike. He claims the bolt just slipped causing his seat to go lower.

John C., checked in briefly and helped us test out the late join feature. Similar to the New Year's Day ride (https://www.nohobikeclub.org/2021/01/01/new-years-day-ride-report/), John did not have much luck with the late join.

For today's Zwift accomplishments, Charlie, Chris, Dusty, Melissa, Mike, Zinj, and I earned the Serpentine 8 route achievement, which doubled our XP points for the first lap. Tim finished level 26 and earned the SWorks Shoes.

As a reminder, the HC/TT returns from hiatus this Thursday (1/7).

Here is the NCC Zwift schedule:

- Mon afternoon - Road Race (times will vary between 5 PM and 7 PM EST)

- Tue 8:00 PM - Social Ride (invite required)

- Thu 5:30 PM - Time Trial / Hill Climb (solo effort, TT bike required) (invite required)