You only have to look on Strava these days to see how popular Zwift is. It has literally revolutionised indoor cycle training But what on earth do you have to do to join in the fun?

So yesterday I did my first ever Zwift session. A few weeks ago, though, the thought of setting everything up and getting it to work seemed like it was going to be a bit of a black art. For anyone in a similar situation, here’s how I did it.

The first thing you need to do is download the free Zwift app and create an account. This works on pretty much all mobile devices as well as tablets and computers. I personally downloaded the app to my iPhone 6. When I created my account the system gave me 25 free KMs to try it out but once these have been used up there is a monthly subscription.

Next, I set my bike and turbo trainer up in my somewhat chaotic garage. Many turbo trainiers these days are bluetooth enabled and can communicate with the Zwift app directly but, unfortunately for me, mine is a plain old basic model so I had to figure out something else.

Normally on the turbo I use a Garmin Edge 510 cycling computer so all of my sensors; heart rate, speed and cadence, are ANT+ but because I initially intended to use Zwift on my iPhone, I felt bluetooth sensors were a better option. It is possible to use ANT+ but it means investing in a dongle.

I already had a bluetooth heart rate sensor which I bought on Ebay for just under £9 or $12 so all I needed was the speed/cadence sensor which, again, I picked up on Ebay for £7 or $9.

As you can see, they both look and function exactly the same as their ANT+ equivalents.

Once I had set them up I fired up Zwift and paired my devices. After that I was pretty much good to go and it was just a question of getting on the bike and riding away.

Having now done my first Zwift session I felt that my iPhone screen was a little on the small side. I think my next step will be to run the app on my MacBook pro which, fortunately is also bluetooth enabled. I’ll post another film letting you know how this worked out.

If you would like to follow my efforts on the bike you can follow me on Strava. My profile is here: [ Ссылка ] Social Media

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