11 October 2023
Zwift has just announced two new products today, and arguably changed the way trainers might be sold in the future. The first is the new Zwift Hub One smart trainer, which takes the existing Zwift Hub smart trainer from last year, and replaces the cassette with the new Zwift Cog. What’s the Cog you ask? Well, it’s a single rear cog that replaces your entire cassette by virtually emulating shifts. It’s essentially what all smart bikes do, but now for your smart trainer.
Of course, in order to still shift, you’ll also get the new Zwift Clicks, which is a simple button set for your handlebars to shift your virtual gears. So, in short, you’ve got two products for sale:
A) Zwift Hub One (which includes the Zwift Cog + Clicks) – $599 including a year of Zwift
B) Zwift Cog (which also includes the Clicks) – $79, but $59 early-access
In this review, I’m taking a look at the entire Zwift Hub One smart trainer, largely as if it were a new smart trainer. Of course, the Zwift Hub One is merely an existing Zwift Hub with a different mounted cassette concept atop it, but the underlying components are all identical. And you can find my existing review on that trainer – now rebranded Zwift Hub Classic, as well as updates on things like accuracy improvements.
If you’re focused on just the Zwift Cog pieces, then you can see that throughout this review, but you’ll likely want to focus mostly on the section about Zwift Cog vs Mechanical Cassette. It helps you decide which Zwift Hub trainer you might want to order, as Zwift is still offering both (the new one is titled Zwift Hub One, the existing one titled Zwift Hub Classic).
Got all that? Good, let’s get cooking.
The Main Specs:
First, just a quick run through the top-line specs, which are identical to the JetBlack Volt V2 because it’s virtually the same underlying hardware (something Zwift has previously confirmed). However, since the Zwift Hub released a year ago, we’ve seen the JetBlack and Zwift Hub firmware diverge a bit, and thus the JetBlack Volt does have a few more software features that seem to be slightly ahead of the Zwift Hub. Nonetheless, here’s the current Zwift Hub specs:
– Direct drive trainer: This means you remove your rear wheel
– Flywheel: It has a flywheel weight of 4.7kg
– Cassette: Zwift Cog virtual cassette, compatible with 8-12 speed bikes, though practically compatible with any bike/chain that you can physically mount on the trainer (axle-wise).
– Sound: Essentially silent. Only the sound of your drivetrain is heard
– Handle: This unit lacks a handle, which continues to make it slightly awkward to move around
– Protocol Compatibility: ANT+ FE-C, ANT+ Power, Bluetooth Smart Trainer Control, Bluetooth Smart Power (everything you need). However, note that while fully compatible with other apps, you can *ONLY SHIFT* with Zwift. So, this will work perfectly fine in ERG mode on TrainerRoad, but you’ll be going nowhere fast on Rouvy or IndieVelo without shifting. More on that later.
– Unique Party Trick: Can rebroadcast your heart rate sensor within a single channel, ideal for Apple TV Zwift users (who are Bluetooth channel limited)
– App Compatibility: From a protocol standpoint, anything, but from a practical standpoint, just Zwift for simulation mode due to the aforementioned shifting limitation.
– Skewer Compatibility: All the skewers and adapters you could ask for: Road 130mm, 135mm, 142x12mm, 148x12mm
– Max Incline: 16% simulated grade
– Max Wattage: 1,800 watts resistance (or 1,300w @ 40KPH)
– Stated Accuracy: < +/-2.5%
– Power Cable Required: Yes, power block compatible with 100-240v
– Pricing and Availability: $599USD, €599, and £549 – Including 1-year of Zwift subscription
With all the geeky specs covered, let’s dive straight into getting it unboxed.
Unboxing & Setup:
Starting off with the box, the Zwift Hub comes probably a bit over-packaged. There’s layers upon layers of packaging to ensure you can do a GPLAMA-style upside-down drop-test unboxing without fear of breakage. Once the dust has settled, here’s what you’ll find:
In that pile you’ve got:
A) The main trainer portion with Zwift Cog pre-installed
B) Two legs
C) Some bolts
D) A thru-axle, and quick release skewer adapter set
E) A quick release skewer
F) A wrench
G) Box with the new Zwift Clicks
H) A pretty paper manual
Now that if you were buying a Zwift Hub (not Zwift Hub One), that’d be the rebranded Zwift Hub Classic, which includes a cassette of your choice (8/9/10/11/12 speed cassette).
The two colorful cards help you figure out whether you have a quick release skewer or thru-axle adapter, and even more notably, the exact thru-axle length you have, as it includes a built-in ruler of sorts. While this might seem obvious to some cyclists, it’s these little touches that make it really easy to decode this often confusing to first-timer aspect.
Now, with that set, let’s add the legs. Again, Zwift made this really quick and easy – not just from a bolt/nuts standpoint, but more specifically that you can’t put the legs on the wrong direction (something very easy to do on a number of other trainers). On those other trainers, putting the legs on the wrong way will make the trainer less stable, but here they have these little color-coded sections to ensure you do it right. This will only take 1-2 minutes.
Then from there you’ll drag your trainer to your designated trainer location, and decide whether to put in the quick release skewer adapters, or the thru-axle ones. And more specifically, which size adapter (if thru-axle). You’re simply rotating them in with the little wrench – or replacing the skewer ones if using thru-axle like below, again, very easy:
And then finally, you’ll take the power block and connect it up to the trainer. Note that there’s no Zwift-specific markings on the power block, so if you want to minimize confusion some years from now, simply cut out a bit of the Zwift Hub One manual that came with it, and tape it to the top of it.
Maybe this is just a me-problem, given I have so many trainers floating around, but I appreciate the rare bits of organization when I can do it.
And finally, go ahead and unbox that little box with the Zwift Clicks in it:
Oh, and if you buy just the Zwift Cog by itself, here’s what you get: Two small boxes. One with the Zwift Cog in it, and one with the Zwift Clicks in it (seen above).
With all that set, we’ll get the bike on the trainer and cooking.
The Basics:
Because the Zwift Hub One is a so-called direct drive trainer, you’ll have removed your rear wheel from the bike to mount it on the trainer, and in particular, onto the Zwift Cog. In an ideal scenario, you’ll have put your gear on your rear derailleur in roughly the middle, which would make mounting easier. Or, quieter initially. If not – no biggie, simply shift until the hideous noise goes away. That noise is merely your chain in a very-wrong spot on the plastic ‘bowls’ that rotate down towards the cog, ensuring it stays there.
We’ll come back to that in a second, but you’ll have noticed a status light on the back of the trainer. This blue light simply tells you the trainer is working or not. There isn’t as much status light clarity as you’d see on some other trainers, but that’s fine. Frankly, most of the time if you’re having to look at the status light on a trainer, you’re likely already pretty far up crap-creek.
Meanwhile, on your front wheel, some folks – such as myself, like to use a front wheel block. You don’t need to, but I prefer it since it keeps my wheel from meandering all over the place. There’s both static ones (like shown here), or you can use turning ones. Some of these turning ones also do steering on Zwift, like the Elite Sterzo Smart. In fact, JetBlack (who makes the Zwift Hub/Hub One) has their own block as well. Plus of course Zwift has their Zwift Play controllers for steering.
Now before we get too far along, you’ll want to check the firmware for any updates. To do this, crack open the Zwift Companion app on your smartphone, which lets you connect to the Zwift Hub One and validate it’s got the latest firmware version.
Additionally, it’s here you can do heart rate bridging/pairing. This allows you to pair your chest strap with the Zwift Hub One, and then get pass-through heart rate, so that the trainer handles the HR connection to the app on behalf of your strap. The main/singular reason you’d want to do this is for Apple TV usage of Zwift or other apps. That’s because Apple TV has a two concurrent connection limit (plus the remote). Since the Zwift Hub One uses that second channel for the Zwift Clicks (or Zwift Play controllers), then this wouldn’t be possible since you’d need one connection for the trainer, and then one for your heart rate sensor (leaving none for steering).
But with HR bridging, the heart rate sensor data gets funneled in the same ‘channel’ as the trainer data, so it only counts as one channel – not two. You can simply search for your HR strap in this menu and then pair to it. You can see here I’ve paired up a Garmin HRM-PRO+ chest strap, which is then routed through the Zwift Hub One to Zwift:
With that all settled, over on Zwift you’ll pair up to the Zwift Hub. You’ll pair it for power source, controllable trainer, steering, and cadence. Plus heart rate if you want to. You’ll need to press the Zwift Click buttons to wake them up, or, the Zwift Play controller if you’re using that instead.
That option to pair the Zwift Clicks is super important, because without that, you won’t get any shifting. Like, at all. Instead, Zwift will simply assume you’re on a regular Zwift Hub trainer and that you can shift. I suppose in a really fancy world, Zwift would know the serial numbers of the Zwift Hub One trainers and prompt you to tap the Zwift Clicks to wake them up.
You’ll also want to ensure virtual shifting is enabled in the settings:
With all that set, you’re ready to start Zwifting. Note that by default Zwift will be set for 50% trainer difficulty level. This changes how the game simulates gradient. To understand what this means, assume you’re coming up on a 10% gradient climb, it’ll actually only feel like a 5% climb (if set for 50% trainer difficulty). This won’t impact your in-game speed (since that’s based on wattage), but does impact how the climb feels to your legs, and which specific gearing you’ll use.
Now given the Zwift Hub is a smart trainer (as opposed to a dumb trainer), it’ll change resistance automatically in a few different ways, primarily driven by different applications/methods. But most of this all boils down to two core methods:
ERG Mode: Setting a specific power level – i.e., 205w. In this mode, no matter what gearing you use, the trainer will simply stay at 205w (or whatever you set it to).
Simulation (SIM) Mode: Simulating a specific outdoor grade – i.e., 7% incline. In this mode, it’s just like outdoors in that you can change your gearing to make it easier or harder. Wattage is not hard-set, only incline levels.
In the case of simulation (aka slope) mode, the Zwift Hub can simulate from 0% to 16% incline – the same as the KICKR CORE. While other trainers can simulate above 20% these days, I continue to question how many people actually want to ride such a gradient. When I’m outside doing any road rides with more than about 12% gradient, it just sucks – let alone 14%, 16%, and more. A 24% incline? There’s just no reason I want to relive that scenario voluntarily indoors.
Or course at this point you’re probably wondering how you shift as you suffer up that climb. For that, we’ve got the Zwift Clicks. You’ve got a few options for where you install the Clicks, such as on the outside of the handlebars, or on the inside, or even on top of the handlebars. Wherever you want. Keep in mind though that if you want to sprint, you’ll want them accessible from the drops (lower portion of handlebars):
I’ve played with a few different spots for the buttons. While I find it most comfortable to use on the inside of the handlebars with my thumb, that spot doesn’t work for shifting while sprinting, so I’ve kinda landed on the outside of the handlebars.
Zwift has a ‘virtual cassette’ or ‘virtual drivetrain’ that consists of 24 non-configurable gears. Meaning, there is no concept of big ring/small ring like on most normal bikes. Instead, it’s just one linear shift drivetrain. That’s not terribly unlike Shimano or SRAM shifting options that automatically shift up/down the cassette and chainring based on the next hardest/easiest gear.
You’ll see your current gear located in the upper left corner of Zwift – shown here in “Gear 16”:
To shift harder, you’ll press the “+” button, to shift easier, you’ll press the “-“. Responsiveness is instant in my testing. Note that from a technical standpoint the Zwift Clicks (buttons) aren’t talking directly to the trainer. Instead, they’re talking to the Zwift app running on your tablet/phone/TV, and then in turn that tells the trainer how to simulate that particular gearing combination. I’ll dive into this more in the ‘Compatibility’ section, on why that matters for 3rd parties.
For most of my flat-ish riding, I found that I was floating around Gear 16 or Gear 17, assuming I was in the big chainring. Technically speaking you can be in either small or big chainring, but you’ll likely run out of harder gears if you stay in the smaller chainring. Whereas in the big chainring, running out of gears wasn’t an issue. For ERG mode however, it doesn’t matter at all which chainring you’re in (in fact, it’s arguably better to be in the small chainring since it’s both quieter, and increases accuracy control).
Now, I promise you at some point you’ll accidentally shift your real shifters instead. It’s funny, I was doing super well with not accidentally shifting the real shifters for a couple rides…and then I swapped bikes, and immediately made multiple sequential shifts with my handlebar shifters, as opposed to Zwift Clicks. When you do so, you’ll immediately hear that you’ve effed up. On both the bikes I tried, the first shift notably increased noise/smoothness, but didn’t make a racket. Whereas that second shift made an immediate racket – because at that point your rear derailleur is trying to put the chain up on the Ikea plastic bowls, which, won’t end in success.
No, for real, this is basically just two Ikea kids bowls and a cog in between:
But in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal. Nothing breaks, it just makes a racket. This is true whether you shift the cassette to the inside or outside. It’s noisy, but totally harmless.
The second mode the trainer has is ERG mode. In that case, the company claims up to 1,800w of resistance. Although, realistically, you don’t care about that. I can only barely (maybe) break 1,000w for a second or two, and even most front of the non-pro pack cyclists aren’t going to top 1,800w. The pros would only be just a bit beyond that. Said differently: Peak numbers in this competition don’t matter. Instead, what matters is actually a harder metric to make clear – which is the ability to simulate high grades and lower speeds (especially if you’re a heavier cyclist).
Now normally in ERG mode on any trainer, you aren’t shifting (you shouldn’t shift in ERG mode, as it’s pointless because resistance is controller inside the trainer). With the Zwift Hub One and the Zwift Clicks, the buttons instead simply control ERG mode intensity (bias). Thus allowing you to tap to quickly change intensity from 100% of prescribed interval to 99% or 101%, etc…
What’s notable about the Zwift Hub One in ERG mode though, is it works with any indoor trainer app. In fact, I actually did responsiveness testing on the Zwift Hub One in TrainerRoad (as well as testing in Zwift too, of course).
Note that this is the same 30×30 test I use for every single smart trainer or smart bike, and I saw no reason to do it any differently here with the Zwift Hub One. The main thing I’m looking for here is how quickly it responds. In this case, the Zwift Hub One was completing the transition in 2 seconds(below), which is exactly where I want it (ideally 2-4 seconds). Any faster and it’s actually too fast, and any slower and you’re burning interval time. There’s also the question of stability of holding the power set point. Stability is two factors: How even I pedal, and how evenly the trainer/bike controls the power. I generally only judge a trainer on my more perfect pedaling efforts. In all these it’s a bit tough to tell, because of the inability to turn off ERG mode smoothing, so everything kinda looks perfect. In any case, you can see the timer below showing it got there in the two seconds.
Next, normally I’d note how the smart trainer has the ability to calibrate it, but like many other newer smart trainers, the Zwift Hub One does away with that, and instead has an automatic calibration routine, and thus doesn’t have any way to calibrate it. To short-circuit my entire accuracy section – there’s no need for secondary calibration, it works great.
So what about road feel and noise?
Like I always say – for me personally, it’s hard to separate the fact that I’m riding indoors from outdoors. It’s still a trainer, and I’m still looking at a wall in front of me. My brain can only turn off so much of that. Still, much of the road-like feel is driven by the flywheel, and be it physical or virtual, flywheel sizes tend to be measured in weight. This impacts inertia and how it feels – primarily when you accelerate or otherwise change acceleration (such as briefly coasting).
The Zwift Hub has a flywheel weight of 4.7kg, which is a little bit smaller than the 5.4kg of the Wahoo KICKR CORE. However, unlike some endeavors, size isn’t everything – because flywheel weight is merely one factor – especially because it can be multiplied depending on the exact gearing internally. Nonetheless, the Zwift Hub to me feels like it’s in the same ballpark as the Wahoo KICKR CORE ($599 + cassette) in terms of ride feel. Accelerations feel good, decelerations feel good. I’m overall pretty happy and I’d have no problems riding it as my daily trainer from a ride feel standpoint.
There are other minor things that the KICKR CORE has in terms of the ride experience that the Zwift Hub lacks, such as integration with the Wahoo CLIMB, or multi-Bluetooth connections. Obviously, the Wahoo KICKR CLIMB gradient simulator would enhance the riding experience, but also reduce your wallet by $700.
So then, what about the noise? Well – I’ve included that in my video review up above, but it’s essentially producing the same amount of noise volume as the existing Zwift Hub. Except, now less if you get closer to the upper/lower ends of the cassette. The Zwift Hub itself isn’t making any less noise, but instead, your drivetrain is. Given there’s no shifting, you’ll eliminate that sound entirely (especially notable if your bike is a bit ‘less optimal’). But beyond that, you’ll also get the benefits of not having louder noises at the upper/lower limits of the cassette in any sort of cross-chain type scenario, as the chainline is virtually always straight.
App/Connectivity Compatibility:
When I first started writing this section on trainers more than a decade ago, the landscape was a mine-field of compatibility hell – both on the app and protocols standpoint. However, over the past decade, things have entirely standardized, and I can usually copy/paste most of the specs in this section and tweak slightly as appropriate to the nuances of each unit. At the end of the day, minor capability differences aside, everything worked with everything.
Until now.
With the Zwift Hub One and the Zwift Cog, we’re starting to turn back that clock a bit.
That’s because while the Zwift Hub One is fully compatible from a protocol standpoint with all the ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart standards, the ability for you to shift is very much not. You see, the Zwift Hub One will happily broadcast your power/cadence/etc to any app on the planet. And likewise, any app onto planet can also control the Zwift Hub One, just like you could do with the previous Zwift Hub. Sure, it was made by Zwift, but they properly adhered to all the trainer industry standards. And technically, that’s still true now.
Except, with the Zwift Clicks (or Zwift Play) sending their data *ONLY* to the Zwift app, you can’t shift without Zwift involved. And thus, for any indoor trainer app where you want to shift (simulation mode), you’re out of luck with the Zwift Hub. Whereas, for any indoor trainer app in ERG mode (structured workout mode), you’re perfectly fine because you don’t need to shift. Those apps will control the Zwift Hub One, just as they always did.
In an ideal world, the Zwift Clicks would actually talk directly to the trainer, instead. In fact, that’s why we saw Wahoo years ago have the KICKR CLIMB talk instead to the trainer, rather than apps. It ensures compatibility no matter the app. Perhaps we’ll see Zwift add that capability, though I suspect only if they see pressure to do so. But remember, without it – your Zwift Hub isn’t useful on other platforms unless you switch out to a normal cassette (which, you can certainly do).
With all that said, here’s the complete list of protocol transmission standards/types the Zwift Hub Supports:
ANT+ FE-C Control: This is for controlling the trainer via ANT+ from apps and head units, and includes power & cadence data. Read tons about it here.
ANT+ Power Meter Profile: This broadcasts as a standard ANT+ power meter, with cadence data baked in (but not speed data)
Bluetooth Smart FTMS: This is the industry standard for apps controlling the trainer via Bluetooth Smart, and includes ANT+ power and cadence baked in.
Bluetooth Smart Power Meter Profile: This broadcasts as a standard BLE power meter with cadence data.
Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Profile: It passes this through from ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart HR straps.
It DOES NOT, however, support these protocols/transmissions (which trainers from Tacx and Elite do support):
ANT+ Speed/Cadence Profile: This broadcasts just your speed and cadence as a standard ANT+ Speed/Cadence combo sensor.
Bluetooth Smart Speed/Cadence Profile: This broadcasts just your speed and cadence as a standard BLE combo Speed/Cadence sensor.
The above two are mostly just useful when pairing to more basic smartwatches that might not support power meters/cadence, but I don’t expect it matters to too many people.
Note that for my testing, I tested within Zwift itself of course, but also did test connectivity to TrainerRoad with an ERG workout (in the accuracy section below), as well as broadcasting to a Garmin watch, Suunto watch, and Garmin bike computer. All recorded the data without issue. Inversely, I compared the data from the chest strap I was wearing to the data re-transmitted by the Zwift Hub One (using the bridging function) to ensure they were identical and without meaningful lag.
So, then the question because, is the Zwift Cog worth the tradeoffs?
Zwift Cog vs Mechanical Cassette:
There are many times in technology where a proposed technology solution is in search of a non-existent problem. I actually don’t think the Zwift Cog is one of those cases, but concurrently, it’s also not solving a problem everyone actually has. Or even, the vast majority of people have. Instead, you need to look at it through the lenses of which problems it solves, and for which groups.
To be clear – by far the biggest winner for Zwift Cog is actually Zwift themselves. It ‘solves’ a bunch of distribution/compatibility/stocking/etc issues for the company and the Zwift Hub. It’s also undoubtedly cheaper than Zwift buying cassettes to put on trainers. After all, the Zwift Cog is basically two plastic pieces with a single cassette cog in the middle. It’s far cheaper to produce than buying full 9/10/11/12 speed cassettes. And again, it reduces the amount of pre-installed cassette inventory they have to have on hand for each cassette type. There’s virtually no downside here for Zwift.
For consumers, the wins are a bit fuzzier and less obvious. For example, if you have multiple bikes of different cassette types (e.g. an 11-speed cassette and a 12-speed cassette bike) – the Zwift Cog is a clear winner for you. You can seamlessly use both bikes on the same trainer. Same goes if you share a trainer with multiple people of varying cassette types. And it even gives you more power/range if the gearing on your bike is suboptimal for the flats (e.g. many mountain bikes). It’s also quieter too, in most cases, due to lack of shift noise (depending on your bike).
But there are downsides. First and foremost is that if you use the Zwift Hub One (with Zwift Cog) with another training platform (e.g. Rouvy, MyWhoosh, or IndieVelo), you can’t shift anymore. The Zwift Click shifters only work with Zwift, not 3rd party platforms – because they only pair with the Zwift app. Thus if you leave the Zwift ecosystem (even just for a single ride), you’ve gotta swap back to a regular cassette (including buying said cassette). Secondly, is that while the Zwift Click buttons are good, they aren’t amazing. It’s functional, in the same way generic smart bike shifting from 3-5 years ago was functional. But it’s not how we’ve shifted bikes for decades and for good reason: It’s not super efficient for the rider in multiple positions the way normal shifters are.
Smart bikes from Wahoo, Stages, Tacx, and others have all adopted standard-style bike shift levers for shifting that virtual drivetrain, not because they want to expend extra money, but because they’re going for the realism that’s just like riding a bike outdoors. While the Zwift Cog is a step-forward in terms of compatibility, it’s a step backwards in terms of realism and ride feel.
Thus, here’s a quick recap of the pros/cons of Zwift Cog:
Pros for Consumer:
– Ideal if you have multiple bikes with different cassette types
– Ideal if you share the trainer with multiple riders with different cassette equipped bikes
– Ideal if your bike drivetrain is noisy AF, as it’s quieter especially at the upper/lower ranges of the cassette where you might be cross-chain
– Ideal for riding some MTB on flatter Zwift courses (or really any big with limited cassette range, gives you more range)
– Can also shift under virtually any load, since there’s no movement of the chain to be aware of
– I suppose it reduces battery charging/wear on Di2/AXS/eTAP/etc systems, but practically speaking that’s pretty minimal
Cons for consumer:
– Doesn’t work with apps other than Zwift
– Simply doesn’t feel as good as regular shifting (shifter feel)
– Button placement isn’t really as ideal (especially if trying to use it from both drops and hoods)
– Isn’t as fast as regular shifting for big jumps (shifter responsiveness)
And then there’s the Zwift side of the equation. This isn’t to slight Zwift, but simply to point out, that like any company – Zwift is trying to optimize their own business components here. And while this has both pros and cons for different consumers, it’s heavily slanted towards
Pros for Zwift:
– Reduces cost for Zwift Hub components (cassettes are more expensive)
– Reduces on-hand inventory needed for Zwift Hub cassette combinations
– Increases bike compatibility beyond 8/9/10/11/12 cassette speed bikes (e.g. some 7 speed cassettes)
– Makes Zwift Hub more vastly more appealing for multi-bike/multi-person scenarios
Cons for Zwift:
– I can’t think of any
So, the TLDR of this section is that if you’re a solo rider/bike scenario on singular 10/11/12-speed bike, I’d personally choose mechanical cassette every time over the Zwift Cog. Same goes if you plan to use other platforms. Whereas if you’re sharing a Zwift Hub with other riders on different bikes with varying cassettes, then I’d probably go Zwift Hub One with the Zwift Cog – as it makes that scenario easy.
Wrap-Up:
The Zwift Hub One with the Zwift Cog is an interesting step forward for the company, and for smart trainers at large. Obviously, as I’ve outlined, the Zwift Cog greatly simplifies Zwift’s costs and distribution, but it also has significant benefits for some consumer groups – most critically those with multiple bikes of varying cassette types. Or those sharing a trainer between dissimilar bikes. I think there’s certainly some good reasons why we could see this concept expanded beyond the Zwift Hub itself, to other trainers (today it’s only supported on the Zwift Hub, but technically there’s no reason it can’t be supported elsewhere).
Now for single-bike/cassette-type consumers, whether or not you’d want to pickup the Cog over mechanical is a trickier question. While there are some minor benefits in terms of shifting under load or reduced noise in cross-chaining scenarios, those would in my mind be outweighed by the lack of support for other indoor cycling platforms. In other words, if you buy a Zwift Hub One, it only works on Zwift from a shifting standpoint. It doesn’t work with any other 3rd party apps. Certainly, you could remove the Zwift Cog and buy another cassette to put on there, but that’s a hurdle many might not want to deal with.
In asking Zwift about this, they said they aren’t trying to create a closed system, and are looking for ways to make it more open. Whether Zwift goes down a licensing route of some sort, or instead simply changes the software architecture of the Clicks + Cog to be direct to the Zwift Hub (rather than via the Zwift app), remains to be seen. But until that’s clarified, I’d be hesitant to recommend the Zwift Cog version over the mechanical version. To be clear – the Zwift Hub at large remains an incredible value, and one of the best trainers you can buy for the money. It’s just a question of which cassette-style/bundle you get.
With that, thanks for reading!