Zwift Hub One – Virtual Gearing

The Zwift Hub One was released on October 11, 2023, by Zwift as an improvement to their original Zwift Hub.

It breaks the mold of the traditional bike trainer. With a traditional trainer, you need to purchase an additional cassette that matches the one currently on your bike. Then you need to remove your wheel put it on the trainer and re-index your gears to ensure everything runs smoothly. If you have multiple bikes with different gearing you cannot use them if they do not match the cassette.

The Zwift One hub does away with all of the cassette swapping and indexing. Instead, it replaces your 8-12 speed cassette with a single-speed gear called the “Zwift Cog” which allows you to change your gears virtually.

While I have not yet tried out the Zwift Hub One, it offers some enticing features for Dads and parents who are looking to use multiple bikes or share their trainer with their spouses and kids.

Let’s dive into the details.

What is New

Zwift COG

Zwift Hub One
Photo: Zwift – Zwift Cog and Hub

The “Zwift Cog” is the newest addition to the Zwift Hub, which does away with the traditional 8-12 speed cassette. The Zwift Cog is single-speed 14-tooth gear. Zwift claims that this works with virtually any 8-12-speed bikes, so Shimano and SRAM bikes should be good. No more switching out cassettes for different bikes or not being able to use a bike because you do not have the correct cassette.

Zwift Click

Zwift Click Controller
Photo: Zwift – Zwift Click Controller

The “Zwift Click” is a controller that is included with the new Zwift Hub One. It is what allows you to shift your gears with the click of a button on the new Hub One trainer. This replaces using your mechanical or electronic shifter on your existing bike.

The “Zwift Click” can mount to any existing handlebars.

If you already have the “Zwift Play Controllers” you can use those to replace the “Zwift Click”.

Virtual Gears

The new Zwift Hub One utilizes virtual gearing allowing you to get a full 24 range in gearing. By leveraging the Zwift Cog and Zwift Click you can use any bike on a single trainer without swapping out a cassette.

No longer do you have to worry about not having enough gears for the steepest and hardest climbs, just click the Zwift Click and you can seamlessly change through your gears almost instantaneously.

The trainer automatically adjusts the resistance to simulate how you would change gears on a traditional bike and also simulates the gradient changes with a claimed smart resistance update 10 times every second.

Benefits to Consumers

Let’s cover the potential benefits of the Zwift One Hub:

  • Trainer Sharing: Because the Zwift Cog is a single-speed, it is compatible with any 8-12-speed bike. If you have more than one bike, purchase a new one, or want to share one trainer with multiple people in your household, you now can.
  • No indexing: You no longer have to re-index your bike after taking it on and off of the trainer. Less maintenance!
  • Shifting Under Load: You can now shift under virtually any load without concern of dripping a chain and damaging your derailleur or cassette since all shifting is now virtual.
  • Fast and quiet shifting: No more skipped cassettes or noisy rubbing. All shifting is done virtually and the chain remains in a fixed place.
  • More Gearing: You now have access to 24 gears with the Zwift Click so you can use any bike old or new and not have to worry about running out of gears. All gearing is displayed virtually on Zwift.

Consumer Cons

The negatives for the consumer are:

  • You are now locked into Zwift’s ecosystem and cannot use the Zwift Hub One trainer on any other virtual cycling platform.
  • You will eventually need to replace the Zwift Cog when it wears out but is cheaper than a normal cassette.

Benefits To Zwift

From a business perspective, the Zwift Hub One makes a lot of sense.

Zwift has opened the possibility of licensing the Zwift Cog technology to other trainer manufacturers, opening a potential licensing revenue stream.

By creating the Zwift Hub One internally and making it only available on Zwift, they have locked users onto their platform indefinitely as it is not compatible with any other virtual cycling platforms.

Eventually, the Zwift Cog will wear out like all bike components and the consumer will need to purchase a replacement, which is another ongoing revenue stream for them.

Wrap-Up

The Zwift Hub One is available now for purchase for $599 and includes a one-year Zwift subscription.

Do you already own a Zwift Hub? You can still use the new virtual gears feature on your current hub with your current cassette. You just need to purchase the Click or Zwift Play Controllers.

Will Dads Riding Bikes be buying one right away? Probably not because I already have a working trainer and would like to wait and see if the Zwift Cog or something similar comes out for other trainers. But, if not, I will definitely be looking to pick up one of these.

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