[Training] Cannondale Halo Bike [Complete]
There are many ways to enjoy Zwift, but one of the most interesting is that you can easily buy bikes (as long as you have the Drops) that you could never afford in the real world.
Especially if it's a special concept bike that you've never even seen in person.
With last year's update, flagship bikes from several manufacturers became available for purchase under certain conditions (described below).
Among them, the one that radiates the strongest (scariest? most vicious?) and most unique aura is Cannondale's "Rollerblade Bike".
You might think, "Are you serious? Didn't the people at Zwift just make this as a joke?" but this is actually something Cannondale really built in the 1990s.
No, this... it looks like something Batman would ride... I mean, is this even a bicycle? The visuals are so intense. Not only will you never forget it once you see it, but it looks like it could appear in a nightmare.
Regardless of whether it performs well or not (the rolling resistance of the front wheel must be quite high), you would definitely do a double-take if you saw this riding by.
Now, these "Halo bikes" are, of course, not that easy to get even within Zwift.
Halo means "a circle of light, a nimbus, a halo, or glory." In other words, it probably means a "spectacular bike that seems to be surrounded by a halo."
The acquisition condition is to ride three other general-purpose bikes from the manufacturer of each Halo bike (in the case of this Rollerblade bike, Cannondale) according to the following conditions, and fully upgrade each one to the 5th level.
There are exceptions, but basically it depends on the distance ridden. Omitting the fine details, the distances required for a full 5-level upgrade are as follows.
Entry grade: 800 km
Mid-range: 1200 km
High-end: 1600 km
Therefore, to do it easily, you could just ride three entry-grade bikes for a total of 2400 km, but depending on the manufacturer, there might not be three types of entry-grade bikes (I forgot how it was for Cannondale).
In any case, I think I rode about 3000 km for this.
And then, the "right to purchase" the Rollerblade bike is granted, but of course, it's not free. The required Drops are "10,000,000." However, for "Zwift addicts" like us, it was more like "I didn't know what to use them for anyway," so there was no hesitation in purchasing it (a big difference from real life).
But that's where the thorny path begins again. You have to train this Rollerblade bike itself.
It's not like it's a duty or anything, but I'm not enlightened enough to say "I don't really care" when they tell me that training will result in "improved aero performance" or "weight reduction." If a carrot is dangled in front of me, I'm just going to go eat it.
The distance required for that 5-stage full upgrade was "8,000 kilometers."
So for the past six months or more, I've been riding this for all my group rides, and finally, during the base ride this past Friday, I unlocked level 5. It was a long road...
So, what's next?
I decided to go with this Specialized one. (After that, I think I'll do Pinarello, and finally the Tron.) And so, the beginning of another 10,000-kilometer journey...
