Zwift makes it easier to get riding, updates its Click shifters and makes the Big Apple bigger

(Image credit: Zwift)

With 'trainer season' fast approaching for cyclists in the Northern Hemisphere, Zwift has announced updates across its hardware and software platform for autumn 2025, designed to make it easier and cheaper to get started on the app.

There are also updates to automatically suggest activities to help Zwifters improve their fitness, an extension to the New York world, and a full Zwift Racing schedule announced.

More Zwift Ready trainer options and a new Zwift Click controller

The updates start with a wider range of Zwift Ready trainers, with 12 models from brands including Wahoo, Elite and JetBlack and prices starting at £279.99 / $299.99 / €250.00. US purchasers can choose a trainer from Tacx, and Zwift is also increasing availability in brick-and-mortar outlets.

All come fitted with Zwift Cog virtual shifting and are shipped ready to ride (after plugging it in and mounting your bike, of course) as well as offering compatibility with the Zwift Ride smart frame.

To complement the trainers, there’s a new version of the Zwift Click controller, which, in addition, replaces the Zwift Play controllers. While the old Zwift Click just provided up and down virtual shifting in one unit, the new controller consists of two units, each with multiple buttons. These offer a greater range of controls from the handlebars, including steering and shortcuts in addition to the virtual shifting.

They’re also designed for easier mounting to tri bars and flat bars, and in multiple positions on drop bars, thanks to configurable buttons.

Also new are Zwift Cog and Click upgrade kits, available for trainers from all the major brands, including Tacx, and with a price drop to £49.99 / $49.99 / €49.99.

These include the new Zwift Click, as well as a Zwift Cog pre-installed on a freehub body, which enables setup without specialist tools.

Along with the hardware updates, Zwift has made it easier to pair your trainer to the device you use to run Zwift by offering a recommended best connection type, rather than a menu of options. It’s also easier to bridge a heart rate monitor to your trainer, should your device be limited on Bluetooth connections.

Better targeted workout recommendations

Zwift says that since it opened up the app to outdoor workouts, 5.3 million activities have been imported from Garmin, Wahoo and Hammerhead cycling computers. That’s been good for riders, helping them to maintain streaks, but also for Zwift, which now has more data on its users’ overall fitness.

Starting in November 2025, that will allow Zwift to provide a variety of personalised workout recommendations, driven by AI, that fit better with a rider’s current level and fitness goals and which auto-adjust weekly.

It also makes choosing what to do a lot easier by narrowing down the options while offering increased variety.

Accompanying this is a new 'Progress Report' screen in Zwift and a 'Review and Celebrate' screen in the Zwift Companion App, also rolling out in November.

Follow Zwift’s recommendations and you might have enough Drops to buy one of the new Canyon Aeroad custom colourways, which mirror Canyon’s latest real-world customisation options. There's new real-world clothing available too, from Australian brand Pedal Mafia.

New roads in New York take to the subways

Zwift has also announced an imminent extension to its New York world. While its routes were previously confined to Central Park landscapes, as of 27 October you’ll be able to ride over the Brooklyn Bridge and into Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on 31km of new roads.

Plus, there are routes that take you through the New York subway network, which will be the first to include Zwift’s new Power Segments. These are marked by a start arch on a route, and the objective is to push out as many watts as possible until the countdown timer hits zero. Zwift’s leaderboards for power segments will rank your own efforts first.

A full Zwift Racing schedule

Zwift will offer its full Zwift Racing event schedule again in 2025/26, with tighter banding making races more competitive.

It’s introducing a new event series from the 6th of October to the 16th of November called Zwift Unlocked, with five stages, each with new long and short routes. Competing will unlock extra XP.

Team racing options start with Z//Racing in September and roll through to the Zwift Games in February and March 2026. The Zwift Racing League has a parallel series of four rounds of team events from September to April.

Finally, from 17 to 23 November, Zwift will host the online Brompton World Championships on custom London routes, complete with tweed kit in the DropShop.

Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.

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