Zwift has just launched an updated Zwift Ride bike, the Zwift Ride V2. The changes here are entirely focused on fit. Specifically, making it appealing to riders on the shorter end of the spectrum. The good news for you is that I have exactly such a tester in my family: My wife, which is vertically challenged.
Beyond the fit portions, there are no new features on the Zwift Ride bike, assuming you don’t count an adjustable crankset as a feature. Likewise, the pricing remains the same, and best of all – all of these upgrades are available for existing Zwift V1 owners for seemingly quite reasonable prices.
So, let’s get into it!
What’s New:
Now in this section I’ll quickly run through everything that’s new, which is entirely fit-focused. There are no new technical features here, or anything else feature-wise. It’s simply about increasing fit compatibility for not just a single-rider household, but a multi-rider household with the new hot-swappable seatpost design.
– Increased compatibility for shorter riders, down to 4ft 10” (146cm).
– New seatpost design (upper) to have quick-swap bolt (retains industry-standard saddle)
– New four-position adjustable bolt seatpost design (can still do saddle front/back movement too, and angle)
– New bear-claw adjustable crankset supporting crank sizes:
– New handlebar is constant diameter from the stem to the end of the handlebars (simply larger)
– Shrunk frame size standover height (see photos below with measurements)
– Decreased top-tube length (see photos below for measurements)
– Now has a squirrel badge up front (this is obviously the most important change)
– New Zwift rider sizing card for these new shorter people 🙂
– Zwift Ride remains priced at $1,299USD/€1199/£1099
If you’re a taller rider, than there’s no changes here for you (for most people anyway), and remains recommended up to 6’6” (198cm). Whereas for shorter riders, it brings it down to 4’ 10”(146cm).
In addition, there will be new accessory bundles available starting today for existing Zwift Ride V1 owners, and include:
– New $99 for adjustable bear claw crank set (for V1 bikes)
– New full seat post swap design can swap into existing V1 bike, accessory package available for $74.99 / £65.99 / €74.99
– New seat post ‘topper’ piece (to allow multiple riders) for $49.99 / £45.99 / €49.99
Availability is from today for North America and Europe, whereas for APAC and LATAM it’ll be available by the end of the year (2026)
A Quick Look at the Changes:
Ok, so let’s take a quick look at some of the hardware pieces here, especially the new seatpost design, as it’s pretty clever. First up, the lower portion of the seatpost itself is identical to before, allowing existing Ride V1 owners to swap it out for the new Ride V2 version. Next, you’ll notice at the top of the seat post it’s different than before. This top portion allows you to remove the piece that connects to the saddle from the seat post itself, so you can hot-swap riders’ saddles quickly (between different people in the same household):
While swapping saddles itself may not be everyone’s jam, by doing this, you can also effectively hot-swap the position of the saddle, because that upper portion allows the usual saddle position/movement (forward/back/tilt angle), but also allows for four different lower saddle positions below the saddle rails. There are essentially four bolt positions to choose from:
It’s a super clever design that makes it really easy to either move saddle position within the same saddle, or, to just swap it entirely between riders.
Now, for two of the slots/positions, you’ll need to flip the saddle around. Otherwise, things might be a bit uncomfortable. But this is just a one-time change for that particular saddle topper. And again, you still maintain all the usual in-saddle-rail adjustment options.
Next, there’s a reduced standover height, as seen below (photo measurements courtesy DesFit), which again helps with shorter riders.
And then alongside that, a reduced top-tube length, to again help with fit for shorter riders. Because taller riders can easily shift the other components front/back to maintain their same fit, this doesn’t have any impact on them.
After that, you’ll find the bear-claw style adjustable crank length design that Zwift launched in spring 2025. Now it’s also available for purchase separately. This allows you to put the pedals in whatever crank length you want:
So you can see me here inserting the pedals into the slot I needed:
Next, there’s an updated card for figuring out fit. Now those long-time card geeks among us (I’m sure there’s some), will notice that they managed to keep the existing fit measurements on the card the same, while adding icons/emojis for the extra fit positions:
To which these emojis then match the actual seat post itself:
Nifty, huh? Look, stop laughing, I said it was measurement card geekery – I didn’t say it was world-changing.
Oh, and lastly, there’s the slightly changed handlebar that maintains the same diameter around the corner rounding piece:
Again, a very minor change on this piece, but figured I’d mention it. The actual buttons/etc are all the same.
Wrap-Up:
These are some nice changes to the Zwift Ride, even if they aren’t technical or feature-driven in nature. It’s most notable because arguably the single biggest grouping of complaints about the Zwift Ride V1 was simply around fit, not features. Sure, there’s still a portion of the population that would prefer a rubber belt instead of a chain (though rubber belts bring lots of power transfer challenges if not done right). But overall, the Zwift Ride remains one of the best options on the market today for those who want an indoor bike, with technically having the fiscal or product commitment issues that buying a $2,000-$5,000 indoor bike might bring.
We saw JetBlack also announce their new indoor frame offering last week, though availability won’t be till later this fall. I’ll take a look at that once it comes out. As I said when the Zwift Ride first announced, and continued with the Elite Square, the idea of a snap-on frame for existing trainers is brilliant for both manufacturers and consumers alike. It makes it far easier to upgrade a portion of the setup as time moves on, and does so at a relatively reasonable cost.
And Zwift making all these upgrade components available for existing owners demonstrates that upgradeability concept. I will say though, the Squirrel badge may be my favorite part. That said, equally, the swappable badges is something that I think Zwift has kinda missed the ball on from a marketing standpoint. There have been so many opportunities over the last few years that Zwift could have handed out badges like this (such as at the Tour de France avec Femmes they headline), or event/race series, etc… and to my knowledge, that hasn’t happened.
In any case, nice move here by Zwift on the bike overall. With that – thanks for reading!
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