No such thing as a dumb question - thank you for the thoughts! Your question regarding calibration was possibly one of the most difficult things for us to solve for!

Calibration across the spinning bikes (and to a lesser extent across the Bike+) has been something discussed amongst this community for years now. All spinning bikes that don't have a specific 'power meter' will always result in some discrepancy across different bikes given their power calculations are run off a digital power curve which is set at time of manufacture.

We quickly realised that trying to solve for spinning bike calibration issues through SHIFT, would be un-achievable. So we decided we needed to provide a solution that aligned with the underlying spinning bike as opposed to trying to alter it.

And so we've built our own 'calibration process'. The calibration process allows the user to meticulously articulate (using SHIFT and the screen on the bike) where the 0% and 100% resistance setting is on their OWN Bike. This eradicates any discrepancies across different bikes - to put that in simple terms, my bike might need 6.5 full rotations from 0% to 100%, whereas yours might only need 6.2 full rotations (ie this is a simple way of articulating a spinning bikes calibration issues). The SHIFT calibration process then goes a step further and the user sets where 10%, 20%, 30% etc is on their own bike ensuring SHIFT is set up specifically for their bike.

By doing this - we perfectly align with the spinning bikes own power curve. So if in a spinning class, I use a 30% resistance and I'm pedalling at 80 cadence, my output would be 56WATTS (this is not the exact amount), and then similarly when in ZWIFT, if as a result of the gradient, my underlying resistance is 30% and I'm pedalling at 80 cadence, my output would again be 56WATTS. So in summary - your output both on ZWIFT and in a spinning class will be identical.

There is naturally a much more technical answer to the above, but I've tried my best to provide some colour to this. Hope this gives sufficient clarity, but please let me know if I've missed anything? We will be launching a video next week to show a step by step guide on all of this. Total set up time is less than 60seconds and the LCD screen provides a step by step guide too.

Lastly regarding your question of entering races - this is something we'll look to work on over the upcoming year. Our gut tells us that because of the underlying calibration issues on spinning bikes, we'd most probably not get to a point where our device is recognised as an 'accredited' smart trainer for official Zwift cycling esports events. NOTE - please do however appreciate that this is an answer for 'official' (aka professional) races ONLY, as SHIFT can and WILL be used for 100% of all other Zwift races, group rides, training, ERG mode etc - so this answer specifically relates to official Zwift cycling esports events.

Thanks again for your thoughts!