MasterDabber
Über Member
- Location
- Surrey and the Lot in France
BigRingVR - The new leader of the pack?
- Thread starter borchgrevink
- Start date
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I need all the help I can get 
theboxers
TheBoxers on Cycle Sim sw
- Location
- OTC (on the couch)
I am using a hybrid with a triple up front so my cadence is in the mid 80's. The limitation is the trainers ability to simulate correctly for my weight. I want to do these rides with as little adjustment, to make it easier, as possible. I may be slow, I may regret starting the rides, but I do eventually get there, usually.
Edit to make it polite
Last edited:
theboxers
TheBoxers on Cycle Sim sw
- Location
- OTC (on the couch)
theboxers
TheBoxers on Cycle Sim sw
- Location
- OTC (on the couch)
Sorry MasterDabber I replied before looking at the ride. Yes that would be easier but I use the longer descents, with video, on bkool as a warm down session and that would remind me of them.
I am currently thinking of following the @Whorty system. Ride the long climbs, for me (anything more than 800yards at the moment), and hope I see improvements <weight and >power..
I am currently thinking of following the @Whorty system. Ride the long climbs, for me (anything more than 800yards at the moment), and hope I see improvements <weight and >power..
Did this tonight, it was a nice 30 miles and not difficult. Just took it easy as I was unsure how hard to pace it. Thank you
USB power brick and really big SD card?
MasterDabber
Über Member
- Location
- Surrey and the Lot in France
Mugshot
Cracking a solo.
Well, I'm loving this program. Got my BKool Smart Pro and the comp set up in the shed and so far I've done;
Fern Pass both ways, thought I'd break myself in easy
, enjoyed the two of them, the transitions seemed pretty seamless to me with my very limited experience although I did think it seemed to take a little while to get up to speed on the downhills and the flats, not a complaint just an observation.
Did St Moritz (yes I was avoiding the big hills!) bit of an issue with this one as there was no change for the gradients so I just ended up basically TTing it to the end, I think this was down to my hardware though and not the software, although I will do it again in the next day or so to check.
As I'd cheated with St Moritz I thought I should do another so did Cheyenne Canyon, that was a bit of a shock to the system, thoroughly enjoyable though and short enough to give myself an idea of some bigger gradients.
So to tonight and I've just done Alpe d'Huez, the floor of the shed is like a swimming pool!
There are times when I really wish I had a triple rather than a semi. However, painful as it was after 8 miles of grimacing I'm really pleased I've done it, and I will do it again. Having other cyclists on the route was great (I beat the lot of them BTW).
The quality in all the vids I've done so far has been superb plus the angle that the videos have been filmed at is just about right I think, I've done a couple of BKool rides and the ones I've done so far just don't feel as realistic because of the camera position, the gradients certainly seem to build really well and I've had no issues so far with dropping signal halfway through a ride or at the menu stage, which I've had when trying to use BKool. The interface is simple, although I assume there will be some extra bells and whistles as it moves through beta, BKool just seems to have too much on it and it confuses my tiny brain. The only things I think I'd like to change is as mentioned already some flatter rides, it's nice to tear it up sometimes and something to chart improvement or otherwise. It would have been nice if the videos had been done on a motorbike so you had the lean into the corners and it's a little odd to have the cars coming the other way crawling past, but I do understand why this is of course.
Well done everyone at BigRing, I'm impressed. I haven't started my three month BKool premium offer yet, but as it stands when I do start paying a monthly subscription I'm pretty sure i know where my money is going to go
Fern Pass both ways, thought I'd break myself in easy
, enjoyed the two of them, the transitions seemed pretty seamless to me with my very limited experience although I did think it seemed to take a little while to get up to speed on the downhills and the flats, not a complaint just an observation. Did St Moritz (yes I was avoiding the big hills!) bit of an issue with this one as there was no change for the gradients so I just ended up basically TTing it to the end, I think this was down to my hardware though and not the software, although I will do it again in the next day or so to check.
As I'd cheated with St Moritz I thought I should do another so did Cheyenne Canyon, that was a bit of a shock to the system, thoroughly enjoyable though and short enough to give myself an idea of some bigger gradients.
So to tonight and I've just done Alpe d'Huez, the floor of the shed is like a swimming pool!
There are times when I really wish I had a triple rather than a semi. However, painful as it was after 8 miles of grimacing I'm really pleased I've done it, and I will do it again. Having other cyclists on the route was great (I beat the lot of them BTW).The quality in all the vids I've done so far has been superb plus the angle that the videos have been filmed at is just about right I think, I've done a couple of BKool rides and the ones I've done so far just don't feel as realistic because of the camera position, the gradients certainly seem to build really well and I've had no issues so far with dropping signal halfway through a ride or at the menu stage, which I've had when trying to use BKool. The interface is simple, although I assume there will be some extra bells and whistles as it moves through beta, BKool just seems to have too much on it and it confuses my tiny brain. The only things I think I'd like to change is as mentioned already some flatter rides, it's nice to tear it up sometimes and something to chart improvement or otherwise. It would have been nice if the videos had been done on a motorbike so you had the lean into the corners and it's a little odd to have the cars coming the other way crawling past, but I do understand why this is of course.
Well done everyone at BigRing, I'm impressed. I haven't started my three month BKool premium offer yet, but as it stands when I do start paying a monthly subscription I'm pretty sure i know where my money is going to go
Breedon
Legendary Member
- Location
- Long Eaton, Nottingham
What time did you do alp d'Huez in?My legs are in bits
I've done it in 1:11:11 probably do it again this week.
Mugshot
Cracking a solo.
1:13 not sure of the seconds. Some bloke took my photo at around the three mile mark though, so i gave him a wave and a smile.
I've ridden Fern Pass to Neuschwanstein today.
I used the Garmin to pick up the power meter data, but I set up a BigRing configuration to use my Bkool Classic to calculate power. On the assumption that the power meter is accurate, at first I was sure the Bkool power was too low, but as the ride went on it seemed to sort itself out.
After the ride, I uploaded both files to my ride software and compared the power traces:
The power meter is the red trace, the Bkool is blue.
The summary at the top of the image shows that on average the Bkool was 2 watts lower, and the graph shows that most of the discrepancy came in the first 20 minutes. That corresponds quite closely with the time I took on the initial climb. The other point where it was reading low (around 41:00 to 43:00) was also on a climb.
My conclusion (based on a sample size of 1, and so utterly unreliable
) is that overall the Bkool's estimate of power when riding on BigRingVR will be good enough to be relied on, but on climbs taking more than a couple of minutes I will be working about 20 watts harder than the Bkool says.
I've also set up a configuration which assumes that I don't have a smart trainer, and uses the generic magnetic resistance profile to generate the power figures. I'll be testing that in due course.
I used the Garmin to pick up the power meter data, but I set up a BigRing configuration to use my Bkool Classic to calculate power. On the assumption that the power meter is accurate, at first I was sure the Bkool power was too low, but as the ride went on it seemed to sort itself out.
After the ride, I uploaded both files to my ride software and compared the power traces:
The power meter is the red trace, the Bkool is blue.
The summary at the top of the image shows that on average the Bkool was 2 watts lower, and the graph shows that most of the discrepancy came in the first 20 minutes. That corresponds quite closely with the time I took on the initial climb. The other point where it was reading low (around 41:00 to 43:00) was also on a climb.
My conclusion (based on a sample size of 1, and so utterly unreliable
) is that overall the Bkool's estimate of power when riding on BigRingVR will be good enough to be relied on, but on climbs taking more than a couple of minutes I will be working about 20 watts harder than the Bkool says.I've also set up a configuration which assumes that I don't have a smart trainer, and uses the generic magnetic resistance profile to generate the power figures. I'll be testing that in due course.
OP
OP
borchgrevink
Senior Member
I've ridden Fern Pass to Neuschwanstein today.
I used the Garmin to pick up the power meter data, but I set up a BigRing configuration to use my Bkool Classic to calculate power. On the assumption that the power meter is accurate, at first I was sure the Bkool power was too low, but as the ride went on it seemed to sort itself out.
After the ride, I uploaded both files to my ride software and compared the power traces:
View attachment 348420
The power meter is the red trace, the Bkool is blue.
The summary at the top of the image shows that on average the Bkool was 2 watts lower, and the graph shows that most of the discrepancy came in the first 20 minutes. That corresponds quite closely with the time I took on the initial climb. The other point where it was reading low (around 41:00 to 43:00) was also on a climb.
My conclusion (based on a sample size of 1, and so utterly unreliable
I've also set up a configuration which assumes that I don't have a smart trainer, and uses the generic magnetic resistance profile to generate the power figures. I'll be testing that in due course.
Interesting! I've always had opposite impression, namely that Bkool shows way too high watt readings on inclines. I use Bkool Pro though, don'tknow if that makes a difference.
