Bkool FAQ

[theboxers]

Cheers Boxers, I'll give it a go..

Jim

It may moan that the date window is too small. I normally set 12-14 weeks

 

[Granthar]

Thought I would give the Bkool iPad app a go so bought the wahoo ant+ adapter.
Turned off Bluetooth and ant+ is showing in the Bkool app but it's just not finding the trainer.
I have checked the adapter with the wahoo utility and that said it's working ok. Any ideas?
Trainer works fine with Windows PC.

 

[bobinski]

Thought I would give the Bkool iPad app a go so bought the wahoo ant+ adapter.
Turned off Bluetooth and ant+ is showing in the Bkool app but it's just not finding the trainer.
I have checked the adapter with the wahoo utility and that said it's working ok. Any ideas?
Trainer works fine with Windows PC.

I am sure I read that the App now works over Bluetooth so you don't need to adapter.
Just checked dc rainmaker app thread and apparently bt works with a Bluetooth enabled BKOOL turbo only

 

[theboxers]

I am sure I read that the App now works over Bluetooth so you don't need to adapter.
Just checked dc rainmaker app thread and apparently bt works with a Bluetooth enabled BKOOL turbo only

that's the new bkool go trainer.

 

[Jeepfreak81]

So the app only will use bluetooth for the Bkool trainers? Will it not work on my TacX vortex smart? Just curious because I think my iPad might run it better than my old as dirt laptop.

 

[gbrown]

Don't think Bluetooth works with non bkool trainers, as there is no standard for trainer control over Bluetooth, only the ANT+ F-EC standard.

 

[Dishy]

Tried my tacx flow via bluetooth with no luck. another 50 pound dongle needed

 

[Winnershsaint]

Paired Kickr Snap with Bkool tried climbing ride but resistance is all over the place. Sometimes none at all, others ridiculously hard. Definitely paired so can't really understand. Using Windows to control. Any ideas?

 

[RJKflyer]

After a long time away from Bkool, having given up on the various bugs, tried the new Bkool sim on the iPad with Wahoo ANT+ dongle (via lightning adapter) and KICKR.

I did a session using a VR route.

Appears to be technically workable and overall feel and speed/resistance/watts potentially plausible.

However, the video was very stuttered and not really usable. Anyone got a good experience of this combination? And/or suggestions?

 

[RJKflyer]

Following my post 113, tried the new simulator on the Mac with Garmin USB and KICKR.

It all, dare I say it, appeared to work well. Same VR session as above, which has two climbs in it. All went reasonably authentically until second climb when there appeared to be a complete loss of co-ordination between speed-power-gradient.

Resulting in my second climb being very significantly slower than the first - pedalling frantically with a declining speed. See the comparison from Strava attached.

There appeared to be no 'obvious' issue such as loss of connection etc., and in any event I assume the 3D VR rendering would have started to falter if this happened, which it did not at all.

Before I engage Bkool, any suggestions/observations?

 

[gbrown]

After a long time away from Bkool, having given up on the various bugs, tried the new Bkool sim on the iPad with Wahoo ANT+ dongle (via lightning adapter) and KICKR.

I did a session using a VR route.

Appears to be technically workable and overall feel and speed/resistance/watts potentially plausible.

However, the video was very stuttered and not really usable. Anyone got a good experience of this combination? And/or suggestions?

In my experience, this needs really good WiFi to work. I set up this combination for a friend and the video stuttered horribly. His WiFi router was several rooms away and the signal was poor. I setup a couple of powerline adapters, one with a WiFi hotspot in the same room as the trainer, and the video was then flawless.

Geoff

 

[sandybum41]

I am new to riding on Bkool simulator and I have a few questions. I recently purchased a bkool go smart trainer. So I downloaded bkool on my iPad and got to riding. Synced it with my iPad with Bluetooth. I have done two easy 12 mile rides with only a few hundred feet of climbing. During the ride i averaged 11mph and I was working hard to do it. On the road I would easily average 17-18mph on a ride like this. Also said I only averaged 72 watts. Seems to me like their is something wrong. Even when I'm going downhill i can only push 4th or 5th gear. Is it supposed to be this hard or am I doing something wrong?

 

[bridgy]

I am new to riding on Bkool simulator and I have a few questions. I recently purchased a bkool go smart trainer. So I downloaded bkool on my iPad and got to riding. Synced it with my iPad with Bluetooth. I have done two easy 12 mile rides with only a few hundred feet of climbing. During the ride i averaged 11mph and I was working hard to do it. On the road I would easily average 17-18mph on a ride like this. Also said I only averaged 72 watts. Seems to me like their is something wrong. Even when I'm going downhill i can only push 4th or 5th gear. Is it supposed to be this hard or am I doing something wrong?

No, it sounds like something's wrong to me - it should be reasonably similar to what you find on similar terrain in real life. In fact I find I'm faster on Bkool on local rides I've downloaded to it because there's no reason to slow down for bends, junctions, traffic etc etc, and no headwind or anything else to slow you down! I have a Pro trainer connected to PC by Ant+ though, so a very different setup, so I can't really help with the reason for the problem you're having.

Maybe try contacting Bkool on info@bkool.com and explaining your setup and what you're experiencing and see what they suggest?

 

[sandybum41]

Thanks for the reply. I wonder if others who are hooking up by Bluetooth are having this problem. I will in the mean time try to solve this with bkool.

 

[jabrash]

I don't think the bkool can do this, last time I used it, it was a bit simplistic.

I used to fix things like this in the Garmin Virb editor, not sure if this will work if you don't have a Garmin Virb.

Often I would have a sequence of video clips taken at times through a longer ride, as the battery on the camera doesn't last as long as the battery on the Garmin Edge. I liked to have the complete GPS trace show on the edited video, so I would used the Virb Editor to replace the GPS trace from the Virb with the complete one from the Edge. Then I would sync them up and overlay the GPS trace, speed, heart rate, etc. and export it.

To upload to Bkool, I would remove all the overlays and export just the video and GPX and these would import to the bkool editor quite well.

Cheers,

Geoff

Hey Geoff:
If you can explain how you export the Virb Editor video and GPX to the bkool editor, that would be great. Here's what I sent to Bkool as of 12/16/2016. I have recently begun making videos of routes where I live, near Boone NC in the Appalachian Mts. using a Garmin Virb Elite video camera. One of my videos is on the Bkool site now. It is called Big Flatts Church Rd. Fleetwood, NC. Ride it if you like. Anyway, my question is this. The Bkool video editor, in my opinion is terrible, mainly because the documentation doesn't fully explain how to do anything. For example, a message says "there are zero speed segments in the gps track. You must crop them before continuing." But, it doesn't tell you how to do this. Anyway, here is my question.... Is it possible to export an MP4 file of a video route, to Bkool, created on a Garmin Virb Elite Edit program? And have this file validated, approved, and published on the Bkool site? If this is possible, it would be wonderful. Please let me know it this is possible and anything about the procedure. Thanks a lot. --- Jason