steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
Long shot here, but thought I'd try to see if anyone who knows Bkool can give some advice.
I bought a Wattbike Atom last year, mainly cause there's multiple people in the house who want to use it and it's also very difficult for me to keep moving my road bike up and down the stairs (only place for trainer is upstairs, bike has to be stored in garage rest of time), meaning a standard smart trainer wasn't a realistic option.
Had a lot of fun on Zwift with it over the winter/spring - sure, the gear change delays aren't great, but you get used to them surprisingly quickly (plus I don't do much racing, so probably don't notice it as much), but during the summer, I've put my subscription on hold and just use the free 25km each month for a one off blast.
As it turns out, I've already used my Zwift allowance for September and my road bike is now in the LBS for a service, so thought I'd give Bkool a go on their 7 day free trial. It all seemed to go quite well - Bkool found the bike without problem via ANT+, allowed me to pair it, and I started riding a test 3D course. However I did not notice the resistance changing while going up/down hills - still was able to get everything else working; power and cadence figures looked about right, so finished the ride as planned.
Went back to the options and double checked that it was picking up the Wattbike as a controllable device - it said that it was. In fact it found three items, the Wattbike itself, a speed/cadence sensor and a power meter. I re-selected the Wattbike and speed/cadence sensor (if I chose the power meter, it automatically deselected the Wattbike and reported that I was now using a non-controllable device).
Tried a different course, but same issue - resistance never changed. ERG mode isn't on as far as I can see, tried to check all the other options to make sure I haven't set something incorrectly like an equivalent to the trainer difficulty in Zwift (found a setting called Slope Reduction, but this was set to zero), but found nothing obvious.
It's not the end of the world - chances are I'm only going to use it for these 7 days and if I have to do it as though I'm on a dumb trainer, then so be it. But I would like to *try* and get it working if possible.
I bought a Wattbike Atom last year, mainly cause there's multiple people in the house who want to use it and it's also very difficult for me to keep moving my road bike up and down the stairs (only place for trainer is upstairs, bike has to be stored in garage rest of time), meaning a standard smart trainer wasn't a realistic option.
Had a lot of fun on Zwift with it over the winter/spring - sure, the gear change delays aren't great, but you get used to them surprisingly quickly (plus I don't do much racing, so probably don't notice it as much), but during the summer, I've put my subscription on hold and just use the free 25km each month for a one off blast.
As it turns out, I've already used my Zwift allowance for September and my road bike is now in the LBS for a service, so thought I'd give Bkool a go on their 7 day free trial. It all seemed to go quite well - Bkool found the bike without problem via ANT+, allowed me to pair it, and I started riding a test 3D course. However I did not notice the resistance changing while going up/down hills - still was able to get everything else working; power and cadence figures looked about right, so finished the ride as planned.
Went back to the options and double checked that it was picking up the Wattbike as a controllable device - it said that it was. In fact it found three items, the Wattbike itself, a speed/cadence sensor and a power meter. I re-selected the Wattbike and speed/cadence sensor (if I chose the power meter, it automatically deselected the Wattbike and reported that I was now using a non-controllable device).
Tried a different course, but same issue - resistance never changed. ERG mode isn't on as far as I can see, tried to check all the other options to make sure I haven't set something incorrectly like an equivalent to the trainer difficulty in Zwift (found a setting called Slope Reduction, but this was set to zero), but found nothing obvious.
It's not the end of the world - chances are I'm only going to use it for these 7 days and if I have to do it as though I'm on a dumb trainer, then so be it. But I would like to *try* and get it working if possible.
... That Bus ... and the cyclist 
Does phenylephrine require a TUE??
Interesting that you say your Bkool trainer is showing less watts on Zwift compared to your Stages as everyone else who posts usually says their Bkool exagerates watts by 10-15%. I don't think anyone before has experienced the Bkool trainers under reporting watts! When I had my Pro I was a B Cat rider in Zwift with an FTP of 285, now with my Kickr I'm an average C cat rider with an FTP of 250.
