Team BKool CycleChat

[Whorty]

for some strange reason I was well down I put the same effort I normally put in if u look at my previous rides in bkool watts r much higher but last night struggled to make 200

BKool know you've abandoned them and bought a Neo so they are making you pay and penalising you

 

[rob01792]

I still participate once a week on a Thursday

 

[Del C]

for some strange reason I was well down I put the same effort I normally put in if u look at my previous rides in bkool watts r much higher but last night struggled to make 200

I rode it this morning with a similar result, about 20-30 watts down on normal values.

I've ridden the Tourmalet descent about 3 times in real life, and the section from Luz St Sauver and Argeles Gazost on Bkool felt quite different from my memory of the actual ride.

There's a couple of rises, but my memory of it is that felt pretty much like a 37km descent from the summit of the Tourmalet. First time I did it was on an Etape after a rainy ascent, heading for a mountain top finish on the Hautacam, so I think I'd have remembered a series of ramps on the way down.

Anyhow, now that I've got that minor whinge/excuse out of my system, I've got a couple of questions that more experienced Bkoolers can probably answer.

Firstly, can somebody explain the blue/white numbers thing to me. I've read a lot of the comments, but I'm still not completely clear how it works, and how I may need to adjust the way I ride on descents.

Secondly, linked to the first question, as an 80kg rider, do I just have to accept there's a limit to how fast I can get down a descent and no amount of thrashing on the pedals is going to make a big difference to the speeds I can hit. I can get to about 80km/h max when the slope is about 9/10%, but the drops back as soon as the slope eases. Is this what I should expect?

I will try and join a Thursday or Saturday ride, but at the moment those days aren't working too well for me. I normally ride on Thursdays, and I'm often out on Saturday afternoons.

 

[Bored Man]

I do KM in Bkool as the counter thing for gradient works better that way so I can judge how long I'll be at a certain % In miles, it always seemed to say 1 mile for all gradients however long it was

Oh, and I'm a youngster ... all us hip and cool kids talk in kilometres

What counter thing are you taking about there youth?

 

[Bored Man]

I rode it this morning with a similar result, about 20-30 watts down on normal values.

I've ridden the Tourmalet descent about 3 times in real life, and the section from Luz St Sauver and Argeles Gazost on Bkool felt quite different from my memory of the actual ride.

There's a couple of rises, but my memory of it is that felt pretty much like a 37km descent from the summit of the Tourmalet. First time I did it was on an Etape after a rainy ascent, heading for a mountain top finish on the Hautacam, so I think I'd have remembered a series of ramps on the way down.

Anyhow, now that I've got that minor whinge/excuse out of my system, I've got a couple of questions that more experienced Bkoolers can probably answer.

Firstly, can somebody explain the blue/white numbers thing to me. I've read a lot of the comments, but I'm still not completely clear how it works, and how I may need to adjust the way I ride on descents.

Secondly, linked to the first question, as an 80kg rider, do I just have to accept there's a limit to how fast I can get down a descent and no amount of thrashing on the pedals is going to make a big difference to the speeds I can hit. I can get to about 80km/h max when the slope is about 9/10%, but the drops back as soon as the slope eases. Is this what I should expect?

I will try and join a Thursday or Saturday ride, but at the moment those days aren't working too well for me. I normally ride on Thursdays, and I'm often out on Saturday afternoons.

Saturday’s are usually re-runs of Thursday. Only for @AAAC 76C to stamp his authority on the wannabes..

 

[bridgy]

I rode it this morning with a similar result, about 20-30 watts down on normal values.

I've ridden the Tourmalet descent about 3 times in real life, and the section from Luz St Sauver and Argeles Gazost on Bkool felt quite different from my memory of the actual ride.

There's a couple of rises, but my memory of it is that felt pretty much like a 37km descent from the summit of the Tourmalet. First time I did it was on an Etape after a rainy ascent, heading for a mountain top finish on the Hautacam, so I think I'd have remembered a series of ramps on the way down.

Anyhow, now that I've got that minor whinge/excuse out of my system, I've got a couple of questions that more experienced Bkoolers can probably answer.

Firstly, can somebody explain the blue/white numbers thing to me. I've read a lot of the comments, but I'm still not completely clear how it works, and how I may need to adjust the way I ride on descents.

Secondly, linked to the first question, as an 80kg rider, do I just have to accept there's a limit to how fast I can get down a descent and no amount of thrashing on the pedals is going to make a big difference to the speeds I can hit. I can get to about 80km/h max when the slope is about 9/10%, but the drops back as soon as the slope eases. Is this what I should expect?

I will try and join a Thursday or Saturday ride, but at the moment those days aren't working too well for me. I normally ride on Thursdays, and I'm often out on Saturday afternoons.

When the speed goes blue on a descent, it means Bkool have taken over control of your speed. This happens if the speed you're pedaling at goes below the speed Bkool thinks gravity would make you go at that point anyway. Once your speed goes blue on a descent the only way you can go any faster - or make any difference to the speed at all - is to get your rear wheel spinning even faster than the virtual blue speed. Obviously the steeper the descent the fast you'll go, and the harder it will be to spin the rear wheel any faster than that anyway - so it might be worth trying to do this on a 3-4% descent when you going 30-something MPH, but anything over 45mph I personally can't maintain for any length of time worth bothering with! When the blue speed's higher than you think you could overcome easily, you may as well back off and let it just do its thing, as you won't be affecting anything (unless you accelerate to faster than the blue speed - in which case it will go white again) - but don't completely stop pedaling or it will think you want to quit the ride.

 

[rob01792]

What counter thing are you taking about there youth?

come on jim u know the counter thing everybody knows the counter thing

 

[bridgy]

I rode it this morning with a similar result, about 20-30 watts down on normal values.

I've ridden the Tourmalet descent about 3 times in real life, and the section from Luz St Sauver and Argeles Gazost on Bkool felt quite different from my memory of the actual ride.

There's a couple of rises, but my memory of it is that felt pretty much like a 37km descent from the summit of the Tourmalet. First time I did it was on an Etape after a rainy ascent, heading for a mountain top finish on the Hautacam, so I think I'd have remembered a series of ramps on the way down.

Anyhow, now that I've got that minor whinge/excuse out of my system, I've got a couple of questions that more experienced Bkoolers can probably answer.

Firstly, can somebody explain the blue/white numbers thing to me. I've read a lot of the comments, but I'm still not completely clear how it works, and how I may need to adjust the way I ride on descents.

Secondly, linked to the first question, as an 80kg rider, do I just have to accept there's a limit to how fast I can get down a descent and no amount of thrashing on the pedals is going to make a big difference to the speeds I can hit. I can get to about 80km/h max when the slope is about 9/10%, but the drops back as soon as the slope eases. Is this what I should expect?

I will try and join a Thursday or Saturday ride, but at the moment those days aren't working too well for me. I normally ride on Thursdays, and I'm often out on Saturday afternoons.

If you can't make the live races, you can always challenge someone from the league results and add a few ghosts of other riders from the stage and race their ghosts - not as good as a live race but a good alternative! Also, people LOVE it when you beat their ghost and they get a little email from Bkool saying they've been challenged and beaten

 

[Randyberlin]

I did go and do the Tourmalet after I did go and do the Alp D’ Huez so my knees were poison..

I was very surprised at some of your times compared to mine as I coasted the last 8 miles (does anyone do miles any more?), especially that @rob01792 - I’ll definately be doing a rerun..

USA!USA!

 

[bridgy]

View attachment 379504
USA!USA!

We have a weird mixture of metric and imperial in the UK. Mostly metric, but with a stubborn determination to stick with miles instead of kilometres (usually), and milk and beer by the pint!

 

[Randyberlin]

We have a weird mixture of metric and imperial in the UK. Mostly metric, but with a stubborn determination to stick with miles instead of kilometres (usually), and milk and beer by the pint!

Also for me, two sets of wrenches or try to jam a 10mm socket on a 3/8 nut.

 

[Bored Man]

View attachment 379504
USA!USA!

OMG.. I think I must be Americano

 

[Bored Man]

Enough of this, I’m off to the pub for 0.568 of a litre. . I’ll have to do my drinking today if I’m to re-run tomorrow and take that welsh dude..

 

[Del C]

When the speed goes blue on a descent, it means Bkool have taken over control of your speed. This happens if the speed you're pedaling at goes below the speed Bkool thinks gravity would make you go at that point anyway. Once your speed goes blue on a descent the only way you can go any faster - or make any difference to the speed at all - is to get your rear wheel spinning even faster than the virtual blue speed. Obviously the steeper the descent the fast you'll go, and the harder it will be to spin the rear wheel any faster than that anyway - so it might be worth trying to do this on a 3-4% descent when you going 30-something MPH, but anything over 45mph I personally can't maintain for any length of time worth bothering with! When the blue speed's higher than you think you could overcome easily, you may as well back off and let it just do its thing, as you won't be affecting anything (unless you accelerate to faster than the blue speed - in which case it will go white again) - but don't completely stop pedaling or it will think you want to quit the ride.

Hey thanks. That's much clearer now!

 

[Whorty]

What counter thing are you taking about there youth?

I'll do a screen shot when I'm back home.