No, not a dumb question! Yes, for the reason you say you will have to stop pedalling a few seconds before you want to start. I think even after your wheel stops there's a few seconds before it will let you start. I think it won't matter if you stop pedalling early and remain stationary on the line even after you could in theory start - maybe stop 30 seconds before you want to start (or more)
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- Thread starter Peteaud
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Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking.
Randyberlin
Guru
- Location
- Sitka, Alaska
Let's stop this helpful cr@p. If it wasn't for drafting Whorty @Del C would have beaten me yesterday.Thanks for your mega posting Del. Sounds to me like something is really holding you back so it'd be great if you can figure out what it is and find your rightful place out on the virtual road. I've always found that the tyre pressure is what makes the biggest difference by far. It can literally rob you of half your watts if it's not high enough. On the road it has hardly any effect but because of the turbo roller it makes a massive difference. The bike does make a difference too and I keep my best bike on the turbo, which I believe is also better for the bike, although many will disagree with that, especially the manufacturer of my bike
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Tyres also make a difference but I'd guess a maximum of 10% difference. I also like the GP4000s, the Ultra Sport, and at the moment I have a mavic so with tyres there doesn't seem to be any set type that's obviously best. For tyre pressure I think you can easily put in more than the max recommended and I'd suggest (as AAAC says) 140, 150 psi so you'll need a track pump for that. And yes you definitely need a fairly big fan. Not a USB fan like some on here havefor some reason.
Hope you find the problem Del and please keep posting about it until we get you up to speed.
Exactly!
I use BKool to keep me on the bike during the winter months and the discovery of this group has made a big difference to my enjoyment of it. I'm not into serious training or competitive racing, but I can appreciate that some people are and that the various inconsistencies that BKool exhibits is frustrating. But for me the fun of BKool and the camaraderie of this group far outweigh the frustrations.
We know the fairy dust can apply to any of us at any time. We also know who the stronger riders tend to be and I think everyone here would agree that the top 5 at the end of the month were fully deserving of their place and give their full support for the Nations Cup. And the close competition for places also shows we'd have more than capable reserves too!
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@Aleman - I remember you were looking at 53/39 chainrings. Amazon are selling some Dura-Ace 7800 53/39 chainsets for £86 at the moment (cracking price). They are longer crankarms at that price (177.5 mm and 180mm) but I suppose you could use existing crankarms if you need shorter.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0012REMYU/?tag=bikebargains-21&th=1&psc=1
...and here I was thinking that a trainer tire was for trainers. I’m also on an old pretty heavy wheel on my cx-bike. Will try my RS81, co-incidentally, with my summer tires still on and with a better cassette, on Tuesday. A bit hesitant to pump up the tire pressure too much though, as I’m a bit om the heavy side...have blown a couple of tires in the past. I’m guessing weight has something to do with it. On the upside I have never had any problems with slippage on the pro, probably due to weight (or oustanding skills ). Let’s see how I do now (probably similiar to when I though a better bike, with brand new zipp wheels would be a substantial improvement. Turns out legs and lungs seems to also matter
. And weight...but tall tends to limit chances of low weight....
Great posts (on all topics) by the way! Miss a day and have a full afternoon’s worth of reading up!
). Let’s see how I do now (probably similiar to when I though a better bike, with brand new zipp wheels would be a substantial improvement. Turns out legs and lungs seems to also matter. And weight...but tall tends to limit chances of low weight....Great posts (on all topics) by the way! Miss a day and have a full afternoon’s worth of reading up!
Well if others are getting a sprinkling of bkool fairy dust, I see no reason why you couldn't re-open some of those RB patented wormholes you used to use in the good old days. It's only fair
Aleman
Knees are FUBAR but I don't like to mention it
- Location
- Blackpool UK
Can I suggest people are careful about inflating tyres to high pressures. Some of these rims are not designed or tested to take those sorts of pressures, you stand the (ok, remote) chance of a catastrophic wheel failure.
Daddy Pig
Veteran
I'd hate to have another catastrophic rim failure at high speed... bloody IBS and too much coffee...
JJRobinson
Senior Member
I can confirm, I was trying ha ha! I completely understand where you are coming from but seems very unfair that you have to feel like you do just because the trainer is acting up on occasion.Hi Del. Thanks for taking the time to write such a thoughtful post mate! I’ll try and do it justice with one of my own...
Regarding your issues with BKOOL not being a fair representation of your abilities that wouldn’t surprise me at all to be honest mate. I think there are peoole in the league who are stronger in BKOOL than they are in the real world. And people who are stronger in the real world than BKOOL. There are definitley little tricks I can give you to try and improve you speed (including fedex’ing my turbo to you!). My first tip would be making sure you bike is ready for the turbo. You might not believe just how much difference having a good tyre on you rear wheel makes. And also having it at a good PSI. But it can make a difference of 50+ watts minimum in some cases. My favourite tyre is a conitinental gp4000. Is expensive but it grips the turbo better than any other tyre I’ve used. Others might have tyres they prefer more. It’s personal preference to some degree. But there are defo tyre that are much worse than others. Once you’ve got the tyre sorted we can look at your general set up. Do you use a powerful fan? And are you drinking enough water? These two factors also play a big role in performance. I’m not trying to tell you how to suck eggs but these things are easily overlooked and underrated sometimes.
Now you’ve got the bike sorted we can look at the sim. Firstly BKOOL and zwift are a complete joke really. I say this because of the way we start races in both cases. Have you ever seen a bike race where everyone is trying to hit such big watts right out of the gate?! I never have at any rate.... it’s mental! And takes a while to get used to, maybe you never will Del. But if you want to compete this is a hurdle everyone needs to try and get over. Basically for me this involved being realistic. On BKOOL there isn’t that many starters in any given race. So before the race, I’d target the people I thought I had a realistic chance of competing with. Out of the gate you have to go hard, but you also have to be honest with yourself and try and conserve some energy where you can. There’s no point in leading aaac and co for the first 200 meters, just to die a painful death and struggle for the next 20 miles. My own philosophy is to always want something for the last mile or two of the race. Don’t get me wrong, I want the tank to be completely empty by the finish line. But I don’t want to struggle over the line. I want to be able to smash through it (it doesn’t always happen like that...)
So...In one of your real world rides you probably start of relatively calmly. Then build pace and momentum as the ride goes on depending on how you’re feeling. On BKOOL you have to start hard. Your heart rate is going to max out if your not careful. Maybe even if you are careful. But if you’ve targeted the correct people they should be suffering at a similar rate as you. So hopefully you can slow your pace enough a mile or so after the start to try and calm your HR and reduce the power a bit. If you find yourself alone on the road. You can slow down to try and find a group/rider to sit with. Or if you’re behind your target group, then you might just have to settle on the race being an individual time trial. It doesn’t matter at all being last honestly. So long as you get something from it. Maybe the guys ahead are having a good day by their standards. Maybe your having a bad one. So all you can really do is find improvement. If it’s a course you’ve done before you can try and beat your previous time. If you haven’t just look to set a target time. And practice how you want to construct a race. It’s a good way of learning how to manage your energy over the said distance and terrain. And the time you set will then be your target next time.
Sometimes in BKOOL it can feel like walking though treacle. But then you might make a massive step forwards. It is really weird the way it works sometimes like that. But stick with it mate.
The best races are definitley the handicap races. Because you often get involved in little mini races and it really improves your ‘race craft’. It can be painful when people go bombing past. I have lots of memories of people going past me like I was standing still. I later discovered watching the replays that people put down massive watts on purpose when they’re passing you so you can’t latch on. But to you it seems like that’s there normal speed and it can be a gut punch if you let it!
I hope that helps. Don’t hesitate to ask a question no matter how basic it sounds. I do the whole time!
With my own issue is much more straight forward!
In that last stage I did, apart from the usual contenders of old, @peterob and @JJRobinson amongst others put in cracking times. And I’m really happy that more and more people seem to be joining the league now. Could I beat those times? Maybe, maybe not... I’m not sure it’s worth debating. But I am sure they both buried themselves to get those times. So now I’m supposed to take their place in the team with the bs time I put up? No thanks, not me. We all know BKOOL is a little inconsistent. But when I beat Bridgy by 6 minutes it’s too much for me... let Pep be Pep. I’m sure some people want to ‘win’ at any cost. But I’m not having people talk about me like that further down the line. It’s not that important to me. I’d rather be able to look people in the eye.
I’m going to try to put up some legitimate results if my turbo lets me. If not then I’ll have a great time cheering on the team.
Guys let’s just make sure whoever gets into the team gets there on merit. There’s so much competition for places it’s brilliant! I know you’re all being good friends and I’m really grateful for that honestly. It’s really a great thing to be part of. But enough now I think. Let’s just focus on the legitimate results
We might not win the nations cup. You never know, maybe we will. Be we definitely gonna have the most fun!!!
From previous it sounds like you are definitely a few levels up on me so just to let you know, I have no issue if you get place on the team
As others have said, other teams won’t be worrying about it. However I do sympathise with you as I have experienced the fairy dust in the past and it just p****s me off as messes up stats and you know you might as well never do that route again as you will never beat your own time
Its worth noting that people have been killed by tyres going bang. However, I don't think anyone's ever been harmed by a stationary bicycle tyre before. It's mostly lorry/bus tyres and the occasional car tyre. The thing is it takes volume to do damage as well as pressure. I wouldn't put my face close to my bike tyre when pressuring it to 150 psi as that would probably hurt if it popped. Mountain bike tyres are probably much more dangerous and fat bike tyres a lot worse than that. I think I'm off to do some googling now.
Daddy Pig
Veteran
More the risk from the shock of the noise on all these old tickers...
Don't worry I'm sure I'm first in the que...
keithaitch
Veteran
- Location
- barcelona
If I could have written a post today that would have been it. Perfectly expresses my situation and feelings.Exactly!
I use BKool to keep me on the bike during the winter months and the discovery of this group has made a big difference to my enjoyment of it. I'm not into serious training or competitive racing, but I can appreciate that some people are and that the various inconsistencies that BKool exhibits is frustrating. But for me the fun of BKool and the camaraderie of this group far outweigh the frustrations.
We know the fairy dust can apply to any of us at any time. We also know who the stronger riders tend to be and I think everyone here would agree that the top 5 at the end of the month were fully deserving of their place and give their full support for the Nations Cup. And the close competition for places also shows we'd have more than capable reserves too!
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I never pushed my tyre above 105-110 .... never had the balls to go any higher (I had Conti 4 seasons). But even going from the 80 I used to run, up to the 105 made a huge speed/power difference.Thanks Bill.
I've decided to try the Guru out for the next few rides and leave the RS81 tyre on as I said earlier replying to Tommy.
That'll help decide if it really makes a difference or not.
I've certainly been pumping up the tyres to 140/150 psi for a while now.
And that fan is a beast!
