Team BKool CycleChat

[RickB]

Indeed Geoff. Life on bkool just got a whole lot more complicated. Turns out it works even better on mountain goat rides with a few modifications to the technique.
As you say, it's just like maxing it off the line where the resistance is reduced and you can coast for a good bit before it slows to a stop. I just had to disallow my own mtn goat ride tonight due to it being far too fast and me hardly even in a sweat

Just saw your time come up as GBR record of 51 minutes after I finished my session - I was thinking to myself 'surely thats a bkool glitch!' Thats incredible!

So the question is - do we tell Bkool about this??


(I'd like to add that I did not use this technique in my ride this evening - proud of myself for getting there and keeping the watts up for that long. Got my old Bkool bike back on the trainer this evening and it feels much better than Gails bike on the trainer - and no more wobbly cranks now! )

 

[kipster]

I used the on off technique in the chain gang ride to try it out I am not great at the technique, my avg watts is high compared to others using it. Yes I am faster, my HR Is lower, watts are lower, but I just don't feel like I've had a proper workout, it was too easy. Plus I found I was just looking at numbers for the ride and drinking less often.

All in all not a satisfying session.

 

[bobinski]

Re Bill and Ricks posts;

I am wondering if what you describe reflects the glitch in the software that affects trainer road and which is now recognised by bkool. Bkool are supposed to be working on that so perhaps, as asked below, it's best to bring this to bkools attention.
51 minutes!?!?
I may have to stick with Zwift where the ant fec bkool profile seems to work ok.

Rick, good looking time there too

 

[Monte]

must admit - I hope discovering these on/off techniques don't spoil the Thursday night's chain gang. Im poorly at the moment so not attempting any cycling but when I'm well i'm tempted to use the zwift software for their workout plans.

 

[rob01792]

There seems to be variable on the on off method cos when i do what i would descride as the on off technique my hr avg174 peak at 189 and absolutely shattered

 

[Cjbon]

so think I have a problem with my bkool or I need to get ready for this year's tour de France 1116 watts have emailed bkool and team sky

 

[BILL S]

I used the on off technique in the chain gang ride to try it out I am not great at the technique, my avg watts is high compared to others using it. Yes I am faster, my HR Is lower, watts are lower, but I just don't feel like I've had a proper workout, it was too easy. Plus I found I was just looking at numbers for the ride and drinking less often.

All in all not a satisfying session.

I can't really disagree with you Kip. Looking at your power graph I think your ride was borderline on/off power. It's not a hard stage though I think as not much uphill so probably not as good a workout as the last one.

 

[Randyberlin]

There's some knobs that can be adjusted. Presumably they're some kind of tolerances for things like weight, hr, cadence, drop-outs, etc. In theory as long as your weight is consistent across the league, weight shouldn't cause a ride to need manual approval.

When we get to league #3, I'll probably spend some time trying to figure out if/how any of those knobs ought to be turned, particularly for things like drop-outs and cadence/hr as folks don't always have a cadence or hr sensor set-up.

In the mean time, don't stress on manual approvals. They only take a couple seconds once I'm on the website.

Enjoy the rides. I certainly did up until last night when my legs gave out. One of the advantages of setting a slow pace is I can focus on how bkool rendered the ride and how it compares to real life, which was fun/interesting. I was particularly curious to see what it'd do with the desert landscape for Sand Flats Road. It's actually a pretty climb in real life, but bkool loses 99.9% of the texture of the various petrified sand dunes in that area and all the red-rock colors making it a bit boring. Given I'll never ride it again in real life a ride in the virtual world seemed appropriate (we take shuttles up to the start of Porcupine there these days, which saves the legs for the brutal downhill & a second ride later in the day)

I rode a different cottonwood canyon today.

 

[BILL S]

So the question is - do we tell Bkool about this??

I think we probably should. I am now done with experimenting with this to see what happens. This is not how I want to ride and will try to resist the temptation to do so in the future. I hope that bkool will consider an alteration to put a stop to this glitch and hopefully do more than they already are to level things out between different trainers.
Rick (and anyone else). What do you think is the best way to present this glitch to bkool?
I cant help thinking they'll just tell me that all is well and can I download my settings for them again, and they will get back to me saying everything is fine.

 

[Brendan Parker]

just completed the 2nd stage chaingang! for some reason that well and truly done me ! painful, at least I now have the settings right so I will have some company on Thursday , see ya then people

 

[AAAC 76C]

I think we probably should. I am now done with experimenting with this to see what happens. This is not how I want to ride and will try to resist the temptation to do so in the future. I hope that bkool will consider an alteration to put a stop to this glitch and hopefully do more than they already are to level things out between different trainers.
Rick (and anyone else). What do you think is the best way to present this glitch to bkool?
I cant help thinking they'll just tell me that all is well and can I download my settings for them again, and they will get back to me saying everything is fine.

I feel like I have stirred up a hornets nest and put some divide into the Cycle Chat members, this was not intended as I have no real concern how others do thier thing so long as they are gaining a 'well being' advantage from it.

Anyway on a lighter note we could have a best on/off graph competition.
I found this one which I quite like

 

[RickB]

I think we probably should. I am now done with experimenting with this to see what happens. This is not how I want to ride and will try to resist the temptation to do so in the future. I hope that bkool will consider an alteration to put a stop to this glitch and hopefully do more than they already are to level things out between different trainers.
Rick (and anyone else). What do you think is the best way to present this glitch to bkool?
I cant help thinking they'll just tell me that all is well and can I download my settings for them again, and they will get back to me saying everything is fine.

I'll send them an email explaining roughly how we do it and, if it's OK with you bill, I'll send a link to your 51 minute ride for them to see. Be interesting to see how they respond to this one!

 

[AAAC 76C]

I think I'll just go and sit in the corner with my dunce hat on.

No worries Bill.
I watched a TdF stage finish live in Kent a few years back when Robbie McEwen pulled of an amazing sprint finish having fought back through the bunch after a late puncture.
I have been pretty obsessed with Pro Cyling since.
At work I sit next to a fellow ex-Military rider and ex-Cat 1 Racer and we also have a guy who writes articles for Cycle magazines in the office and has recently published a book so cycling is a big part of the office banter.

 

[IrishAl]

I feel like I have stirred up a hornets nest and put some divide into the Cycle Chat members, this was not intended as I have no real concern how others do thier thing so long as they are gaining a 'well being' advantage from it.

Personaly i think this glitch needs to be sorted. If a real world cycle worked that way or wasmore efficient then fine leave it...but its not, and i want my turbo experience to be as close to real world as possible and that goes for being able to compare my time vs other peoples times for the same route. Same for competing together in live races. I wont be resorting to the on/off routine. Dont get me wrong, this isnt a case of sour grapes as i know theres plenty of other lads and lasses on here faster than me.

 

[AAAC 76C]

Re Bill and Ricks posts;

I may have to stick with Zwift where the ant fec bkool profile seems to work ok.

Rick, good looking time there too

So the latest firmware/SW updates drives your BKool to work in an ANT+ FEC profile and this profile is what I didn't think existed i.e. a kind of international standard.
As I don't have this then I assume I am using a previous ANT+ interface and perhaps that is why I seem unaffected by these 'features' and hence unable to replicate the on/off 'style'.