Team BKool CycleChat

[burndust]

"Snaily, post: 3334775, member: 28182"]Ok cheers

build quality wise I couldn't fault it...very stable...it was fairly loud when gunning it...with a loud whine...I would have kept it but it kept dropping the connection on various software platforms...I may purchase another one in the future once some the bugs have been irioned out

 

[burndust]

I have just returned the Bkool under the trial terms and bought the kickr instead whilst i've only trained on it twice so far i much prefer the "feel" of the ride , I also think the build quality of the kickr is much better than the Bkool and I'm also glad to be able to get back to using Trainer Road.

Did you manage to get the kickr working with bsim

 

[ziggys101]

Did you manage to get the kickr working with bsim

Not tried yet I'll look at it this evening and report back

 

[Snaily]

@ziggys101 , just out of curiosity was it the BKOOL Pro you returned or the 1st gen one?
@burndust, I thought the original BKOOL was noisy anyway lol

Thanks both for input so far.

 

[Harv]

Reading this thread the bkool sounds very buggy.

Shame if that is the case. I love technology but when it doesn't work it drives me crazy.

 

[Snaily]

Reading this thread the bkool sounds very buggy.

Shame if that is the case. I love technology but when it doesn't work it drives me crazy.

I think generally people are happy with their BKOOL's but as with any VR trainer there will be small hiccups. I think a lot of the issues people have are really small annoyances like ANT+ drop outs but some others do have hardware issues which in general BKOOL support are quick to fix or replace under warranty.

It does look like the BKOOL software feature set and overall user experience has improved since I returned mine, the BKOOL website looks a lot slicker but is it more user friendly in terms of searching video routes which was what I hated about it before. The Pro BKOOL is appealing to me, especially now that it can be bought for the price I originally paid for the first gen one.

I have still yet to see a trainer that appeals to me in the same way as the BKOOL does or did in terms of value for money. I looked at the Tacx and was put off by the cost of the DVD's and the forums looked like they had reliability issues and also the gradient resistance was not as good as the BKOOL. I also looked at the Elite Realtour but after posting a question on their user forums and not getting a single reply for a few weeks along with the lack of web based reviews I decided against one, also you have the cost of the DVD's. When you look at the cost of a BKOOL subscription and what you get for your money compared to the cost of DVD's you cant really go wrong.

 

[burndust]

Totally agree @Snaily value for money wise I've yet to see anything that rivals bkool...they are continuing to develop there software which does cause issues but there normally quick to resolve issues my only concern with bkool as it grows is that they invest more in their servers to cope with the demand

 

[bob01]

Did you manage to get the kickr working with bsim

I've had my kickr for about 3 or 4 weeks - it's worked with bsim with no fuss (same with trainerroad) - no dropouts during sessions, no messing with anything - it just works.

Using a garmin ant+ USB stick (the new stubby one that ships with the vectors) and a 15" mac book retina.
*FWIW the ant+ stick had problems (trainerroad reported bad signal strength for all connected sensors) when it was plugged into the USB port on the right side of the computer (side with the hdmi port). Moved it to the left USB port and it's been flawless since (HRM, KICKR and Duotrap SC sensor w/ excellent signal strength all the time)

 

[burndust]

Hmm interesting I couldn't get it to work with bsim...I may try a kickr again at some point

 

[ziggys101]

@ziggys101 , just out of curiosity was it the BKOOL Pro you returned or the 1st gen one?
@burndust, I thought the original BKOOL was noisy anyway lol

Thanks both for input so far.

I returned the new black one

 

[Paulf1566]

I tried to load a new video tonight coupled with a gpx file. I got to the point of sending it to Bkool website but I got an error message #2038. Any ideas what the problem could be please? I have emailed Bkool but no reply as yet.

 

[Asa Post]

I tried to load a new video tonight coupled with a gpx file. I got to the point of sending it to Bkool website but I got an error message #2038. Any ideas what the problem could be please? I have emailed Bkool but no reply as yet.

See post #804 upthread

 

[PhotoBiker]

And here I was just getting ready to pull the plug on the new black BKool with a $50 off deal from my LBS and I just found out (or realized) that the trainer protocol itself is not open. I thought both the Kickr and the BKool were open and could be used with various apps. I'd thought about using Trainerroad and BKool but that appears to not be the case now?

I still have my Keiser spin bike that I technically need to sell before I get another trainer so I'm not completely waffling out here, but this decision is much harder than I'd originally thought.

 

[harly]

Why would you want to use traineroad with the bkool instead of the bkools own software would it work just like the bkool does or just as a normal turbo trainer

 

[PhotoBiker]

Why would you want to use traineroad with the bkool instead of the bkools own software would it work just like the bkool does or just as a normal turbo trainer

Welcome to my thought process ;-)

I like the option of using Trainerroad for the power training plans and sufferfest videos. I can use trainload with my Kurt Kinetic Fluid Road Machine now.