Team BKool CycleChat

[RickB]

I think I was in a different session. There was no sign of Pep Tatche or you or Rick. Loads of others though and it seemed to be a 1 hour session that I joined. It'd be good if they could organise it properly.

You'd think that seeing as its Bkool organising the rides that they could put a tag under the ride name the same way it shows for a league ride. Was chatting to Craig Harrison who seems to be quite involved with the Bkool people. He was able to say they are working on fixes for dodgy cadence readings and the infamous Estimate time remaining bug. Bkool themselves of course deny any problems!

 

[RickB]

Got a reply from Craig regarding Bkool issues:

Thanks, Richard. I will get this info to the best person at Bkool in Madrid to address it fully. I am the U.S. brand manager for Bkool -- I have a conference call with HQ tomorrow and will try to get an immediate response - then report back to you.

You can email me directly at supportusa@bkool.com if you prefer.

On a personal note, I value your comments and criticism much more than you know. The more of these kinds of comments I get, the easier it is for me to lobby for the company to address these issues more quickly. When I have our weekly calls, I can bring them up and push on my end a bit. Please keep them coming.

Thanks,
Craig

 

[LBHIFI]

Got a reply from Craig regarding Bkool issues:

Thanks, Richard. I will get this info to the best person at Bkool in Madrid to address it fully. I am the U.S. brand manager for Bkool -- I have a conference call with HQ tomorrow and will try to get an immediate response - then report back to you.

You can email me directly at supportusa@bkool.com if you prefer.

On a personal note, I value your comments and criticism much more than you know. The more of these kinds of comments I get, the easier it is for me to lobby for the company to address these issues more quickly. When I have our weekly calls, I can bring them up and push on my end a bit. Please keep them coming.

Thanks,
Craig

Sounds good, hopefully there will be an update soon.

Nice ride in the Velodrome BTW. You were always about 20-30 seconds ahead, and I it seemed like I was losing rather than gaining time.

 

[BILL S]

Got a reply from Craig regarding Bkool issues:

Thanks, Richard. I will get this info to the best person at Bkool in Madrid to address it fully. I am the U.S. brand manager for Bkool -- I have a conference call with HQ tomorrow and will try to get an immediate response - then report back to you.

You can email me directly at supportusa@bkool.com if you prefer.

On a personal note, I value your comments and criticism much more than you know. The more of these kinds of comments I get, the easier it is for me to lobby for the company to address these issues more quickly. When I have our weekly calls, I can bring them up and push on my end a bit. Please keep them coming.

Thanks,
Craig

Rick. Sounds like you've got it cracked with Bkool. At last there's someone who will listen to us and hopefully do something about fixing the issues and listen to ideas about improvements. Well done for that.
Do you know when the next bkool organised ride will be? I'd like to try it again and see if I can get into the right ride this time. I guess it didn't help that I was riding with a whole bunch who no doubt also thought they were in the right session.

 

[RickB]

Sounds good, hopefully there will be an update soon.

Nice ride in the Velodrome BTW. You were always about 20-30 seconds ahead, and I it seemed like I was losing rather than gaining time.

Cant be right surely that I was ahead of you! You always leave us in your wake!

Rick. Sounds like you've got it cracked with Bkool. At last there's someone who will listen to us and hopefully do something about fixing the issues and listen to ideas about improvements. Well done for that.
Do you know when the next bkool organised ride will be? I'd like to try it again and see if I can get into the right ride this time. I guess it didn't help that I was riding with a whole bunch who no doubt also thought they were in the right session.

There's another ride this evening at 5pm but no idea when they will try the Hour Challenge again - tonight's is just a straight forward race. (See below)

Do you guys get the emails from Bkool regarding upcoming challenges?

Heres the details on the next two rides:
Challenge Kasper Jebjerg!
Thursday 18 June, 18:00 h (GMT+2) (5pm UK)

This Thursday, we have a former elite road cyclist to challenge. Kasper Jebjerg is an endurance MTB-rider, a hawaii Ironman finisher and generally loves anything with two wheels and pedals! Currently, he is working at the Nordic Bkool distributor Cycle Service Nordic in Denmark.
Are you ready to challenge him on Bkool?! The event will start at 18:00 (GMT+2) on the route: Tarm, Central Denmark Region (Denmark). There will be a 10 minute warm-up allowing users to enter the challenge. At 18.00h (GMT+2), check under the LIVE sessions to join the challenge on the Danish track. Everyone who attends the event from start to finish will be in for the chance to win an official Bkool cycling jersey!

Challenge Daniel Moreno!
Tuesday, June 23rd at 19:00h (GMT+2) (6pm UK)

Don't miss our new challenge on Tuesday the 23rd of June. Dani Moreno is a Bkool enthusiast and a born hill climber. Many of you would have seen him attending our previous events, and now he's holding his own event inside the Bkool simulator. The session he has chosen is Puerto Torcal, a continuous climb from start to finish.
Do you dare to challenge him on his favourite route?

 

[LBHIFI]

Yet another strange event (Kasper Jebjerg).
After countdown reached 0, it started counting up from -1:30 and after that from -2:30, but before reaching 0 again it suddenly asked me to stop pedaling, even though I stopped several minutes before. So, as usual starting waaay behind.
I used the Tacx Satory Smart this time.
This trainer sends the watts to BSim, but cannot adjust brake automatically. On the positive side, this means I don't have to fiddle with faulty derailleurs, and that the watts are much more stable. The negative is that I can't benefit from draft while competing and perhaps the biggest issue is that it won't let the session attempt count in the ranking. It tels you that after you finished the session

This trainer is perfect for TT warmup as it doesn't rely on external power, and that you can use your phone to view you current effort (even while riding a Bkool session).

Tacx app

• LBHIFI
• 18 Jun 2015

 

[RickB]

Yet another strange event (Kasper Jebjerg).
After countdown reached 0, it started counting up from -1:30 and after that from -2:30, but before reaching 0 again it suddenly asked me to stop pedaling, even though I stopped several minutes before. So, as usual starting waaay behind.
I used the Tacx Satory Smart this time.
This trainer sends the watts to BSim, but cannot adjust brake automatically. On the positive side, this means I don't have to fiddle with faulty derailleurs, and that the watts are much more stable. The negative is that I can't benefit from draft while competing and perhaps the biggest issue is that it won't let the session attempt count in the ranking. It tels you that after you finished the session

This trainer is perfect for TT warmup as it doesn't rely on external power, and that you can use your phone to view you current effort (even while riding a Bkool session).

Tacx app

• LBHIFI
• 18 Jun 2015

That countdown issue sounds very bizarre! Never heard of that one before. Saw you were there for a while then disappeared! one of these days we'll all get to the finish line!

 

[gbrown]

Yesterday I heard Alastair Campbell on Radio 2 talking about Lance Armstrong and Mont Ventoux.

Campbell said he had cycled up Mont Ventoux in 2.5 hours and I immediately said out loud "Ha, I could do it faster than that"!

Then my wife told me I couldn't ...

Geoff

 

[gbrown]

Saw this in an email from Bkool today

Are you a winner? Do you enjoy competitions?

Contact us today and we’ll create an event for people to challenge you!

CHALLENGE ME

Please send us some details to create your challenge. Should you're profile match what we're looking for, we'll email you to confirm that the event will be published. We will also send you the link to the Facebook event where you can invite your friends to join!

Then I thought of Bill and a 30 minute up Alpe d'Huez challenge!

You know it makes sense ...

Geoff

 

[BILL S]

Saw this in an email from Bkool today



Then I thought of Bill and a 30 minute up Alpe d'Huez challenge!

You know it makes sense ...

Geoff

That'd be an interesting one! If we could get 50+ riders or so involved then see how many of them mysteriously disappeared after 30 mins. Or is this only a common problem amoung Cycle Chat members I wonder ?

 

[RickB]

Results are in from yesterdays race: 461 Watts!??!?

 

[RickB]

That'd be an interesting one! If we could get 50+ riders or so involved then see how many of them mysteriously disappeared after 30 mins. Or is this only a common problem amoung Cycle Chat members I wonder ?

Lol. Go on Bill reply to them and we'll all give it a go - cyclechat vs the rest of the world.

 

[LBHIFI]

Results are in from yesterdays race: 461 Watts!??!?

And only 70 kg !!!
Keep in mind that Bkool is too generous with the watts, especially on climbs. A friend of mine did 30 minutes of Alpe d'Huez with an 340 Watt avg., but his Garmin Vectors was reading 280 watt.
Still, this is very impressive, but Kasper is an elite (semi pro I think) rider just recently retired, so it is not a big surprise.
And you got me by 3 minutes!!!
I'm ready for the next event, derailleurs fixed, favorite tire repaired and back on the Bkool. I should get a higher watt/kg rate.

 

[BILL S]

Lol. Go on Bill reply to them and we'll all give it a go - cyclechat vs the rest of the world.

The deed is done. Lets hope they accept it.

 

[gbrown]

The deed is done. Lets hope they accept it.

I saw it as a "how far can you get up Alpe d'Huez in 30 minutes" challenge. Plenty of cyclechat members have practised that!

I might have to pay my premium sub for a month to watch that!

Geoff