Team BKool CycleChat

[BILL S]

Well done Bill S on improving your time on Hindeloopen on your new trainer,
You or the trainer??? Joking, I'm sure it was your input of effort that did it, I'm
just jealous you took even more time out of me!!!
I am curious how the power works out, can anyone explain it in simple terms,
after doing the Hineloopen course I looked at the rankings and saw that Olvin
did a time of 32:58 with a power output of 258 watts , 3.3w/kg, I did a time of
39:26 with a higher power output of 268 watts and 3.2w/kg , Im not
doubting anyone's efforts or times, Im just confused as to why a higher watts
output with a similar w/kg gives such a massive time difference.

Thanks Alfonzo. It was a tough ride, as always in the bkool summer cup. If anything the new unit is harder as it's got a big vibration at higher speed and doesn't seem to freewheel so well down the hills. I feel a bit stronger now than a few weeks back so expected an improvement.
The power is a bit of a mystery to most of us I think. The watts/kg is quite misleading speed wise because often the higher watts/kg does not make for the faster ride. I've seen LB making 4.8 watts/kg but beaten by Jacob Skovgaard making only 4 watts/kg.
My thinking is that bkool configured things so that just as in real life high watts/kg is very important for the uphills whereas for the flat its actual power that's most important. So I think JS is a big guy as he is making big power but less w/kg. Most bkool summer cup stages are not exactly mountain goat rides so the bigger guys with the higher watts have an advantage.
There is technique to the equation too. Where to put on the power and when to freewheel a bit.
I cannot explain why Olvin beat you by so much with such similar w/kg though. Maybe as some says, their bkools just love them more :P

 

[Whorty]

It's fair to say I was royally beaten in this session on Tuesday! http://www.bkool.com/bkoolSessionHistory/showSessionSummary/1325533 I might try this ride again over the weekend to see if I can get sub 18 mins

 

[LBHIFI]

Maybe as some says, their bkools just love them more :P

Yes, it probably gets to sleep next to him in the bedroom. Mine lives a fairly dull life in the garage.
No seriously, I found out that the system is vulnerable to any changes in system time, e.g. a scheduled time update via a time server. However, Olvins case looks more like a kind of time doping case, unintentionally of course. Time doping is when you make time pass more slowly, thereby finishing at a time closer to start time than you would otherwise.
I was watching a race Olvin attended, and it looked like an old VHS video constantly switching between play and fast forward. I also tried to challenge Olvin, and then the session looked normal, but Olvin did a sprint every 10th second. I think the sprints and FF are two different ways of displaying the "problem". I would really like to know if he has any date/time problems on his PC.

 

[Randyberlin]

Yes, it probably gets to sleep next to him in the bedroom. Mine lives a fairly dull life in the garage.
No seriously, I found out that the system is vulnerable to any changes in system time, e.g. a scheduled time update via a time server. However, Olvins case looks more like a kind of time doping case, unintentionally of course. Time doping is when you make time pass more slowly, thereby finishing at a time closer to start time than you would otherwise.
I was watching a race Olvin attended, and it looked like an old VHS video constantly switching between play and fast forward. I also tried to challenge Olvin, and then the session looked normal, but Olvin did a sprint every 10th second. I think the sprints and FF are two different ways of displaying the "problem". I would really like to know if he has any date/time problems on his PC.

Yours also has to share your affections with several other trainers. Think of how your Bkool feels when you bring home another younger Tacx. Probably a little jealous.

I think Olvin is also in the USA and when I do a trace route to Bkool it makes well over 30 hops. Maybe the latency has something to do with the micro bursts of speed. Rerouting packets though a dozen different servers in a dozen different countries.

 

[bobinski]

Yours also has to share your affections with several other trainers. Think of how your Bkool feels when you bring home another younger Tacx. Probably a little jealous.

Lets see how it reacts when he brings home this:

 

[BILL S]

Yes, it probably gets to sleep next to him in the bedroom. Mine lives a fairly dull life in the garage.
No seriously, I found out that the system is vulnerable to any changes in system time, e.g. a scheduled time update via a time server. However, Olvins case looks more like a kind of time doping case, unintentionally of course. Time doping is when you make time pass more slowly, thereby finishing at a time closer to start time than you would otherwise.
I was watching a race Olvin attended, and it looked like an old VHS video constantly switching between play and fast forward. I also tried to challenge Olvin, and then the session looked normal, but Olvin did a sprint every 10th second. I think the sprints and FF are two different ways of displaying the "problem". I would really like to know if he has any date/time problems on his PC.

I think what we really need is a similar league to the Bkool Summer Cup but Mountain Goat style. There's a few out there (and I include myself) who are getting by on technique, flats, down-hills, wormholes (although I've never found one of those) rather than all out power and power to weight ratio.
Lars, I looked through every ride to see if I once beat you on watts/kg but the closest I've got to you is 0.2 away (sometimes 1.0 away) . I've never worm holed and I've even used 2 completely different units so my setup seems all above board. What I don't understand however is that I've been able to beat you 50% of the time. It has occurred to me however that my low watts/kg may be because I am now spinning fast on the downhills then free-wheeling for a few seconds and allowing my watts to drop to less than 100 on the display (zero in reality) so this will lower the average quite considerably where there are negative gradients.
Hopefully the Bkool winter Cup will be mountainous (can someone with influence please suggest this) and include all the Colle de la's , and then yourself, Moncenisio, Pando etc will be way out front and I'll have to train like crazy to catch up

 

[Alfonzo]

Thanks for the replies, I might get a bigger bed then!!
Another question now, does anyone else suffer with punctures on their
BKool because I've had 2 in 6 weeks, not sure what's caused them because
I've done a fair number of sessions in between the punctures, I'm using a
Continental ultra sport trainer tyre at approx 100psi, I've used the same
on my kinetic trainer and had no problems.

 

[bobinski]

Alfonzo, i did once have a sudden deflation but that was an old repair on an inner tube working loose. I put it down to a combination of my shoddy repair technique and the heat generated by the tyre and roller. Because i now use 32m or 37m tyres on the Bkool i run low pressures so typically 80ish at most and haven't had a problem since.

 

[RickB]

Thanks for the replies, I might get a bigger bed then!!
Another question now, does anyone else suffer with punctures on their
BKool because I've had 2 in 6 weeks, not sure what's caused them because
I've done a fair number of sessions in between the punctures, I'm using a
Continental ultra sport trainer tyre at approx 100psi, I've used the same
on my kinetic trainer and had no problems.

Been using mine since Oct and worn out a rear tyre on my old racer so switched for the front one about a month ago. Never had a puncture in that whole time. Running 23c tyres at 100PSI

 

[BILL S]

Thanks for the replies, I might get a bigger bed then!!
Another question now, does anyone else suffer with punctures on their
BKool because I've had 2 in 6 weeks, not sure what's caused them because
I've done a fair number of sessions in between the punctures, I'm using a
Continental ultra sport trainer tyre at approx 100psi, I've used the same
on my kinetic trainer and had no problems.

I use the same tyre as you Alfonzo and went through a spate of punctures when I was using some rubbish tubes I had. Since I put in the slightly heavier continental one I've had no punctures at all.
So, all down to tubes I reckon. I run at 120 - 130 psi btw.

 

[Alfonzo]

Thanks again for the replies, think I'll try some better quality tubes then.

 

[bobinski]

A question for the more sciency peeps...

If Bkool relies on the weight of the rider and bike to apply pressure to the roller then what, if any, difference will tyre pressure have? For example, are we better running high or lowish pressures given lowish pressures ? And will a lower psi mean greater contact area and so perhaps be better for out of the saddle efforts where perhaps there is more chance of the tyre continuing to grip or remain sticky with the roller?

 

[BILL S]

Bob, I can tell you that you need to run as high PSI as possible because instead of rolling on a nice flat road surface your tyre has to deal with a small roller which is forcing your tyre to run on a very small contact patch which will try to distort your tyre unless it is very hard. Low pressure will rob you of much power that needs to go to the unit rather than friction against the roller.
Once you have a puncture and the pressure reduces you can feel the massive drag of the extra friction and see the much lower power figure on your bkool readout.

 

[bobinski]

Bill, reading that makes it all seem so simple and obvious. Time to think about options.

 

[Monte]

Bob, I can tell you that you need to run as high PSI as possible because instead of rolling on a nice flat road surface your tyre has to deal with a small roller which is forcing your tyre to run on a very small contact patch which will try to distort your tyre unless it is very hard. Low pressure will rob you of much power that needs to go to the unit rather than friction against the roller.
Once you have a puncture and the pressure reduces you can feel the massive drag of the extra friction and see the much lower power figure on your bkool readout.

I took Bills advice recently and upped my tyre pressures, actually feels more realistic power to speed now.