Team BKool CycleChat

[RickB]

Just buried myself on the bornfondo stage, gave it everything & sum. Rick still took over a minute out of me on a 4.6 mile stage #kudos

Bill was even quicker than Rick...

Bill is ALWAYs quicker than Rick!

 

[LBHIFI]

All it has to go on are the peaks and troughs of torque you are producing, to guess when each pedal revolution starts and ends.

Yes, and I think all it has to base its calculation on is tiny variations in rpm speed.
But the principle can work. My Tacx Genius does a very well job on calculating cadence using the same principle.
Perhaps there's something in the BKool hardware which make it more difficult.
I think the Genius has a built in power meter, and if it's precise enough it should be easy to detect lows and highs in one pedal-round.

 

[Hazie]

Is this proof of the cadence problem that others had? I was going at a very sedate steady pace as I was doing Alp d'Huez. You can see my speed was pretty regular at 8.8 KPH. Yet the cadence was all over the shop from 40 odd to 136. Not sure I could do 136 even if I tried LOL

Best bet is to get a Garmin magnetless cadence sensor for about £35 and fix it to your crank arm.

Thats what I have and mine is very steady or accurate in my opinion.

 

[BILL S]

Bill is ALWAYs quicker than Rick!

Lol
And yes, Bill is perhaps a bit better at making his lower power and higher tyre pressure work for him.

 

[RickB]

Lol
And yes, Bill is perhaps a bit better at making his lower power and higher tyre pressure work for him.

I'm afraid my power isn't quite the match of yours Bill. Plus I've 84 kilos to haul about!

 

[Whorty]

If you're not using a dedicated cadence sensor, but allowing the trainer to guess the cadence, then I understand that it is likely to be much less accurate when your speed is lower, such as on a long steep climb like d'Huez.

Edit: Pretty decent Watts to maintain up d'Huez! How much do you weigh? Most of us are a lot heavier than a typical climber, and it's asking a lot to lift 80 odd kg up such a steep climb. Nearer 70kg makes it a lot easier. Keep at it and not only will the power improve, but the power to weigh doubly so! :-)

P.S. Great knees! :-)

Geoff

I'm quite proud of my knees - LOL

I weigh 14st 10lb, so about 93kg. I'm a good 3 stone overweight so the cycling (and cutting down on food ) is to get fit and lose the flab.

 

[Monte]

I'm afraid my power isn't quite the match of yours Bill. Plus I've 84 kilos to haul about!

Know that feeling well - except I'm hauling 95kgs. Made it on the 1st page of the results tonight in bkool summer league, well chuffed with that.

 

[BILL S]

I'm afraid my power isn't quite the match of yours Bill. Plus I've 84 kilos to haul about!

I'm afraid my power isn't quite the match of yours Bill. Plus I've 84 kilos to haul about!

I thought I looked at a summer cup ride recently and your power was up on mine. That's all good though, as my only real targets right now are Pinilla, Skovsgaard & Olvin .

 

[Hazie]

I'm afraid my power isn't quite the match of yours Bill. Plus I've 84 kilos to haul about!

Know that feeling well - except I'm hauling 95kgs. Made it on the 1st page of the results tonight in bkool summer league, well chuffed with that.

I weigh 14st 10lb, so about 93kg. I'm a good 3 stone overweight so the cycling (and cutting down on food ) is to get fit and lose the flab.

LOL guys......If were talking how much weight were hauling about, I'm hauling about 105 kg, so I win

 

[RickB]

I thought I looked at a summer cup ride recently and your power was up on mine. That's all good though, as my only real targets right now are Pinilla, Skovsgaard & Olvin .

Don't know what's up but I just don't feel I'm holding the watts as well these past 4 or 5 weeks.

My main competition has been Corby. I had a couple of minutes on him, til last week when I dropped over 4 minutes to him in two sessions he's too strong. I have to draft to get near his times these days.

Actually I've noticed his times have been very close to yours recently Bill. Maybe he's drafting your ghosts!

 

[LBHIFI]

I thought I looked at a summer cup ride recently and your power was up on mine. That's all good though, as my only real targets right now are Pinilla, Skovsgaard & Olvin .

Skovsgaard is going to be tough. He's a watt monster but also weighing 103 kg, so on hills our watt/kg rate should bring us up faster. The question is if there's enough hills in the league stages. In the next stage "Oak Flat" we should be able to gain significant time on him. I'm not shure BKool share that theory though.
I challenged him in "VOJNIK-DRAMLJE-PONIKVA" a few days ago and was 20 seconds ahead before the final hill, which was also the one with the highest %. This one is a wrap I thought...I'm going to take at least another minute on him before we reach the top. But a few seconds into the climb he passed me so fast that I barely saw him. A few seconds later he was ½ minute ahead. At the top he was 1:10 ahead of me. WTF just happened there?

 

[rob01792]

Know that feeling well - except I'm hauling 95kgs. Made it on the 1st page of the results tonight in bkool summer league, well chuffed with that.

LOL guys......If were talking how much weight were hauling about, I'm hauling about 105 kg, so I win

how do u find the climbs as I'm 100kg ex weight lifter and any thing over 4.5% I find extremely difficult to the point where ill have stop take a few seconds then back on and I do that until I get to the top. I find it much harder than on the actual road

 

[Randyberlin]

how do u find the climbs as I'm 100kg ex weight lifter and any thing over 4.5% I find extremely difficult to the point where ill have stop take a few seconds then back on and I do that until I get to the top. I find it much harder than on the actual road

At over 200 pounds I felt the same until I started doing some climbs in the mountain goat league. It is amazing after a while at 10% , 4% feels like a break.
I haven't done much climbing the last few months and need to get back to it.

 

[gbrown]

I'm quite proud of my knees - LOL

I weigh 14st 10lb, so about 93kg. I'm a good 3 stone overweight so the cycling (and cutting down on food ) is to get fit and lose the flab.

14st 10lb was almost exactly my steady weight for the bulk of my early career, when stress and lots of travel meant over eating and little exercise.

At 90+ Kg you've done very well to get up d'Huez at that rate. Most of my improvement last winter came as my weight dropped from about 84 Kg towards 74 Kg. Now, of course it is heading back above 80 Kg as I'm not allowed to "exert" myself any more.

I still firmly believe that Bkool is just about the best way to keep fit and get weight down, as it is entertaining at the same time! I miss it...

P.S. I guess you guys are watching the Vuelta and how well Tom Dumoulin is doing. He is constantly described as a "big" man and surprise at how well such a "big" man climbs is often repeated. They are sceptical that he can keep it up in the mountain stages.

He weighs 71 Kg!

Chaves is a hard to believe 54 Kg ....

Dumoulin needs to maintain around 30% more power than Chaves to keep with him on a steep climb. That is quite a disadvantage.

Geoff

 

[Monte]

how do u find the climbs as I'm 100kg ex weight lifter and any thing over 4.5% I find extremely difficult to the point where ill have stop take a few seconds then back on and I do that until I get to the top. I find it much harder than on the actual road

It is hard but stick with it, my weight is staying around 210 lbs however i'm losing fat and building muscle & strength in my legs. My bkool time has been spent on the summer league stages recently which are fairly flat but I will be doing more goat work this winter, just constantly trying to lose some timber which is very hard.