Hi, not a reply just a newbie wanting to join Mountain Goats so I can keep up with Bill S in the Male Veteran 2 2015 Ascent Classification.
I hale from Ashford in Kent but now live in sunny Yeovil in Somerset having left the Forces in 2000 and then joined the Military Rotary Wing Elephants Grave Yard, Westlands Helicopters.
I have been Bkooling since late 2013 after finally getting my heart sorted having suffered almost ten years with un/miss-diagnosed angina.
It is my only form of cycling other than the odd commute down the road too work and to be honest I have no great intentions of braving the public highway on my bicycle on a more permenant basis but thanks to BKool I am now back to the fitness I had when I left the Forces and perhaps even better as the angina was probably already setting in.
My BKool name is AAAC 76C Pro-minator.
AAAC is Arborfield Army Apprentice College where my love of cycling developed.
76C was my intake back in that hot summer all of us that are over 50 will remember well as the summer to judge all summers by.
The Pro-minator has just been added to highlight my goal to challenge those with Pro turbo trainers which from the outset appear to have advantaged users over the older Classic trainer.
All my attempts to load the latest firmware have failed and after a tele assist from BKool it appears my PCB has a fault and needs replacing for the total cost of 120 euros which may result in me cutting my losses and buying a Pro trainer myself.
However seeing as my classic is still working, all be it a bit worn, I will probably just suffer the more immediate effect of gradient changes.
The above became most apparent on a recent league ride when two opponents caught me for 2 minutes on a short 45% (yes 45%) when I was almost immediately bought to a grinding 4kph whilst they carried on at more slowly diminishing speed due to the way the Pro trainer (and perhaps the new firmware on a classic) smooths gradient transitions. This effect was so apparent that they had crested the 45% before they were slowed down to my grinding pace (well that's got that off of my chest)..
Thanks AAAC for coming on here and telling us a bit about yourself. I came across you once or twice over the past year before we became bkool friends, I think when you noticed I was close to you in the vertical challenge. You might come as a bit of a shock to some (or more likely most) of the Mountain Goats here when you race them in the league, but hopefully there's one or two here who will be capable of giving you a good race at least.
The other day when you joined my ride, which I think was a league ride, could perhaps be one of those times when the bkool pro slingshot effect took you by surprise when I caught you up on a very steep section having used just about all my effort to pull you in. Still, I'm aware that you were just playing with me and when riding in anger you'll probably be a lot quicker. You do have an extra years bkool experience over me after all, not that there's any chance of me going blue in a years time. I'll be lucky to be green. Interesting what you should say about the pro units but s good few of us here reckon that although the later pro's with the updated firmware seem to be very fast in places, we've all been demoted in bkool fitness because our newer units with the latest firmware will not register the watts that our older ones would with the previous firmware.
I'm like you though these days and since discovering bkool have hardly been out on the road. As you say, amost just seems too dangerous compared to the turbo, at least where I live with all the traffic.
I'll see to it that you're accepted into the Mountain Goats AAAC and it's good timing as the new league has just started. This League is a little different though and might help the non climbers a little. Most of our leagues are all UP but not this one.
It's like riding 25km, then adding half the Alp D'Huez at the end!!!
I have mentally commited myself to doing this stage and this tells me I have to ride half of d'Huez to finish it 
. d'Huez took me over 2 hours to complete 
but pre-warned is hopefully pre-armed 
Good luck guys!
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