Team BKool CycleChat

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Folks, On this basis of spinning. My legs just wont let me do it for any amount of time and I have to get out of the saddle. Am I using a wrong cassette? It is a Merida Ride 90 with a 50/34 chain ring and a 11/32 cassette. I find the hills a killer but when I road it on the road before I got my new bike the hills were hard but not to the point I have to stop! Should I change the cassette and if so, any recommendations. (Or maybe suck it up and get stronger)

Any advice welcome

I'm never out of my 50 ring on the trainer with a 12-27. May well be a fitness issue

 

[BILL S]

For me its 50/34 and 11/25

The low gearing is perfect but got the usual problem of spinning too fast in top gear down hills.

 

[BILL S]

Sorry I didn't join the fun today but was having a bad day overall so bkooling was relegated. Lets just say I've some car repairs to get sorted after my wife had an incident in town today. Nothing serious but will need a new panel

Hope its all back to normal now Rick and everyone's ok, and no cyclists were too badly injured
What you need is an old car like mine where you really don't worry too much about dented panels.

 

[BILL S]

Yeah, methinks Rick is Geraint Thomas to your Chris Froome. Better be careful though Bill coz we all think GT is about to usurp his master

One thing is certain and that is that bkool life is not as easy as it used to be. I have stayed fairly constant whereas others have increased their fitness dramatically. That is the case for both you and Rick but I think you both still have to do better on the hills before any real usurping will take place

 

[theboxers]

Folks, On this basis of spinning. My legs just wont let me do it for any amount of time and I have to get out of the saddle. Am I using a wrong cassette? It is a Merida Ride 90 with a 50/34 chain ring and a 11/32 cassette. I find the hills a killer but when I road it on the road before I got my new bike the hills were hard but not to the point I have to stop! Should I change the cassette and if so, any recommendations. (Or maybe suck it up and get stronger)

Any advice welcome

That is almost the same setup as mine. Cassette is the same and I was using 50/34, now on a 52/36. I am not spinning, yet, but I am getting quicker. On the flat and low slopes I can push 90. Anything above 2% and the cadence starts to go down. 5% and above and I'm in the very low 70's - high 60's for shortish rises. Longer or higher slope ones and I'm in the low 60's with a drop into 50's every now and then. Spinning will come but it is hard work and hurts if you are not used to it.

 

[BILL S]

Rick just beat me by 0.1 Seconds on the Mountain Goat 1 stage. Was planning to have a go at AAAC's time but not sure I have the energy after last nights chaingang.
Speaking of which I got another message on my Wall saying LB has thumped me on the chaingang stage 1. Well done Lars, that's quite a time you got there. No one should ever count you out .

 

[Gert Lush]

I would just like to warn you about unexpected injuries that using bkool can inflict upon you! Just now I had set myself up for a mountain goat ride and decided to just check my back tyre was suitably set against my TT. As I bent over I suffered from a sharp stabbing pain! I had accidentally stabbed myself in the buttock with a piece of glass! Cue much laughter and wobbly feeling!

So please learn from my tale and place your bike and trainer in a suitable place, a very messy crowded garage is not the place!

 

[gbrown]

At currently over 130kg (bkool registered weight 129kg) my classic appears to max out @ 6%. As I lose weight I expect this max point to go up. At what weight it will start going up I am not sure.

As for a real world atempt on Alpe d'Huez Or at least not until I am at a more sensible weight.

RichT

When I was almost exactly 60% of your weight (about 78 Kg) my bkool pro would noticeably stop getting harder at around 10% or just above, and a good shove would just overcome the resistance and allow me to spin faster than I should be able to at such a steep gradient. This seems to fit the weight/resistance theory.

When I switched to the KICKR, which claims about 2/3rds higher resistance (2,000W), it would indeed continue getting harder right up to 17% or so, and on such steep gradients I would really struggle to turn over the pedals, while Bill would disappear off into the distance even faster than usual (e.g. Salcombe Road Hill)!

It did do wonders for my training though, and I made the most rapid improvements in power output training with the KICKR.

I certainly wouldn't attempt to cycle up Alpe d'Huez at 130Kg (even though at around 10% it is not that steep a gradient). Not unless you can average 400 Watts or more for an hour or more.

I'd be looking for a Watts/Kg of around 3 or more before I'd be tempted to give it a go, and be much more confident approaching 4 Watts/Kg.

These are bkool FTP/Fitness levels, rather than real world. I never thought I could match my KICKR power averages in the real world, and whenever I tried, I fell around 10%-20% short (measured with a power meter).

I guess a simple guide might be that once you are up to an Active 1 Fitness level or higher (3+ Watts/Kg) on bkool you could probably make a good run at it.

I've run the figures through a power model and it suggests that at 3 Watts/Kg on bkool you should be able to maintain around 5 mph (8 kph) on a 10% gradient, I wouldn't want to go much slower than this and still expect to get to the top in any kind of shape!

http://www.gribble.org/cycling/power_v_speed.html

IMHO ... etc., etc.

Cheers,

Geoff

 

[bobinski]

One thing is certain and that is that bkool life is not as easy as it used to be. I have stayed fairly constant whereas others have increased their fitness dramatically. That is the case for both you and Rick but I think you both still have to do better on the hills before any real usurping will take place

ooh, I would say that is just tempting fate.....

And...

BOOM!

Rick just beat me by 0.1 Seconds on the Mountain Goat 1 stage. .

Well gone Rick!
Commiserations Bill. Rest assured you can still beat this old man on the hills

 

[Insomina]

Thinking of going up Marie Blanque on Tuesday. (jokes welcome as somebody else peviously mentioned).

Any Mooses's up for it. I can do any time after 4pm?

 

[RickB]

Rick just beat me by 0.1 Seconds on the Mountain Goat 1 stage. Was planning to have a go at AAAC's time but not sure I have the energy after last nights chaingang.
Speaking of which I got another message on my Wall saying LB has thumped me on the chaingang stage 1. Well done Lars, that's quite a time you got there. No one should ever count you out .

sorry Bill. Thought you had me beat but the finish was coming up quick and my last big push was just enough to do it.

 

[Randyberlin]

Rick just beat me by 0.1 Seconds on the Mountain Goat 1 stage. Was planning to have a go at AAAC's time but not sure I have the energy after last nights chaingang.
Speaking of which I got another message on my Wall saying LB has thumped me on the chaingang stage 1. Well done Lars, that's quite a time you got there. No one should ever count you out .

Usurped!! I know you won't let that stand.

 

[theboxers]

When I was almost exactly 60% of your weight (about 78 Kg) my bkool pro would noticeably stop getting harder at around 10% or just above, and a good shove would just overcome the resistance and allow me to spin faster than I should be able to at such a steep gradient. This seems to fit the weight/resistance theory.

snip.........

I've run the figures through a power model and it suggests that at 3 Watts/Kg on bkool you should be able to maintain around 5 mph (8 kph) on a 10% gradient, I wouldn't want to go much slower than this and still expect to get to the top in any kind of shape!

http://www.gribble.org/cycling/power_v_speed.html

IMHO ... etc., etc.

Cheers,

Geoff

That's what I thought about my physical performance. I am currently doing about 200w/20minutes (according to the vectors). The weight is going down about as quickly as the power is going up, very very slowly . However both are going in the right direction so I am not too discouraged .

Still working on fixing my abused by me body

 

[bobinski]

..... LB has thumped me on the chaingang stage 1. Well done Lars, that's quite a time you got there. No one should ever count you out .

Lars, and

 

[Horta]

Good evening, I've recently got into virtual training for the usual reasons, not enough time and too many kids. I've had a go at a few rides and liked the whole Bkool set up.
I'd be interested in doing some of the chaingangs, is it a set route (can't find it on Bkool) or different each night?