Team BKool CycleChat

[bridgy]

I'm working on an idea to encourage the drafting thing, kind of like something we discussed here before.

I had thought that a team time trial would encourage drafting, but was worried that the difference in ability would mean that the fastest guy just sat at the front and did all the work. However, with the Handicap system I may have a solution.

If we take the Handicaps from a stage suitable for lots of drafting, then form the teams from closely matched starters, the work can be shared and the benefit of drafting would be important to gain time. If the time is taken from the last or last but one rider in the team, then no reason for anyone to clear off, they have to stay around to take a turn at the front and give a tow to the rest of their team.

If each team starts at the Start Time of the slowest members, then the fast teams will have to work together to overhaul the slower teams, and likewise the slower teams will only stay ahead if they work together. Could be interesting, what do you guys think?

One problem is knowing who is going to turn up, as ideally you would want equal size teams and need to allow for one or two to go by the wayside so count the time of the guy one or two form the back of the team.

Could perhaps give this format a try the week after next, if people are keen. Should be able to get 4 or 5 teams of say 5 or so?

Geoff

I don't know if/how this would work but I'd definitely be up for giving it a go!

 

[Roleur1]

geoff .. I have my ant dongle on a usb lead right next to the trainer on the flywheel side. I have my laptop ethernet cabled to my powerline into the garage. The powerline is also wifi'ing & I can turn that off. My laptop wifi is disabled

I use my phone to stream music into bluetooth earbuds...the phone is wifi'ing to the poweline...I rest it actually on my laptop.

Could this be behind the two Bkool rides I have completed and then lost when getting a pop up 'vsim has stopped working'....then crash..lost.

 

[Randyberlin]

I don't know if/how this would work but I'd definitely be up for giving it a go!

I'm working out of town this week but I think a good team would be me, AAC, Jacob and LB.

 

[Roleur1]

maybe we could do a bkool track meet?

Devil/ keirin/points/team pursuit.idividual persuit. Would take some setting up and patience from the riders..bit of downtime and hanging around.

 

[<Tommy>]

That is the best way to do it however as was also said you would need to turn off your laptop WIFI.
Also I understand that Bluetooth, WIFI and ANT+ all work in the same frequency range so if you home wifi router is close to your trainer set up and your laptop is still there is a lot or room for interferance.
Can't say that I have ever been stuck on the start line other than starting too early.

Usually Windows and Mac OS X are clever enough to use a wired Ethernet connection in preference to a wifi connection, if both are available and both have automatic metrics, but safer to turn of the wifi if you are using Ethernet, and it will also remove a strong 2.4 Ghz transmitter...

Bluetooth, WiFi and ANT+ all use the 2.4 Ghz radio band, and WiFi is a relatively high power transmitter so I would think it is definitely a good idea to avoid having any functional WiFi transmitter in the same room as the ANT+ equipment!

The same goes for any DECT (digital cordless) phones!

"ANT, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and some cordless phones all use the 2.4 GHz band" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANT_(network)

Bluetooth is much lower power than WiFi so will probably be OK, but I would keep any bluetooth device away from the ANT+ dongle and the trainer. If the ANT+ dongle is on the end of a USB extension and laid close to the trainer it should be fine.

Geoff

More luck than judgement but I turned the wifi on my MacBook off just to make sure the Ethernet cable was working so that wasn't a factor.

I'm hoping the problem I had is down to the Bluetooth signal between device and laptop. I manually pair the two at the start of each session and need to place the laptop right next to the trainer to pair successfully. This is obv a good indication the signals not great. I've ordered an ant+ extension thingy (3m long) which should turn up tomorrow hopefully.

The frequency thing is very interesting. At present I've got the turbo set up in our dining room which is next door to the living room where the router is situated. If it is causing a problem I guess I could try moving to another room further away. Or maybe turn the wifi off at the router. Hopefully though it is just a case of using the dongle extension and all's good.

Thanks again guys. I'll let you know how it works out

 

[AAAC 76C]

I'm hoping the problem I had is down to the Bluetooth signal between device and laptop.

Bluetooth, what trainer are you using?

 

[Add]

I'm working on an idea to encourage the drafting thing, kind of like something we discussed here before.

I had thought that a team time trial would encourage drafting, but was worried that the difference in ability would mean that the fastest guy just sat at the front and did all the work. However, with the Handicap system I may have a solution.

If we take the Handicaps from a stage suitable for lots of drafting, then form the teams from closely matched starters, the work can be shared and the benefit of drafting would be important to gain time. If the time is taken from the last or last but one rider in the team, then no reason for anyone to clear off, they have to stay around to take a turn at the front and give a tow to the rest of their team.

If each team starts at the Start Time of the slowest members, then the fast teams will have to work together to overhaul the slower teams, and likewise the slower teams will only stay ahead if they work together. Could be interesting, what do you guys think?

One problem is knowing who is going to turn up, as ideally you would want equal size teams and need to allow for one or two to go by the wayside so count the time of the guy one or two form the back of the team.

Could perhaps give this format a try the week after next, if people are keen. Should be able to get 4 or 5 teams of say 5 or so?

Geoff

Love it, cracking idea. What's the worst that can happen? Some selfish pr*ck, probably wearing awful clothing, zooms off into the distance, ruins it for everyone, and gets ostracised from the Cyclechat group for evermore.

Oh yeah, and put Soarer with AAC, that'll sharpen him up!

 

[Add]

I'm working out of town this week but I think a good team would be me, AAC, Jacob and LB.

I absolutely agree! But if they start holding you back, just make a break for it Randy.

But sadly for you, I think you are destined to be shackled with me!

 

[Add]

maybe we could do a bkool track meet?

Devil/ keirin/points/team pursuit.idividual persuit. Would take some setting up and patience from the riders..bit of downtime and hanging around.

Mmm, I bloody hate Velodrome....but only because I'm crap at it...but bring it on.

 

[Jellybaby]

I'd not heard that tactic before. Would you not get suspicious looks with a woman's name on your registration card?

I've applied 3 years in a row and not got a place-so being female isn't the whole answer........!

 

[Soarerv8]

Love it, cracking idea. What's the worst that can happen? Some selfish pr*ck, probably wearing awful clothing, zooms off into the distance, ruins it for everyone, and gets ostracised from the Cyclechat group for evermore.

Oh yeah, and put Soarer with AAC, that'll sharpen him up!

Not sure AAC needs sharpening up but I guess if necessary I will give him a bit of a tow

 

[Soarerv8]

Think I might bring an ECG machine home from work tomorrow to attach during the handicap, could get quite an interesting trace to impress / amaze / scare my colleagues with.

 

[gbrown]

Could this be behind the two Bkool rides I have completed and then lost when getting a pop up 'vsim has stopped working'....then crash..lost.

No, I would think not. It is unlikely that connection problems should cause Bsim to crash like that.

If Bsim "stops working" that is due to a bug in Bsim, or perhaps in a driver that it relies on, such as a graphics driver.

Try updating to the latest graphics driver from the graphics vendor, nvidia, amd or Intel.

Run a memory diagnostic such as mem86 as well, if you can, as it might just be that.

Have you checked in the event log system and application logs to see if there is a crash code and any diagnostics?

 

[Randyberlin]

Think I might bring an ECG machine home from work tomorrow to attach during the handicap, could get quite an interesting trace to impress / amaze / scare my colleagues with.

I'm working on one right now. Replacing the leads.(and checking the cycle chat)

 

[Add]

Think I might bring an ECG machine home from work tomorrow to attach during the handicap, could get quite an interesting trace to impress / amaze / scare my colleagues with.

I can draw you a straight line with my 6ft level if you like.