Team BKool CycleChat

[bridgy]

Is that the 13% up that flashed by followed by a 13% down and a couple of 9's or something in a few seconds.
If so that actually made me go quicker.
The 13% up had no effect because it was so quick but the down, as short as it was, seemed to give me a sling.
I can see that at 13.1 km you slowed to 7 kph and I continued at about 47 kph where as at 13.1 km Bridgy hit over 60 kph.

I can't remember where it was, but I had a dead stop at one point too - but strangely my speed went down to about 3mph and then a few seconds later jumped straight back up to 30mph instead of increasing gradually like it normally does when that happens.

 

[CXRAndy]

Andy, I am looking at this though also contemplating selling the bkool and replacing with a kickr.
http://www.cadenceperformance.com/news/test-article/

I have the stages version, I like their simple design and transfer capability between bikes. All my bikes are Shimano cranks with same length. The kickr would give you a great workout for hill climbing. There is still a mismatch between Bkool and Kickr in performance, but I have found it much closer in numbers when compared to road numbers.

You takes your pick of what you want, equal competition on bkool or road comparison.

 

[gbrown]

I can't remember where it was, but I had a dead stop at one point too - but strangely my speed went down to about 3mph and then a few seconds later jumped straight back up to 30mph instead of increasing gradually like it normally does when that happens.

Sounds like they really have bollocks-ed up the simulation.

I can't understand why, after so many years, they haven't been able to refine and gradually improve things rather than making huge changes and breaking as many things as they fix.

They really, really, need a good test bed where they can filter out the worst peculiarities before they release changes to the algorithms. I know it is a complex environment with many variables, but it only needs to approximate reality to work, and avoid sudden stops, extended slingshots, dead slow or stupidly fast starts, etc.

A great shame, I had assumed it would be working really well by now, but it sounds worse than ever.

Geoff

 

[BILL S]

I can't remember where it was, but I had a dead stop at one point too - but strangely my speed went down to about 3mph and then a few seconds later jumped straight back up to 30mph instead of increasing gradually like it normally does when that happens.

My first and unexpected dead stop was a real bu99er as no one else was affected. I had to give it some big watts to catch back up (or be totally dropped) and for a minute or two after catching up it was all I could do to stay in the draft. Don't know if I ever fully recovered from that because it was harder to stay with AAAC than ever after that point.

 

[BILL S]

I have the stages version, I like their simple design and transfer capability between bikes. All my bikes are Shimano cranks with same length. The kickr would give you a great workout for hill climbing. There is still a mismatch between Bkool and Kickr in performance, but I have found it much closer in numbers when compared to road numbers.

You takes your pick of what you want, equal competition on bkool or road comparison.

To stay motivated and have fun on bkool I have to say I'd go for equal competition. But then again I'm hardly ever out on the road.

 

[bridgy]

Sounds like they really have bollocks-ed up the simulation.

I can't understand why, after so many years, they haven't been able to refine and gradually improve things rather than making huge changes and breaking as many things as they fix.

They really, really, need a good test bed where they can filter out the worst peculiarities before they release changes to the algorithms. I know it is a complex environment with many variables, but it only needs to approximate reality to work, and avoid sudden stops, extended slingshots, dead slow or stupidly fast starts, etc.

A great shame, I had assumed it would be working really well by now, but it sounds worse than ever.

Geoff

Couldn't agree more Geoff - still enjoying the competition and fitness benefits but the constant niggles with the simulation are really frustrating. Among other things, it seems like they're really struggling to simulate the loss of speed when going into an incline - they've solved one problem with this (slingshots), just to replace it with another (sudden speed crashes). They must know - I have informed them as have others here - but they seem unwilling or unable to solve it for now.

 

[bobinski]

Couldn't agree more Geoff - still enjoying the competition and fitness benefits but the constant niggles with the simulation are really frustrating. Among other things, it seems like they're really struggling to simulate the loss of speed when going into an incline - they've solved one problem with this (slingshots), just to replace it with another (sudden speed crashes). They must know - I have informed them as have others here - but they seem unwilling or unable to solve it for now.

Fwiw I am not sure these problems appear or are as dramatic if you manually connect relying on the Ant+ fec profile.

 

[BILL S]

Fwiw I am not sure these problems appear or are as dramatic if you manually connect relying on the Ant+ fec profile.

I tried that a few weeks ago and still got the same problem.

 

[BILL S]

Gents,

Looking at my bkool summer cup results it looks like I really have some work to do. By that I mean that I have to re-do some of the stages to get a better result as I am way down the field in a couple of them.
I am therefore looking for someone else to start the chaingang Saturday re-run tomorrow, while I try to claw back some valuable minutes in the summer cup.

Remember that this chaingang is two weeks per stage and there is also a short sprint to go with each main ride.

 

[<Tommy>]

I have the stages version, I like their simple design and transfer capability between bikes. All my bikes are Shimano cranks with same length. The kickr would give you a great workout for hill climbing. There is still a mismatch between Bkool and Kickr in performance, but I have found it much closer in numbers when compared to road numbers.

You takes your pick of what you want, equal competition on bkool or road comparison.

Andy is it that the kickr gives you a more realistic power reading, more realistic resistance, or a combination of the two? I thought the best combination for using the BKOOL software would be a BKOOL trainer with a seperate, more realistic power meter.

 

[bridgy]

Fwiw I am not sure these problems appear or are as dramatic if you manually connect relying on the Ant+ fec profile.

I did try that a couple of weeks ago when we were discussing it and I found it made no noticeable difference and I still got the speed crashes unfortunately. Happy to give it another try though

 

[bridgy]

Gents,

Looking at my bkool summer cup results it looks like I really have some work to do. By that I mean that I have to re-do some of the stages to get a better result as I am way down the field in a couple of them.
I am therefore looking for someone else to start the chaingang Saturday re-run tomorrow, while I try to claw back some valuable minutes in the summer cup.

Remember that this chaingang is two weeks per stage and there is also a short sprint to go with each main ride.

I would offer to do it Bill but I won't be around tomorrow afternoon unfortunately

 

[bobinski]

Mine, ( if I am right) Bill and bridgy's experience suggests it's also specific to particular turbos. Shame we cannot do a recalibration ourselves and test the impact.

 

[bobinski]

Mine, ( if I am right) Bill and bridgy's experience suggests it's also specific to particular turbos. Shame we cannot do a recalibration ourselves and test the impact.

Edited quickly to remove the word "sexperience"

 

[LBHIFI]

I just redid the 1st Chain Gang stage, and what a world of difference it was compared to yesterday. I was pushing real big watts and at the end I was almost a minute ahead of Paul averaging 465 watt. I knew that Bill and I usually do very similar times, so I decided to wait at the line and cross it same time as Bill. Hope that's ok since I don't fancy doing that stage again.
My BePro's registered about 265 watt at that point, so that's a 200 watt difference .