Team BKool CycleChat

[Breedon]

Just been up to the loft to get the Christmas decorations down and change my rear tyre. I decided to leave it. Checked psi and down to just over 95 So all pumped up again and I will see how that goes.
I am not around tomorrow pm for the goat ride if anyone fancies doing it with me in the morning- depending on how knackered I am after today's ride.

Wont be able to join you for the am goat ride but hope you put in a good effort

 

[Soarerv8]

Did consider going for the win tonight but then realised that to do so I would have to pump out the sort of Watts for over half an hour that would change the colour of my hat and that would then clash with my natty yellow outfit.

 

[Randyberlin]

Did consider going for the win tonight but then realised that to do so I would have to pump out the sort of Watts for over half an hour that would change the colour of my hat and that would then clash with my natty yellow outfit.

The way I couldn't gain on you I thought your "procedure" was something you googled that would be minimally invasive but also treated with EPO and amphetamines.

 

[bobinski]

Wow, truly bonkers watts and w/pk from the front runners Special kudos to AAAC who seems to be able to rebuff age and stents and float about helping others and delivering watts as and when he feels like it No need to apologise for not waiting-Bkool problems, I think.

Well done bill for getting so close to DP, Bridgy and AAAC

Andy! You are a fecker for not letting me draft with you I have not checked what power you were putting down but I was at 450-570 to keep you within 10sec for ages and you kept me at bay. At about the 10m stage I realised you were on a mission and I was expending so much energy I would not be able to stay with you so I gave up and sauntered for ages before deciding to limit my losses. Well done mate, great ride, huge improvement

I am getting a bit pi$$ed with Bkool. I assume rest of you are having the same problems but are just stronger than me and ride through them. I had a litany tonight; collapse in speed and dead stop on 2 hills, inclines not reflecting resistance, experiencing huge resistance on downhills-I struggled to turn 34/11 going downhill. Bonkers. And then on another downhill I sprinted to 72kmh, eased and speed collapsed to 27kph in 3secs! On a downhill! If it is the case that Bkool/Zwift have flattered me at times and I need to be brought down to earth about my power and performance then fine but these anomalies don't fill me with any confidence. Anyway, waiting for my dial in appointment with Bkool and will see how that goes.
I really hope this doesn't sound like sour grapes. at the end of the day all I want to know is what power I can put out, for how long and where I need to make improvement.

Slopes off to drink bottle of Chardonnay....

 

[BILL S]

I wasn't quite as bad as that,had a bottle of Shiraz and a few glasses of Sloe Gin so I was a bit raged today as well all be it the ride sorted me out.

There were times when I wanted to drop out especially when my internet connection dropped out but having Bill there with me kept me going.

Sorry for leaving you behind Bob, I was going to try and take you up to Bill but you didn't seem to want to take the tow.

Thanks for the waiting for me and the tow again AAAC. After your internet dropped out your guy was flying back and forth a bit but I was still able to draft you quite well. The new tyre seemed to be good as my power figure was higher than Thursday. I was a lot faster but much of that would be you pulling me along.

 

[AAAC 76C]

Thanks for the waiting for me and the tow again AAAC. After your internet dropped out your guy was flying back and forth a bit but I was still able to draft you quite well. The new tyre seemed to be good as my power figure was higher than Thursday. I was a lot faster but much of that would be you pulling me along.

It hurt quite a bit getting to you in the first place after leaving Bob behind. Our Turbo reactions to 'condition' changes appear to differ slightly, in the first instance of an incline you would go ahead of me then I would go by you and when descending you accelerate earlier than me. After a while I began to be able to anticipate it though.

 

[AAAC 76C]

Wow, truly bonkers watts and w/pk from the front runners Special kudos to AAAC who seems to be able to rebuff age and stents and float about helping others and delivering watts as and when he feels like it No need to apologise for not waiting-Bkool problems, I think.

Well done bill for getting so close to DP, Bridgy and AAAC

Andy! You are a fecker for not letting me draft with you I have not checked what power you were putting down but I was at 450-570 to keep you within 10sec for ages and you kept me at bay. At about the 10m stage I realised you were on a mission and I was expending so much energy I would not be able to stay with you so I gave up and sauntered for ages before deciding to limit my losses. Well done mate, great ride, huge improvement

I am getting a bit pi$$ed with Bkool. I assume rest of you are having the same problems but are just stronger than me and ride through them. I had a litany tonight; collapse in speed and dead stop on 2 hills, inclines not reflecting resistance, experiencing huge resistance on downhills-I struggled to turn 34/11 going downhill. Bonkers. And then on another downhill I sprinted to 72kmh, eased and speed collapsed to 27kph in 3secs! On a downhill! If it is the case that Bkool/Zwift have flattered me at times and I need to be brought down to earth about my power and performance then fine but these anomalies don't fill me with any confidence. Anyway, waiting for my dial in appointment with Bkool and will see how that goes.
I really hope this doesn't sound like sour grapes. at the end of the day all I want to know is what power I can put out, for how long and where I need to make improvement.

Slopes off to drink bottle of Chardonnay....

It sounds like you do have a problem Bob however that course has too many slight gradient changes and the way the BKool/BSim FW/SW has been adapted to remove previous problems (like the pro sling) means if the climb is under a certain distance you just coast over it with no resistance change but if it is a tad over the 'reaction window' the resistance kicks in and remains there pas the crest.
I too was pushing big watts on a shallow descent or two which is rather annoying.
The courses really need to be tailored to suite the firmware with slope transitions smoothed out and less frequent or the FW/SW requires a total re-write.
On Thursday at times I was pushing 56 kph on 0% but only doing about 260 watts although it felt more than 260 watts.

 

[bobinski]

It sounds like you do have a problem Bob however that course has too many slight gradient changes and the way the BKool/BSim FW/SW has been adapted to remove previous problems (like the pro sling) means if the climb is under a certain distance you just coast over it with no resistance change but if it is a tad over the 'reaction window' the resistance kicks in and remains there pas the crest.
I too was pushing big watts on a shallow descent or two which is rather annoying.
The courses really need to be tailored to suite the firmware with slope transitions smoothed out and less frequent or the FW/SW requires a total re-write.
On Thursday at times I was pushing 56 kph on 0% but only doing about 260 watts although it felt more than 260 watts.

AAAC, I just get impression you stronger guys can just ride through the anomalies you describe but I can't, not often enough anyway! Long uphill seems to be a different proposition. But those frigging downhills, especially the one where Andy pulled away was just soul destroying. I knew he would be faster coz he carries more weight- sorry Andy- so had to power it down as best I could and to see the speed slow... I would have been better off coasting but then that's crap. I am not taking way from Andy who easily kept me at bay on the flats and inclines-the bugger!

 

[BILL S]

It hurt quite a bit getting to you in the first place after leaving Bob behind. Our Turbo reactions to 'condition' changes appear to differ slightly, in the first instance of an incline you would go ahead of me then I would go by you and when descending you accelerate earlier than me. After a while I began to be able to anticipate it though.

I'm surprised I would accelerate ahead of you at the descent because as Bob said on Thursday I was finding the resistance didn't release until well after the ascent had finished. Could be that I was over compensating having actually noticed that it was happening tonight. Had some pretty horrendous dead stops but you seemed to as well and we both lost a lot of time on the front runners. I thought Bob and Andy would be along for the ride and we'd have the four of us which would make life even easier.

 

[CXRAndy]

Bob my plan although simple was to hold onto Bridgy DP AAAC for as long as I could. That in reality was actually just a few 10s of seconds. Then I was blown away. At this point I could smell smoke and was gasping from my stupid effort. I tried to hold onto Bill for a while thinking you would join him and we could draft together. Bill probably unaware I was still in the red eased away and joined up with AAAC. Meanwhile you caught up to me, by now I was beginning to find my rythmn. Sorry I didn't stay it was unintentional. I still had delusions of catching Bill, I then noticed the eleastic between us had broken. I rode the rises quite hard and try to relax albeit briefly on the descents. There was no chance to rest at all on that course. I thought you would pull me back so had to keep my effort going right to the end. Great ride everyone. DP those are crazy watts at the end!

 

[Daddy Pig]

Bob my plan although simple was to hold onto Bridgy DP AAAC for as long as I could. That in reality was actually just a few 10s of seconds. Then I was blown away. At this point I could smell smoke and was gasping from my stupid effort. I tried to hold onto Bill for a while thinking you would join him and we could draft together. Bill probably unaware I was still in the red eased away and joined up with AAAC. Meanwhile you caught up to me, by now I was beginning to find my rythmn. Sorry I didn't stay it was unintentional. I still had delusions of catching Bill, I then noticed the eleastic between us had broken. I rode the rises quite hard and try to relax albeit briefly on the descents. There was no chance to rest at all on that course. I thought you would pull me back so had to keep my effort going right to the end. Great ride everyone. DP those are crazy watts at the end!

Good ride, shame you could'nt stay with us at the start. Again, that was fun with a capital F!

 

[Randyberlin]

Quick question -- how tight does everyone tighten the the clamp that holds the bike into the bkool unit ?

Just so it clamps or tightened up enough that makes it hard to undo again ?

I have mine so tight it takes my foot to break it loose.

 

[CXRAndy]

Bob regarding resistance change from incline to decline. I have always had to carry on powering over the crest and wait for the trainer to ease in resistance. Sometimes I have to go through 2 different percentages before resistance changes. I have become accustomed to it and just keep going until things get easier. I am beginning to see some improvements from the drills on trainer road.

 

[CXRAndy]

Monte is the nut on the left side right. Also have you pushed the lever fully flat so that it's not on the diagonal slides?

 

[BILL S]

Bob my plan although simple was to hold onto Bridgy DP AAAC for as long as I could. That in reality was actually just a few 10s of seconds. Then I was blown away. At this point I could smell smoke and was gasping from my stupid effort. I tried to hold onto Bill for a while thinking you would join him and we could draft together. Bill probably unaware I was still in the red eased away and joined up with AAAC. Meanwhile you caught up to me, by now I was beginning to find my rythmn. Sorry I didn't stay it was unintentional. I still had delusions of catching Bill, I then noticed the eleastic between us had broken. I rode the rises quite hard and try to relax albeit briefly on the descents. There was no chance to rest at all on that course. I thought you would pull me back so had to keep my effort going right to the end. Great ride everyone. DP those are crazy watts at the end!

A start like that in my experience can be fatal. Even just trying to catch someone at your level from 10 seconds back can be fatal if your body isn't quite up to it. I'll usually have a bit of a go at the front guys at the start but back down pretty quick when I know it's going to have a negative impact later on. I expected you to be with me or ahead for the duration, and with AAAC 20 seconds or so back it was only a matter of time before he joined the picture. Also expected was for Bob to draw alongside as he often does, although it's never certain whether he want's to draft or not.