Team BKool CycleChat
- Thread starter Peteaud
- Start date
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gbrown
Geoff on Bkool
- Location
- South Somerset
Find my session and then challenge me using the button at the top right!
Nice route, thanks.
Rob3rt
Man or Moose!
- Location
- Manchester
The Bkool uses a closed ANT+ protocol, not the open protocol that the Wahoo Kickr, Cycleops Powerbeam etc use, as such is it NOT supported by Zwift. They state this explicitly in the support section of the website, which you will have access too if you are a beta user.
One accepted into the beta, it doesn't matter which kind of user you originally registered as (this appears to have only been of relevance in selecting who gets access to the beta and the order in which people get access, i.e. certain types of supported trainers, power meters etc), you can simply pair a different device, so long as it is supported. Since the Bkool is not supported you won't be able to use it.
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Done I'll have a crack tomorrow night, get it on strava so I can compare the segment times
Will it ever be supported by trainer road then? If the company was ever going bankrupt they would have to open it up or we would all be stuffed
Rob3rt
Man or Moose!
- Location
- Manchester
It will only be supported when Bkool open up their ANT+ protocol, i.e. it is in their hands! Trainer road in the past have stated they have no intention of reverse engineering the protocol in order to support it whilst Bkool maintain a closed system. Zwift have stated they will support the Bkool, if Bkool open up the protocol.
Add
Guru
- Location
- Powys, Wales
Mmm, Geoff still no sign of my Ponferrada attempt!! Looks like I might have to do it again! Just another glitch in the BKool Matrix I assume?
gbrown
Geoff on Bkool
- Location
- South Somerset
I'm not sure why Bkool would open up the protocol on a trainer that costs half the price of it's competitors? I was thinking about this and they appear to primarily be a software company that probably outsourced the design and manufacture of a trainer which they can sell at little profit to support their software platform, so they make money from the subscriptions and build up the customer base and momentum they need. They would be mad to open it up so it can be used with other software, so they make little on the trainer and nothing on the software.
If they did open it up they would have to charge for it, or make a more expensive model that was open, and keep the current models proprietary.
I expect the hardware engineers talked about supporting the ANT+ trainer protocol, I expect the accountants and marketing people overruled them!
I hope to be surprised, but businesses rarely do something which would so clearly be damaging to their own business.
If people stop buying the trainers because they are closed, and buy open ones, then bkool will hope to gain some of those as customers for the software platform, and will probably not miss the small margin from the lost trainer sale. In fact, if their trainer sales fell substantially, they would probably keep them closed and reduce the price as far as they can, to keep acquiring customers for their software platform. That's what I would do ...
Geoff
Rob3rt
Man or Moose!
- Location
- Manchester
I was not debating the merits of opening up the software, merely answering the question posed.
Richylad
Active Member
- Location
- Staffordshire
You guys need to use Zwift before you get too excited about it, zwift maybe visually pleasing but it's a different animal to bkool. current bkool issues aside bkool has a lot more to offer currently.
gbrown
Geoff on Bkool
- Location
- South Somerset
Bit of a problem with Strava, as it gave me a KOM on 3 little pigs, so it's not really fair to make it public.
I'll PM you the segment times ...
Geoff
gbrown
Geoff on Bkool
- Location
- South Somerset
Rob3rt
Man or Moose!
- Location
- Manchester
Zwift is still in beta and the developers have purposefully limited what is available to the bare minimum therefore the comparison it rather futile.
But you can only compare what you are presented with not what is promised. As I don't have zwift I can do no comparison so am grateful to those that can and do. From the reviews I have read they are different tools anyway so future comparison will enable me to compare what tool is right for the job I want it to do.
