Team BKool CycleChat

[BILL S]

Anself chest strap for wahoo, Harmon etc off Amazon or ebay for £9. It's actually better or at least more comfortable for me.

Thanks Bob. Anself chest strap is on it's way.

 

[AAAC 76C]

i see they have opened another stage on winter league - but still not updated ! getting a bit fed up with it really
i may have done something to upset the system somehow ( i dont know how but where the little trainer should be to show what one your using i have got a strava badge now ?)
i have been very unrealistically promoted so now it shows i am only using half power
any big ride i do shows up grey but then the week ends so doesnt show in totals and i darent add it manually to strava incase bkool pinches it back and adds it as another ride ( i suspect that is how i got promotion - bkool snatched one back ( not from wl ) and added it but without any elevation ) tried deleting but too late
dont know how to get the little picture of trainer back in its box instead of strava
thought i was doing fairly well in wl for me but hard to judge when it doesnt let you know

I was thinking of having a look as well.
I think you may have stumbled across the answer for pro cycling.
Ban race radio and use mobile phones and texts instead.
You can chat on Facebook or each team could have its own secure chat site for tactics etc and there could be a safety site operated by the commissionaires that broadcasts on all of the team tactic sites.
The commisioniares could monitor the steps and remove any posts that gave information on where the break was.
The on bike keyboards could be linked to the electronic gears as well so as not to clutter the handlebars.
The options are endless.

 

[BILL S]

Venturing out into the real world yesterday reminded me what it's really all about for me. It's was pretty chilly, and wearing shorts turned out to be optimistic to say the least... plus one of the batteries on my etap isn't holding a charge properly (wiggle are on the case...). So I decided to stay in the big ring and head down to Richmond rather than the hills of Hertfordshire.

I've not been to Richmond park in over 20 years and had forgotten how nice it is. Really quite a magical place even with the Saturday traffic passing through. It wasn't the nicest ride across London but it was all worth it for the fairly brief time I spent in the park.

Bill, Bob, TB, or anyone else around that neck of the woods, if you ever fancy getting some real world training in before our pilgrimage to Wales I'd happily join you. If it means taking a day off of work then even better!

I'll definitely join you sometime Tommy (and anyone else who'd like to meet up for a few laps). Preferably when its a bit warmer and hopefully sometime when it's not too busy. I think we could get a good drafting session going. RP is just about on my doorstep but haven't hardly ridden there in the past 2 1/2 years (for some reason)

 

[CXRAndy]

That is very kind of you Andy.

But to put that in perspective- there was a female rider consistently putting out 3w/k. I used Zwift link to look at her stats expecting her to be youngish etc but no, she was 60y old! Somewhat humbling

The Woman/Lady on my Tenerife trip was 58, she was a fell runner/Tri-athlete, Once she got onto your wheel, you couldn't shake her off and she had this ability of seeing the crest of a climb and leaving you behind. I'm beginning to feel rather sub par compared to most.

 

[Cliff Matthews]

Interesting?

I watched that all the way through and it was quite an eye opener, you can pump up your tyres too hard! and I thought aggressive use of the track pump built up core strength and made you go faster. Also I now have to consider getting tyres for turbo trainer use only. Well worth a watch.

 

[rob01792]

anyone know how to change email address in bkool just tried and cant seam to change it

 

[AAAC 76C]

..or a change of breakfast cereal? I heartily recommend bran flakes 5 times a week . I am regular as clockwork with but not so without. I have very low blood pressure and a tendency to pass out in the mornings is sat too long on the crapper so bran flakes have become a necessary part of my routine! That and homemade brown or rye bread.

Edit: my apologies for that image seated into your retinas!

I now bran every morning.
Regularity is not the problem now.
However my full sensor is constantly on even after a complete manifold purge.
Add the water overflow sensor constantly sending a 'drain required' signal as well and life can be very stressful. Particularly doing things like travelling on the underground or driving on a motorway.
Actually driving is not so bad as you have control, being a passenger would be unbearable.
You would think it would help knowing that it is just a sensor issue in that you could just ignore it but believe me it is living hell sometimes.

 

[BILL S]

Bill, it can be a bit overwhelming at first, at least it was for me. In settings out age, weight etc and make sure the realism setting is 100%-the default is 50% but all it does is reduce gearing going uphill and so fewer gear changes. If you ride today then you will be in Watopia. Tomorrow it's London and less interesting after a while. Not a problem once you download the hack to choose your course but something to be mindful of. Remember to turn off BT on your pc otherwise Zwift will look for it and may conflict with Ant. Bkool owners tend to find they have an power advantage but nothing like bsim. You will have option of various routes. I would choose hilly for variety or if you feeling strong choose the mountain route. It will take you 10 min or so on road to get there so don't worry about a warm up. The choice will auto guide you but you can choose to turn where you want at a junction using your keyboard- the option will present itself on screen and use mouse or direction arrows.
It will look busy!
When ride is finished you can just keep going until your 50km is up or just stop. Menu screen will give you option to save inc to Strava-don't forget to link the 2 in settings- and then you are out. With IOS you can save and then start another ride.
Enjoy!

Thanks again Bob. I'm about to go and try it for the first time. Everything seems to be downloaded ok but not sure how to turn off the BT on my laptop or if it's ever been turned on. Might just have to try it and see how it goes. 50km is only about 2 rides so will have to try not to waste it. I'm mostly curious about Zwift and wondering if it'll help me put in the miles, not necessarily at race pace. If I like it I'll probably use Zwift and Bkool. If I change my mobile phone to sim only it'll just about pay the difference . I'm guessing bkool is better for racing and for knowing who you're riding with so expecting to stick with it.

 

[bobinski]

It's London today so I would choose prl half and see box hill!

Alex dowsett is on there now

 

[AAAC 76C]

I watched that all the way through and it was quite an eye opener, you can pump up your tyres too hard! and I thought aggressive use of the track pump built up core strength and made you go faster. Also I now have to consider getting tyres for turbo trainer use only. Well worth a watch.

What it told me was 120+ psi on a turbo is fine but not so on the road due to resistance caused by hitting surface irregularities.
A low rolling resistance compound like graphine is probably good for turbos as well.
Due to the way a tyre contacts the roller a bigger tyre at high pressure might work as well.
The most interesting thing is that compound and pressure alone could cost you over 30 watts, something doubted on this forum in the past.

 

[AAAC 76C]

Thanks again Bob. I'm about to go and try it for the first time. Everything seems to be downloaded ok but not sure how to turn off the BT on my laptop or if it's ever been turned on. Might just have to try it and see how it goes. 50km is only about 2 rides so will have to try not to waste it. I'm mostly curious about Zwift and wondering if it'll help me put in the miles, not necessarily at race pace. If I like it I'll probably use Zwift and Bkool. If I change my mobile phone to sim only it'll just about pay the difference . I'm guessing bkool is better for racing and for knowing who you're riding with so expecting to stick with it.

Thread should be on the Splitters Site

I'm having coffee in town at the moment, to annoy my bladder even more, so I won't get a chance to try Splitting right now.

 

[<Tommy>]

Fitness, pah..... Bob you were coping much better than me yesterday, well it looked that way if you were able to text whilst going up Watopia

Don't fall for it Andy.

It was just Bob's way of saying it WILL turn into a race! I've heard that from Bobzwifty in the past. It normally happens just before you get smashed off the line in a chaingang race!

 

[bobinski]

Sorry AAAC but...

Dowset is in workout mode so I took him on the Mall sprint

Then he moved up to a pretty steady 5.8w then 8.5 so

3 seconds of totally unnoticed glory

 

[AAAC 76C]

anyone know how to change email address in bkool just tried and cant seam to change it

You get your e-mail address from your Service Provider, not BKool.

That said your BKool account is linked to your e-mail address so I'm not sure it is that simple, but I might be wrong.
Without looking go to the email address field and click on the pencil and edit the info and then click save.

 

[AAAC 76C]

Sorry AAAC but...

Dowset is in workout mode so I took him on the Mall sprint

Then he moved up to a pretty steady 5.8w then 8.5 so

3 seconds of totally unnoticed glory

I hope you meant W/kg as 5.8w and 8w are not impressive at all.
How much does Dowset weigh?