Team BKool CycleChat

[Breedon]

Well i did a zwift session 3 laps of the london loop and went on bsim to do a warm down in velodrome but i noticed someone doing Alp d'Huez and thought why not and did that as well .

My velodrome sessions are on Strava but not Alp d'Huez, but Alp d'Huez is showing up in bkool but my warm up session is greyed out in my history but is on Strava wtf is going on .
So confusing

 

[bobinski]

No idea it'll be 3 weeks on Thursday, so im going to email them for a update.

I was going to entice you into a race up box hill earlier and I thought you were biting then I remembered you would be on the pro so dropped out to do the ride Andy suggested.

 

[bobinski]

I must be the trainer Bill. I find it completely the reverse, my kickr performs perfectly, the power numbers I have been making in trainer-road are comparable to Zwift. I averaged 273W over 20 miles which is slightly lower than my FTP, but I wasn't going flat out. The speed numbers marry up to real road numbers, drafting has a slight easing in power. The most noticeable improvement is the way speed is carried into hills. Now I know Zwift doesn't have massive gradient swings but it feels so much like road riding where speed gradually drops as gravity begins to take affect. I must admit I'm a still getting my head around the position placing on the right. Yesterday I was dropped from the pack partly because I didn't notice, today I made a conscious effort to stay upfront. The races are plentiful with at least one every hour over the entire 24 hour period. I think I'm staying with Zwift because it gives matching numbers for road/ trainer-road. so training is easier to follow. There are categories for each age/capability so you can always pitch your self against someone of similar capability. I think I will look at Criterium races next week and see how I get on. If you're near Bob, have a try on his Neo---If he'll let you!?

You are welcome to have a go Bill. Set up for speed plays and 11 speed shimano .

 

[Breedon]

I was going to entice you into a race up box hill earlier and I thought you were biting then I remembered you would be on the pro so dropped out to do the ride Andy suggested.

Lol i seen you and floored it then you buggered off.

 

[BILL S]

Did you sign on using Pep's account?

Well my trainer did seem to be registering P.T. kind of power right enough.

 

[Whorty]

Hi Geoff

Did the above course yesterday. Completed in 39:16. Not sure how that translates into a handicap but I added a number of ghost riders (presumably would have been a fair few of you guys) and ended up aroundabouts two thirds back.

I was a bit of a wreck afterwards mind

My fastest time on that is 43 mins so you're starting waaaay behind me on any handicap rides 39 mins is in line with all the top guys except AAAC, so you'll be having some good scraps with the likes of Daddy Pig and Bridgy

 

[theboxers]

The short version
The seemingly never ending saga of Bkool software/website quirks

The long version
I have over the last week or so been trying to set up 2 sessions on Bkool. It was to be a single velodrome session that went 100 miles, I suggested a velo session and then London to Brighton session but was over ruled. Unfortunately there is a limit on the number of laps you can stipulate for a session. It is 400 laps or 100 km. That's ok, not a big issue, just a bit of a pain. So I set about generating 2 sessions.

1: 62.5km velo session and 1: 100 km velo session.

To spice things up I thought I'd add a series of 1, 2 or 3 lap sprints. As 650 laps with nothing other than round and round would go south very quickly.

Anywho. I set about inputting the splits onto the 2 sessions and everything looked good so I scheduled them. They appeared in my schedule. Great all ready to go. I then looked at the session in my list, hold on! Where have all the splits gone? Got the starts but not the ends . WTF!!!!!!!!!

It seems a though any splits, as intervals, turn into single points if you go back to edit the session . You have to be 100% satisfied that you have set up the session right and schedule it and then leave it alone if you want to have the splits you have input. I can live with that but it's damn frustrating.

Now, I wanted to test a few shorter sessions to make sure that the intervals worked and gave results that could be used.

The first one I did seemed to not look right in Bsim. So I came out of it in Bsim and then opened my scheduled rides on the Bkool site to edit it. Where has the edit function gone? It seems that if you open a session you have created in Bsim, you lose the ability to edit that session on the website.

No seriously I didn't give up . But I thought what if I could combine the two quirks. Set-up the session on the website and then view it in Bsim to lock it down so it can't be edited. So that what I did. I set-up a short velo session with a series of 1 lap intervals. I tested that session and everything appeared to work correctly

http://www.bkool.com/bkoolSessionHistory/showSessionSummary/4011515

With a nice list of sprint times etc. pace was not quick but I wasn't going for that.

In summation.
If you are setting intervals in a session don't be tempted to go back and edit the session or you'll be redoing all the work you have just done.

 

[Whorty]

So conclusions:
1. Zwift seems much more complicated than bkool.
2.There seems to be only one place to ride each day (todays was London).
3. Most people just seem to be out there riding, and there are thousands of them.
4. Zwift gives you a lot of gold stars.
5. The graphics are better.
6. You won't get to know the other riders (I don't think).
7. Zwift riders are not as hard as bkool riders.
8. I would not give up bkool for Zwift.
9. I may end up with a monthly Zwift subscription but not sure yet.

Sounds like my old London commute! No one else was racing except me

 

[BILL S]

I am afraid it's your trainer Bill, and those awesome legs of course! Your set up is not right. My Zwift stats still show me hitting 1340w with the bkool on one occasion. I hit a more realistic 700w today on my "sprint"with Dowsett.
1. It is.
2. True subject to an easy to install hack. Did you go up box hill?
3. That's a good thing. There will have been people riding, others training-they will have screens in front showing watts etc, and others racing.
4. Only when your trainer isn't set up,right!
5.y
6. There are lots of riding groups, most focussed around Facebook groups, races, leagues etc. Often split a,b,c,d to encourage racing across all abilities- you join or set up a group and design a kit which Zwift approve. A cyclechat group would be awesome
7.HaHa! Many are not but I fear a lot are! Ask Ryan.
8. Nor would I -I would have both if the NEO worked in both.
9. Go for it! Once we get your turbo sorted Andy, Dean and I will kick your Ass!

So what you're saying Bob is that the bkool turbos just don't read accurate power on Zwift. I think this must be the case. I had thought that perhaps the "trainer difficulty" setting (which was at 50%) might be the problem but I just read about that setting and they say it doesn't make any difference to power or speed, just the feel and the gears you will need. Which setting would you recommend Bob?

 

[Add]

Yep, my bike has suffered from intense sweat damage. Before using a fan (of which I'm now a fan) and a sweat catcher I've had to change brake and gear cables and outers, my front brake has suffered corrosion which has stopped it working as well as any chromo bolts rusting. As for the headset... likely this needs to be changed as well.
What can I say.... I sweat like a on a spit roast... (not that type of spit roast @AAAC 76C....)

Daddy Pig....you are to be applauded! In all my time on here, I have NEVER seen AAAC 'LIKE' a post, and yet you managed to extricate one from him! A truly impressive achievement....I can only assume you were pi$$ed AAAC?

 

[BILL S]

You are welcome to have a go Bill. Set up for speed plays and 11 speed shimano .

Thanks Bob, maybe one of these days... In the mean time it'll probably be interesting to go and kick each others 4rses round Richmond Park.

 

[Breedon]

So what you're saying Bob is that the bkool turbos just don't read accurate power on Zwift. I think this must be the case. I had thought that perhaps the "trainer difficulty" setting (which was at 50%) might be the problem but I just read about that setting and they say it doesn't make any difference to power or speed, just the feel and the gears you will need. Which setting would you recommend Bob?

When i had my neo the power was instant so going for a sprint, or up box hill etc was much more responsive and made the experience much nicer, on my classic it's much harder to do a sprint it doesn't seem to to respond as quickly a bit like turbo lag in a car but ok on the hills.

 

[AAAC 76C]

Daddy Pig....you are to be applauded! In all my time on here, I have NEVER seen AAAC 'LIKE' a post, and yet you managed to extricate one from him! A truly impressive achievement....I can only assume you were pi$$ed AAAC?

To be honest I only noticed the 'like' button a few weeks back.
I have in that time liked quite a lot.
In doing this I discovered the 'un-like' button.

 

[Daddy Pig]

Daddy Pig....you are to be applauded! In all my time on here, I have NEVER seen AAAC 'LIKE' a post, and yet you managed to extricate one from him! A truly impressive achievement....I can only assume you were pi$$ed AAAC?

I must have appealed to his sense of humour!

 

[bobinski]

So what you're saying Bob is that the bkool turbos just don't read accurate power on Zwift. I think this must be the case. I had thought that perhaps the "trainer difficulty" setting (which was at 50%) might be the problem but I just read about that setting and they say it doesn't make any difference to power or speed, just the feel and the gears you will need. Which setting would you recommend Bob?

Bill, what I am really saying is bkool turbos's don't read accurate power anywhere. (but yours seems way off the scale!!)We know that from when Lars and others compare bkool units and external power meters in BSIM. Lots of bkool users have either purchased power meters for Zwift and TR etc or turbos's that can be calibrated. As racing develops in Zwift especially for cat A it seems unlikely that non calibrable turbos will be allowed. But that's a way off yet. You , Bridgy and AAAC and DP are certainly cat B and probably Cat A.
I always have it on 100% as I did with the pro. I should say the pro becomes more accurate in Zwift the steeper the gradient. Try it up box hill.
Actually I now drop to 50-75% for sub 2 rides which are slower otherwise I grind rather than spin up a hill.

If you do sign up and you have an Apple device then do through the PC/laptop.Its cheaper and then you can download the iOS app for free. And don't forget the Zwift link.