BKOOL Turbo Trainer (Pic and Waffle Heavy)
Mar 24, 2014 19:28:06 GMT
Big Brother, bandit3, and 5 more like this
Post by bobcollege on Mar 24, 2014 19:28:06 GMT
First apologies for what seems a long winded review but trust me it is a quickie compared to DC Rainmakers.
The BKOOL is a virtual reality trainer, granted it cost more than my now departed T3 at £383 but it is reasonably priced when you compare features against other more expensive offerings from big name brands.
I was after a trainer for the winter months and was really overwhelmed by the different types of trainer available, magnetic, fluid and wind resitance and and also the huge variation in price. I had initially intended to spend around the £150-200 mark for a half decent turbo but I was then thinking that boredom might set in and I would quickly lose interest. I then started looking at training videos like Sufferfest and also the TrainerRoad for training plans and the cost soon mounts up. It is then I came across DC Rainmakers review of the BKOOL trainer and decided that was for me.
The BKOOL trainer is Ant+ compatible so will work with your current Garmin/Mio/Bryton heart rate straps and speed and cadence sensors. Included in the box is a small Ant+ USB dongle, a cadence sensor and quick release skewer. There are also BKOOL mobile apps for ISO and Android so you could record rides outdoors like you would with Strava, MapMyRide etc.
Below is a pic of my commuter bike setup on the BKOOL, I know its not a Triban (well the saddle is ). Setup is really quick and simple, just clamp the wheel skewer into the BKOOL using the quick release clamp. You don't need to set the tension on the back wheel as with most trainers, this is because your weight whilst on the bike pushes down onto the rollers. This method though does bring up a few small issues, riding out of the saddle can make the wheel slip dependent on gear and the power meter readings can be inaccurate due to the slipping.
The website is ok, not the best site to use. There are no forums for the community and support and sometimes the site can run slow but at the time of writing this it seems fine and dandy. There are different groups you can join, for example I could create a Triban group, this would then allow us to challenge each other in single player rides or compete in multiplayer events like the Tour of Britain stages or other events that crop up from time to time.
The pic below shows how you setup a session, this can be broken down into 3 stages. First you have either a choice of indoor session or create an FTP test (Functional Threshold Power). The FTP tests determine your fitness levels and also allow you to level up. The second stage is to determine if you want a single player ride or multiplayer ride. The third stage is to determine what type of session you want to create, the choices here are BKOOL Session (interval training I would assume as I have never done them yet), Velodrome, GPS Routes which members have uploaded and finally Video routes.
The BKOOL is a virtual reality trainer, granted it cost more than my now departed T3 at £383 but it is reasonably priced when you compare features against other more expensive offerings from big name brands.
I was after a trainer for the winter months and was really overwhelmed by the different types of trainer available, magnetic, fluid and wind resitance and and also the huge variation in price. I had initially intended to spend around the £150-200 mark for a half decent turbo but I was then thinking that boredom might set in and I would quickly lose interest. I then started looking at training videos like Sufferfest and also the TrainerRoad for training plans and the cost soon mounts up. It is then I came across DC Rainmakers review of the BKOOL trainer and decided that was for me.
The BKOOL trainer is Ant+ compatible so will work with your current Garmin/Mio/Bryton heart rate straps and speed and cadence sensors. Included in the box is a small Ant+ USB dongle, a cadence sensor and quick release skewer. There are also BKOOL mobile apps for ISO and Android so you could record rides outdoors like you would with Strava, MapMyRide etc.
Below is a pic of my commuter bike setup on the BKOOL, I know its not a Triban (well the saddle is ). Setup is really quick and simple, just clamp the wheel skewer into the BKOOL using the quick release clamp. You don't need to set the tension on the back wheel as with most trainers, this is because your weight whilst on the bike pushes down onto the rollers. This method though does bring up a few small issues, riding out of the saddle can make the wheel slip dependent on gear and the power meter readings can be inaccurate due to the slipping.
My commuter bike setup on BKOOL
Prior to a ride you need to create a BKOOL account as this is where you setup your rider profile, create your sessions, upload your recorded rides etc. There are 2 types of subscription packages, Bronze which is free to use but with limited features (No exporting and no video routes to name a few) and a Gold where you receive all the features for a reasonable 8 euro a month. When you realise what you get for your 8 euros it is well worth the cost.The website is ok, not the best site to use. There are no forums for the community and support and sometimes the site can run slow but at the time of writing this it seems fine and dandy. There are different groups you can join, for example I could create a Triban group, this would then allow us to challenge each other in single player rides or compete in multiplayer events like the Tour of Britain stages or other events that crop up from time to time.
The pic below shows how you setup a session, this can be broken down into 3 stages. First you have either a choice of indoor session or create an FTP test (Functional Threshold Power). The FTP tests determine your fitness levels and also allow you to level up. The second stage is to determine if you want a single player ride or multiplayer ride. The third stage is to determine what type of session you want to create, the choices here are BKOOL Session (interval training I would assume as I have never done them yet), Velodrome, GPS Routes which members have uploaded and finally Video routes.
Session Creation Screen
Once you have selected a route you are then presented with a screen (not shown) where you can customise the ride, you can add opponents (real people from groups or computer bots), change wind settings (head or tail wind), set zone alerts for heart rate, power and cadence and other bits and bobs. Once you have sorted your settings click save and then you are ready to launch the BSim application to ride.
The BSim application can be set to launch at computer start up or manually, it runs as a tray icon until clicked upon. Right clicking the tray icon brings up a menu, status which shows the status of the BKOOL, whether its connected via Ant+ and USB and also allows you to update your sessions. Run BSim launches the main application where you select your rides and ride.
When you have launched BSim you will see a simple settings screen where you setup language, on screen values,Google Earth and pair your Ant+ devices, once finished you are presented with the session selection screen (shown below) where you pick the rides you have created whether they be Velodrome, Video routes or GPS routes.
The screen below shows me the choice of virtual reality video routes available, it shows the distance and the type of terrain. As BKOOL is a Spanish company it means that the majority of rides are Spanish, there are plenty of Vuelta stages and also plenty of rides in France. Finding video routes can be a pain as there is no search function, the ride I was looking for was some 38 pages in!! There is however plenty of choice, flat, mountains, long and short rides. Which ever selection you make you have the choice of a time based ride or a distance ride.
Video route selection screenBelow is a screenshot of the GPS route selection, these are routes that have been ridden in real life and uploaded to BKOOL. Unfortunately there is no virtual reality video for these rides, at best all you will see is a Google Earth view. If the route is your own that you have ridden in real life you will see Google Earth view. If the route is one you have created via a site like Bikely or other similar sites all you will see is the gradient screen whilst riding.
Video Routes
Once you have selected a route you are then presented with a screen (not shown) where you can customise the ride, you can add opponents (real people from groups or computer bots), change wind settings (head or tail wind), set zone alerts for heart rate, power and cadence and other bits and bobs. Once you have sorted your settings click save and then you are ready to launch the BSim application to ride.
The BSim application can be set to launch at computer start up or manually, it runs as a tray icon until clicked upon. Right clicking the tray icon brings up a menu, status which shows the status of the BKOOL, whether its connected via Ant+ and USB and also allows you to update your sessions. Run BSim launches the main application where you select your rides and ride.
When you have launched BSim you will see a simple settings screen where you setup language, on screen values,Google Earth and pair your Ant+ devices, once finished you are presented with the session selection screen (shown below) where you pick the rides you have created whether they be Velodrome, Video routes or GPS routes.
Session Selection Screen
Once you have selected your ride you have the choice of a 10 minute warm up, just stop pedaling to cancel the warm up and and proceed to you session. The screenshot below shows the different views available during a video ride, example used was Mt. Ventoux. You can have a near full screen video, video with or without a terrain and map overlay along with speed, cadence, heart rate, power and calories burnt, a screen where it shows just terrain and map and an icon which represents your position on the route. At the top of the screens you have current time, ride time and ride time remaining, mileage, gradient and Ant+ signal. Finally the Google Earth view which can be zoomed in or out, the bike shows where you are on the route and the level of detail can vary. The videos although not the best quality are adequatre enough to keep me entertained, they are not downloaded to your PC but streamed from BKOOL.
Once you have selected your ride you have the choice of a 10 minute warm up, just stop pedaling to cancel the warm up and and proceed to you session. The screenshot below shows the different views available during a video ride, example used was Mt. Ventoux. You can have a near full screen video, video with or without a terrain and map overlay along with speed, cadence, heart rate, power and calories burnt, a screen where it shows just terrain and map and an icon which represents your position on the route. At the top of the screens you have current time, ride time and ride time remaining, mileage, gradient and Ant+ signal. Finally the Google Earth view which can be zoomed in or out, the bike shows where you are on the route and the level of detail can vary. The videos although not the best quality are adequatre enough to keep me entertained, they are not downloaded to your PC but streamed from BKOOL.
Main Ride Screens
Once you have finished the main ride you have the chance of a cool down, again just stop pedaling to skip this and save your ride to the BKOOL site. Once uploaded you can analyze your ride, the screen of which can be seen below. Here you see a graph that shows cadence and all your other recorded values, map of the route and a menu to the right. The top button makes the map full screen, next button down shows the details present in the graph, speed/cadence/HR etc, next button shows the zones you have setup and the final button is for exporting your ride.
Session Summary Screen
The final picture shows the amount of rubber that came of the tyre, in this case an Elite Coperton trainer tyre, this was after a 7 mile climb up Alpe D'Huez today. I have found the long hard climbs shed a fair bit of rubber and you can also smell the rubber burning . The rubber can also sometimes build up into lumps on the roller whilst riding and gives the impression of a buckled wheel forcing you to stop and remove it.
I like this trainer as I feel it gives a good work out, it adjusts resistance automatically so all you need to do is pedal and change gears when you hit the hills. The choice of options when it comes to routes is also good, plenty of video routes, gps routes others have created and create your own routes via a site like bikehike, bikely or Strava. Some won't like the inaccurate power readings on hills, though this isn't important to me. Also as mentioned before a search feature on the video pages would be ideal instead of going through each of the 59 pages one by one.
What does bug me is the lack of integration with Strava, there is no way of uploading a ride from BKOOL to Strava using the export feature. The only options you have for export are to download as .fit or .hrm files, these files don't contain any route information in them There is a work around and that is to recreate the route you have cycled using any of the popular route creation sites and save as a .gpx and download the .HRM file from BKOOL and then merge the 2 files together and then upload to Strava. Problems don't end here as once uploaded you will more than likely find you have become King of the Mountain on several segments or have improved your times drastically. You can set the ride to "Stationary Trainer" but then you lose all the route info the only way at the moment to keep everything once uploaded to Strava is to upload and make the ride private, this way you appear on no segment leaderboards, keep all the details like a proper ride but alas no one else can see them. Strava is currently looking into the use of virtual reality trainers, how long till I can make all my rides public I will never know
For those that use Sufferfest video's and Trainer Road I would assume these could still be used if you set your session to a Velodrome with no resistance and set the session length to match the Sufferfest vid and adjust resistance using the gears, would be interested to know if this would work.
Anyone wishing to see a more detailed review of this turbo then please visit DC Rainmakers site.
The final picture shows the amount of rubber that came of the tyre, in this case an Elite Coperton trainer tyre, this was after a 7 mile climb up Alpe D'Huez today. I have found the long hard climbs shed a fair bit of rubber and you can also smell the rubber burning . The rubber can also sometimes build up into lumps on the roller whilst riding and gives the impression of a buckled wheel forcing you to stop and remove it.
I like this trainer as I feel it gives a good work out, it adjusts resistance automatically so all you need to do is pedal and change gears when you hit the hills. The choice of options when it comes to routes is also good, plenty of video routes, gps routes others have created and create your own routes via a site like bikehike, bikely or Strava. Some won't like the inaccurate power readings on hills, though this isn't important to me. Also as mentioned before a search feature on the video pages would be ideal instead of going through each of the 59 pages one by one.
What does bug me is the lack of integration with Strava, there is no way of uploading a ride from BKOOL to Strava using the export feature. The only options you have for export are to download as .fit or .hrm files, these files don't contain any route information in them There is a work around and that is to recreate the route you have cycled using any of the popular route creation sites and save as a .gpx and download the .HRM file from BKOOL and then merge the 2 files together and then upload to Strava. Problems don't end here as once uploaded you will more than likely find you have become King of the Mountain on several segments or have improved your times drastically. You can set the ride to "Stationary Trainer" but then you lose all the route info the only way at the moment to keep everything once uploaded to Strava is to upload and make the ride private, this way you appear on no segment leaderboards, keep all the details like a proper ride but alas no one else can see them. Strava is currently looking into the use of virtual reality trainers, how long till I can make all my rides public I will never know
For those that use Sufferfest video's and Trainer Road I would assume these could still be used if you set your session to a Velodrome with no resistance and set the session length to match the Sufferfest vid and adjust resistance using the gears, would be interested to know if this would work.
Anyone wishing to see a more detailed review of this turbo then please visit DC Rainmakers site.