Feedback on my experience

[simon]

2. At 18,7 km distance there was a hiccup again, now more serious, also the resistance dropped suddenly, and it never came back properly again. At that time I was riding at gear 30/25 @ 280Watt; after the resistance drop, at this gear the power was very low. Only by going to higher gear, I came back to 250-300 watt. The dear needed was 39/17 or 39/15. Remarkebly also the speed changed - before it was about 10 KM/h, after this it was 30 Km/h at about 280 Watt. After 1 KM I decided to quit the ride.
--> For debugging purposes, please let me know if there is an extensive logging option available or otherwise to gain better knowledge on what could happed to find the cause

Hi !
got this one time two where the connection was lost with the kickr and then resume but without correct resistance for the grade. I just unplugged the ant stick and replugged it in the usb extension and was able to continue riding normally atfer that.

On the second ride: I had a closer look in the tcx file (XML) and the first two trackpoints had 0,0 as position for logitude and latitude. I deleted those two points and uploaded again to strava, and now its looking much better.
http://www.strava.com/activities/104028251 - the other ride is no longer available.

I got this one also (and it is the same "problem" when you do the complete ride and it loops back to beginning) and all you have to do in strava is to use the crop function to delete the undesired waypoint at the beginning or end...

BTW Just got the idea to create an un official Veloreality Strava club to share our rides :

http://app.strava.com/clubs/46850

please join in !

*And if you guys at VR want to create the club yourself just tell me and I'll delete it ...

[DickHeijkoop]

Thanks for the feedback Simon. Just joined your club!

[DickHeijkoop]

Good day Simon, Unfortunately I am not in a position to climb (high) mountains in real life; I am living in Holland, and my country is very flat.
Assuming that you have climbed in real life - what is your opinion about the realism of the VR application in combination with the KICKR?
I am asking because I hope to climb either Mont Ventoux or Alpe d'Huez later this year and I want to be a bit prepared.
Also: above in this post I read a reply from VR saying: "Amazing your getting this data onto Strava i had thought they were filtering our trainer derived data, the times should be accurate still but its never going to be as real as being there especially on the high Cols where altitude also play a huge role." What is the altitude doing, is that the thin air thing - less oxygen? Unfortunately I have no such experience, someday hopefully I have.
Thank you, kind regards, Dick

[simon]

Good Day Dick !

unfortunately I hadn't had the chance to do any of theses climbs in real life, being in Canada
I do believe they are very close to the real thing... even I find it harder on the kickr than real life.
I live on a hill and have to climb up to my house after every ride about 1km climb with 3 pitches of 15%-19% and 16%...
with my powertap I know I can generate 400-500w to climb theses pitches, something I find hard to do on the Kickr...

Long constant climb are more similar I think ;
I climbed this summer whiteface mountain, a 13 km climb at 8% avg grade (it is almost identical to alpe d'huez in lenght and profile) and I averaged about 240w for the 1h06 climb .
http://app.strava.com/activities/82500255#1679656019

On the Mortirolo with the kickr I did 227w for 1h09 (at least half of the time out of the saddle !!) so I think again a little bit tougher to generate watts on the trainer than in real life...

BUT yes with big climbs in altitude (about 2000m and more ?), the lack of air pressure and relative oxygen concentration + harsh weather conditions will certainly add to the effort of the climb itself...

keep us updated when you will do the real thing this summer !

[VeloReality Video]

Ive done a lot of them for real, Think of the climbs as periods of effort, if you have set your weight correct inside the user settings & have the correct trainer set then the watts you see will be close to reality. If the watts are correct then its known maths of mass, gravity, friction & air resistance that will tell you a fairly accurate time for you on what ever climb you have chosen. getting on the climb for real is not going to be any more taxing to you then being on the trainer, your still going to deliver a fairly fixed in stone number of watts (unless you suddenly become much fitter over night) & that will result in you getting to the top in about the same time as on the trainer if the maths is right!

The differences are, in real life your able to get out of the saddle & use leverage to swing the bike. That can give your legs a rest which in turn can make the ride feel a bit easier even if your body will still need to generate & deliver the same energy in watts. Then for sure if you go to a climb like the Galibier your going to be riding in thin air, this just makes everything a bit harder, its harder to breath & you will feel like you have a little less energy. We dont have many Cols yet up above 2000m, The Stelvio, Gavia & Galibier are the only ones I can think of where you will not feel 100% the same as on the trainer & it will be worth giving your self a little extra slack if your there for real....extra gears also!

The great thing with being able to ride the climbs first in Veloreality software is your going to spot landmarks & easy sections, places you can ease off or look forward to, your not going to be riding into the unknown, you will have a fairly good idea of how long the climb will take & how best to pace. Like the Mortirolo for example, I can ride this on the trainer & see directly that this is not a climb I want to do for real !!

[dougleybourne]

Like "Velo Reality Video" I have had the good fortune to ride many of the climbs "in real life". I well remember the first time that I rode the Galibier from the north side. I trained for this ride in New Zealand by repeatedly riding one of the very earliest rides made by Tacx, similar to the rides currently offered by VeloReality but considerably less sophisticated. No worries as the Aussies say, it was the training that helped me get to the top, blocked by the snow for sure, in real life. Being able to recognise turns, to know when the grade would suddenly increase, and so on were a great help. However, as I wrote in my diary at the time: "nothing can prepare you for just how magnificent the scenery is AND nothing can prepare you for just how hard it is" . The motto is, work at it!!!

At that time one of my major sources of inspiration was a book written by Jacques Roux and Georges Veron called "Le Guide Du Velo en Montagne" (written in French for sure but so full of diagrams, tables and formulae that even someone without any knowledge of French will be able to get the message. Which is: "Anyone can ride up any hill - it is just a matter of time and gearing". Believe it, I do and even at age 81 I can still ride up hills - slooooooowly!!

To get a copy of the book and any of the other publications that give blow by blow details of many, many hills in the Alps and Pyrenees, just go to http://www.altigraph.fr (no connection with this company just the purchaser of many of its products).

The only problem that I have with VeloReality is that I ride a Tacx Bushido which does not suport the software in the same way as LYNX and KICKR and some others do. Neverthe less, I still get a bloody good workout.

Kind regards and a happy 2014 to all - with great riding in VeloReality AND in Real Life.

[DickHeijkoop]

Hi, today I did the Alpe d'Huez - first time, lovely video and I had a good ride. I had 10 -15 short connection drops, but not a single serious one that it affected the workout badly. Legs were burning a bit, I like.
@VR: let me know if you have some kind of debug version to further investigate the short connection drops

@Simon: I had a quick look at your ride of alpe d'Huez earlier this week, and I noticed this:
I compared your data and my data from the segment "Alpe d'Huez (Official Chrone Course)"
- You are quicker: its 1:05:22 vs 1:12:46; a lot quicker
- Power. You needed 218W average to get on top, I needed 270W to get on top.
(See attached picture)
Its the difference in power that confuses me. I would suspect a much smaller difference. I am pretty heavy (97KGM) - but even if you are around 70 (wild guess) would that give such a difference in power?
(we are using the same trainer - so thats cool, good comparison)
Simon/VR: what do you think?

Simon: I'd like to thank you again pointing me to this VR vid and app on the dcrainmaker site. Really cool. VR: thank you for making this possible.
Cheers. Dick

[simon]

No problem Dick, happy to spread good things like this software/videos

I'm sure VR will chime in to tell us about the maths... but I'm 65kg + 9 kg bike (ready to ride) so 74kg to carry on in veloreality.
Numbers seems about right to me with a 30kg difference... how heavy is your bike in VR ?

I also got 3-4 quick dropouts in cap corse today, wonder if the garmin ant-stick + usb extension is at fault for this...

[VeloReality Video]

No problem Dick, happy to spread good things like this software/videos

I'm sure VR will chime in to tell us about the maths... but I'm 65kg + 9 kg bike (ready to ride) so 74kg to carry on in veloreality.
Numbers seems about right to me with a 30kg difference... how heavy is your bike in VR ?

I also got 3-4 quick dropouts in cap corse today, wonder if the garmin ant-stick + usb extension is at fault for this...

Ive not run the maths but 30kg on a 14km climb will have a huge effect on either your time or the watts, weight is everything if you want to climb fast even losing 1kg can result in a serious time gain.

As for the drop outs question, if its the software thinking that your stopped (new ride bar pops up etc) then it sounds like an ANt+ issue, the software needs a reliable steady cadence & this is something easy to hit with your foot or even frame flex. Kostya will look to see if there is a solution to this in the software also.

[simon]

As for the drop outs question, if its the software thinking that your stopped (new ride bar pops up etc) then it sounds like an ANt+ issue, the software needs a reliable steady cadence & this is something easy to hit with your foot or even frame flex. Kostya will look to see if there is a solution to this in the software also.

yes exactly, new ride bar pops...
not sure I understand what you mean with the foot or frame flex though ?