Wattbike at the races: Nottinghamshire County Sports Partnership

Filed under: General — Tags: , , , , — Steve Marshall @ 11:30 am

Today I was at showing off the Wattbikes to the ‘Sport in Nottinghamshire’ delegates at Colwick racecourse, Nottingham. We made a presentation to the audience of how British Cycling approached us to produce an indoor bike which was authentic, accurate and capable of unrivalled technical feedback. 

 

Sam Hynd on the Wattbike

Sam Hynd on the Wattbike

 

David Florence on the Wattbike

David Florence on the Wattbike

Also, Beijing Olympic heroes Sam Hynd and David Florence were at the event to inspire the PCT, Local authority and sport representatives and show the achievements of the county in the last 12 months. Both of the athletes, who are training for the London games, led the way on the Wattbikes. Sam Hynd who won a Gold medal at the Beijing Paralympics set a strong 742 Watts marker. David Florence was next up, and the slalom canoeist, who won the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics, recorded a tough-to-beat 1189 Watts in the Peak Power tests.

 

 

Under such inspiration attendees queued up to complete a quick peak power test or 200m race as well as to look at their cycling technique on the Polar power display. Lots of delegates raced on the Wattbikes and special note must go to Karen from Nottingham Trent University who did not want to be beaten and after several attempts recorded a very good 946W during her power test.

There were again lots of positive feedback from the attendees about the authentic feel of the bikes and how the monitor and the accurate data could be a great benefit for the sporting and healthy-living schemes in the Nottinghamshire county and its schools.

100s have chance to shine at the University of Manchester Everyday Cycling Focus Day

Filed under: General — Tags: , , — Steve Marshall @ 11:27 am

On a blustery spring day, over 100 people came to the University Building to see what their peak power is and show their interest in cycling. Each person was asked to cycle on the Wattbike to generate power in watts. They were challenged to see how bright they could make a light bulb shine and record how many Watts their cycling produced.

Passers by, Sports Club Captains, University staff and students, were dragged off the main concourse to have a go on the bikes. The participants had their results put onto the leader board in the University Building foyer, and all the results are put onto the Wattbike ranking website.

Any man who achieved over 1200W (same power as a kettle) and any woman who achieved over 650W (same as a microwave) were given a prize. Nobody was immune from it, not even the passing group of school children or the 2 Police officers who came in and certainly shone on and off the bikes in their high-visibility wear.

By the end of the day well over 100 people had shown their interest and generated Watts for the University. 5 universities around Britain are using the Wattbike in the project for Everyday Cycling, the non-competitive arm of British Cycling. Currently, Manchester has over 500 participants and registrations to the project.

Wattbike and Manchester United

Filed under: General — Tags: — Alex Skelton @ 5:32 pm

Rob Swires, Head Physiologist of Manchester United FC, has had a Wattbike for a couple of weeks now and he has provided some good feedback for us, both about the bike, and about how they would use it at Man Utd. To start with we ought to mention that Rob is a cyclist so he understands the benefits of cycling and uses group cycling with the athletes for warm up and cool down sessions, but what he really wants to be able to do is to monitor rehabilitation after injury or illness. That is where the Wattbike fits in. He likes the fact that the Wattbike Performance Monitor displays the breakdown of force from left leg and right leg and that using the polar curve you can establish the power output from the glutes and hamstrings. On top of that the Wattbike does not have a fixed crank so players recovering from injury can use the bike knowing that if they have any pain they can stop immediately, and not risk doing any damage while the bike slows down.

He did also have some suggestions. He would like to be able to do a 12 interval session, at the moment only 6 intervals are possible. We agree and have passed this on to our programmers, and will have this in the next version. He would also like to have an audible countdown to start intervals, again it is on the list already, we just have to add it in to the monitor, although this is would need a new monitor so that it could actually make a noise, but we are working on it.

Wattbike in ‘The 50 Best Cycling Gear’

Filed under: General — Tags: , — Alex Skelton @ 4:56 pm

The Wattbike features in the Independent’s Indy Best – Top 50 Best Cycling Gear 

The description of the bike that they give is:

“Most exercise bikes fail completely to replicate the sensation of cycling. Several modern models do a better job, but the shiny new Wattbike is arguably the king of the gym. The only trainer sanctioned by British Cycling, it uses an air flywheel and a magnetic resistiance brake to simulate hills or flats, while a computer monitors every conceivable paramater to give a breakdown of your cycling that can be as detailed as you like.”

It’s all true of course, but the really interesting thing for most cyclists is the polar view displaying cycling efficiency, which can be viewed through the monitor or on the software and means that the wattbike is not just and exercise bike, but is really an education tool for cyclists to improve their efficiency whilst training and enable them to get more out of themselves. This becomes really interesting if you think about the difference in performance that a 1% increase in efficiency will mean over a 5 hour ride. Either, you would be able to go faster for the same effort, or in the case of a group ride, go the same speed for less effort, leaving more in the tank for a sprint finish.

Nottingham 12hr WattRace

Filed under: General — Tags: , — Alex Skelton @ 7:13 pm

Thanks to Nigel Mayglothling who has posted an update on the Nottingham 12hr WattRace  it looks like they had a good event, I will try and get some images from him on Monday and add them to the Gallery.

Wattbike Board Meeting and Phone Call

Filed under: General — Tags: , , , , — Alex Skelton @ 5:56 pm

We are right in the middle of a two day Wattbike board meeting, some of the discussions have of course been pretty dull contract related stuff that I was able to duck out of, but was back for the exciting stuff! We have been looking at the next generation of monitor and what it is capable of. The key issue is not so much what it is capable of, but making sure that everything is as clear as possible. Some of the capabilities of the monitor are very exciting, although, best to keep them under wraps for now! You will just have to wait and see!

Whilst we were looking at the new monitor I was called out to talk to a customer who had 4 very specific questions, but ones that we are asked regularly and I thought that I would start a frequently asked questions section, or at least start with putting them here, and add them to the site as well. His questions were:

Q1. Can I change the length of the cranks?

A. The Wattbike comes factory fitted with 170mm long, thermatically treated hardened steel. They are not interchangeable with other lengths by the end user because, due to the turning moment of the pedal around the bottom bracket, as a result by changing the length of the crank you change the calculation for the power delivered, which rather defeats the purpose. Different lengths of crank will be available eventually, but will have to be factory fitted.

Caller’s response: OK great, I use 170mm anyway!

Q2: Can I fit my own handlebars?

A: Not at the moment, but next week yes! Just before the conversation we had been looking at the new fitting that allows any handlebars to be fitted to the Wattbike. As I explained in the phone call users need to be aware that the stresses that are put through handlebars on a road or mountain bike are much less than on a stationary bikes, because on a bicycle when you lean more on one side than the other the whole bike moves, that does not happen on a stationary bike. As a result this could lead to breakage of cheap handlebars. We will be releasing a set of drop handlebars and tri bars, that are up to the task shortly.

Q3: Does the Wattbike measure the power exerted by each leg?

A: Yes, the polar plot demonstrates the power output from each leg, and with the addition of the efficiency rating in the software this makes the Wattbike unlike any other stationary bike. Becoming more efficient is key to improving performance in cycling, as not only does it give extra power it also means that you will fatigue more slowly as the additional energy used to exert the same power when cycling inefficiently will drain your stores much more quickly. The views for the monitor and software are displayed below (that is possible for people reading to see, not for the person I spoke to on the phone).

 

New Polar View on the Performance Computer

New Polar View on the Performance Computer

 

Efficiency and Average Efficiency

Efficiency and Average Efficiency

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q4: Can I come and try the Wattbike?

A: Of course, in fact, we are really excited about the Wattbike and like nothing better than showing people how it works, how you can get more out of your training by using a Wattbike, how you can race, improve your fitness, improve your efficiency or even just train in the dry instead of out on the dark dangerous winter roads in the UK. Actually we think that if you are a cyclist or just want to get fit then there is a massive value to having a Wattbike. To arrange your product demo please contact us by phoning 0115 9455454 or emailing us at info@wattbike.com 

Q5: …….

Hang on a second, you said 4 questions!

Q5: Can I just buy one – I could even pick it up!

A: Brilliatn, we have some in the warehouse, and look forward to meeting you when you come to pick yours up, email info@wattbike.com  to make sure one of the keenos will be around to tell you all about the bike and maybe even put you through your paces on a Powertest, or similar so that you can get going in the Online Rankings !

Rugby stars’ charity fund-raising with Wattbike

Filed under: General — Tags: , — Steve Marshall @ 10:26 am

Wattbike were in attendance at the Northampton Saints RFC game against Newcastle Falcons on Saturday 28 February. Wattbike had been invited to the day by the charity Autism Concern who wanted to raise money and promote their Twin Towns Challenge charity cycle ride. The organisers had everything planned, they set up 2 Wattbikes in a public location and challenged the thousands of fans, coaches and players to get their peak power. It wasn’t all frivelous fun though as the money raised goes to the Autism Concern charity. On the day £1300 was raised by the team and well done to the large number of people who had a go and raised a great deal of money for charity.

Northampton Saints are now interested in getting some Wattbike on a permanent basis for rehab and training. See the news section for a full report.

Wattbike and the Armed Services

Filed under: General — Tags: , , , , — Alex Skelton @ 10:25 am

Well, we could tell have told you earlier how we are working with the armed services, but then we would have had to kill you, and that is always a bad thing!

Since the Wattbikes were launched, and in fact since we had some pre-production models we have been working with select groups within the Army, Navy and RAF to help them to deliver physical activity to a range of target groups within each area of the Armed Services. With the Navy we have placed two Wattbikes on a Nuclear Submarine – the bikes were going to make up the whole gym for all the sailors on the sub, so it was important that they exercise very efficiently and accurately record their fitness levels over time to ensure that they are still able to perform to their full ability even after weeks underwater.

With the RAF and Army we have been working on recruit fitness, ongoing fitness and rehabilitation. Over the last 20 years new recruit fitness levels have dropped significantly, resulting in increased times for the introductory training courses as so much time is lost through illness and injury. Once the recruits have been trained it is important that they are able to keep fit and that they are ready for deployment at short notice. The Wattbike fits into this as a way for them to do group cycling sessions and ensure that everyone is working at the right intensities.

We have also been to Hereford – yes to the SAS. They are using the Wattbikes for pre-deployment training and testing, and are big fans of the peak power test. None of the services like to share their scores though so don’t expect to see them appearing on the ranking, although we will keep pushing, at least for some pics!

Universities Project Update

Filed under: General — Tags: — Alex Skelton @ 10:40 am

The number of participants in the Wattbike Universities project has just exceeded 750, the target is 1000 by the end of March, and with a considerable number of daily events happening in the next few weeks I am confident that the magic 1000 is well within our grasp. All the Universities have up coming events, and there should be people from Wattbike at each of them, so watch this space for updates.

New 200m champion does a ‘little bit’ of cycling

Filed under: General — Tags: , — Steve Marshall @ 11:51 am

I joined up with Nottingham University at their agricultural campus at Sutton Bonington on Friday to get students and staff to have a go on the Wattbike. There was a fantastic buzz around the atrium to the sports centre where the University had brought in 4 Wattbikes and encouraged the passers-by in the reception area to give it a go. The team stayed until 9pm that night as a very steady supply of eager footballers, hockey players and gym users flooded onto the bikes. In the end more than 100 people raced on the Wattbike against friends and colleagues, a record number for 1 day, all of whom will be finding their way onto the Wattbike ranking.

Nigel Mayglothling,  Assistant Director of Physical Recreation and Sport said “We had a very high conversion rate of visitors “having a go”, with well over 100 people taking part in the Power Test and in the 200m races,  folks of all ages and shapes taking part which was especially pleasing to see. Feedback on the bikes was very positive throughout the day.”

Little did we expect such a small campus to provide the 100 odd racers it did, and being in such a rural setting many of them were extremely keen on the wide-ranging resources of the Everyday Cycling website as the days get longer and warmer. 

Last and certainly not least, special note must go to Matt Chesworth, the new king of the flying 200m lap who dropped in before a gym training session to post a jaw-dropping time of 9.47s. He then returned after his session in jeans to knock out a further 9.75s just to prove it wasn’t a fluke first time round. The Vet School student plays rugby mainly but admits that he does a ‘little bit of cycling in the summer’ ……….. by his times and technique though we reckon he does more than just a little!