Cycle Show Time Trial Results

Filed under: General — Tags: , , , — Steve Marshall @ 11:28 am

Cycle Show

Hello to everyone who raced on the Wattbikes at the cycle show. It has been an extremely busy few days since then however I am now back in the office and able to post the results of the Cycle Show. There were some exceedingly quick times and close races across all 4 days of the show. There will be full results posted on the site soon from our records, however take a peek at the final leader table below.

Everyone who entered goes into a prize draw to win a trip to Lanzarote with Sports Tour International. Keep an eye on your mailbox for details on this. The prize for winning you may ask??????? Glory…  just good old fashioned glory!

Male

Catergory Name Time
Over 60 Peter Williams 00:32.18
50 – 59 Michael Fier 00:28.55
40 – 49 David Andrews 00:27.70
30 – 39 Jason Prior 00:27.21
Open Phil Williams 00:27.56
Under 18 Joe Moore 00:30.12
Under 16 Adam Finch 00:31.00
Under 14 Noah Smith 00:32.50
Under 12 Tom Lye 00:34.41
Under 10 Tomas Barnett 00:45.6

Female

Catergory Name Time
Over 60 Zanna Heighton 00:45.94
40 – 49 Ruth Hamilton 00:37.68
30 – 39 Nicky Hjerpe 00:35.84
Open Tanya Gibbs 00:34.80
Under 14 Ella Dobson 00:42.72
Under 12 Mabel Dalrymple 00:46.22
Under 10 Michaela Lysakova-Ivanova 00:42.08

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 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 !

Vista and Lichfield – how different they are!

Filed under: General — Tags: , , — Alex Skelton @ 11:11 pm

On the one hand the third round of the Lichfield Wattbike league has been a huge success (News article on it’s way). On the other, we have spent the last three days struggling to get Vista to do something that we want it to do. Frustrating, and lets hope Windows 7 is better. We will be launching another new version of the software shortly to combat a few of the issues that we were having with loading a software update onto Vista – nothing major just a pain, but worth fixing.

On a more positive note, the Lichfield event had another successful evening on Friday, now we need to replicate it across the country. The Ranking is also picking up some users. Will be interesting to see how fast people are – I heard a rumour that a rower friend of mine has averaged over 400 watts for 30 mins! I will get him to put his results in the ranking! At 6′10 he is not really a cyclist though, just very powerful.

Wattbike University Project Training

Filed under: General — Tags: , , , , , , , — Alex Skelton @ 5:08 pm

Today saw members of the staff at Roehampton, Plymouth, Nottingham, Manchester and Bristol Universities (and some visitors from British Cycling)  come together for the first set of training for the delivery of the Wattbike Universities project. The training lasted from 10 to 3, with a two and a half hour practical session including an attempt at a power test, 200m race and 1000m race. After lunch we introduced them to the ranking and we are expecting to see them appearing on the ranking soon with their scores. The rest of the afternoon was spent sharing our ideas for delivery of the project. It is an exiciting project and will see members of Wattbike travelling to all parts of the country to assist the Universities with delivery of their projects. 

Thanks to James and Chris from Birmingham, Nigel, Steve and Paul from Nottingham, Bridgette from Roehampton, Helen and Chris from Manchester, Kate from Plymouth and Geoff, Steve and Nicola from British Cycling for coming for the day, and of course to Eddie, Ben and Steve for delivering the course.

Wattbike, Sport England and British Cycling University Project

Filed under: General — Tags: , , — Alex Skelton @ 2:19 pm

Tomorrow will see the start of the training for the Wattbike University Project, a project funded by British Cycling and Sport England to encourage physical activity through use of the Wattbikes. The project will take place in five Universities; Roehampton, Plymouth, Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham. The project will focus on getting individuals to complete one of the ranking events and post their details on the site. Each University has the target of getting 200 members signed up to the ranking and has the opportunity to keep some of the Wattbikes at the end of the project.

The training for the project managers will involve information about the bike, how to race, use the software and make the most our of having the bikes in the University as well as the chance to have a go on the Wattbike and share ideas for encouraging participation and raising money through sponsored events. I will update with information about the day once it has finished.

Ranking, Blog and New Forum

Filed under: General — Tags: , , , , — Alex Skelton @ 4:30 pm

We have just launched a new ranking, this blog (although we have been adding content for a while now) and a new forum. The ranking will allow for people to pit themselves against other Wattbike users around the country and world and will also form the backbone for the forth coming British Cycling and Sport England Wattbike project in five Universities. You can add your ranking times and distances to the site and comment on blog posts or add comments to the forum. 

If you had signed up to the previous forum you will need to sign up again – sorry about that.