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!

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Female

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.

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

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 !

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.

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.

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.

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