I have my Kickr setup to mimic my gravel bike gearing and I’ve done the Half Monty and Full Frontal a few times.
When I get to the part where I’m supposed to keep my heart rate in a specific zone for 20 min, I find myself between two gears. Meaning, that if I’m in one gear, my heart rate is too low unless I up the RPMs to a rather uncomfortable level and if I increase the gear, it’s so hard that my HR jumps up above the zone.
I’m wondering if I should reconfigure the Kickr before doing the fitness tests to a setup with more gears or if maybe there’s another method that I haven’t thought of?
Assuming you’re talking Kickr Bike here but yeh, if you’re finding yourself between 2 gears with your gravel set up, at least for the HM constrained 20 min effort, it would be worth changing your gearing to give smaller jumps between them.
You could test this with one of the longer open rides, then next time you do HM, you can use that gearing.
I would consider getting a Stages Smart Bike which is rock stable and perfectly designed for indoor riding. It has a dream drive set up with very small jumps between the 50 gears so perfect for the constrained segment and everything else you might conceivable want to do indoors.
On the VERY unlikely chance I ever get a smart bike, it’d be one that does the incline like Kickr Bike. Otherwise my Kickr/Climb combo will only be pried away from my cold dead hands.
I’m not light (but I guess I’m not a super heavy weight) at 85-90 kg and I do wrench on the bars when sprinting but I’m no hulk. I just got a taste of the elevated bike on climbs and I’d never go back to anything without it now.
If you’re serious, and I can’t tell without an emoji, the Climb and the Bike do drop the front as well for descending. I gotta say though, indoor descending is weird and feels pretty awkward physically, at least for me, while going up feels much more natural.
I wasn’t serious, but thanks for the info. I didn’t know it already had that capability. It must take some getting used to.
Are you “required” to emit a scream of delight on the downhills or does it still work if you are quiet? (I think this one’s a bit more obvious but in case it’s still not clear, I’m NOT being serious here.)
why’d you delete this? It’s a GREAT idea, and probably easier than messing around with groupset settings on the Kickr Bike. Might just be a difference of 1 or 2 levels.
