Hi all,
I’m looking at making the leap from a classic trainer with speed sensor to a smart meter. I have seen some great offers on Bkool turbo trainers. I see Bkool have 3 trainer. the Pro, Classic and one. The question I have is do all 3 trainers control your speed and resistance in line with the game and Ant +? Thanks for any help anyone can give me.
Hi,
Only Bkool Pro and Classic are smart trainer and controled by simulator. Works well with Zwift - i have the Classic.
The One is a dumb trainer. Resistance vary with speed and cadence.
That’s great. Thanks for your help.
If you’re looking to purchase a used one, make sure it was manufactured after August 2014 (Pro or Classic). Those trainers can be upgraded to ANT+ FE-C control by following these instructions.
Pre-August 2014 models used different circuitry which doesn’t accept the firmware upgrade to make them ANT+ FE-C compliant.
However, if you do have one of these models and it was purchased new less than two years ago (my Pro was purchased in March 2015 but still had the old stuff!) then you can return it to them free of charge as I did to get the upgrade. Takes a couple of weeks but is worth it!
If you’re buying an old one second hand, you can tell if it’s a compatible version or not if it doesn’t have a USB port next to the LED.
If it does have the USB port, then it’s too old.
Partially correct. Any model with the USB port is not compatible and will not update without the circuitry upgrade.
However, mine does not have the USB port and yet was still incompatible. I think the only way you can be sure is to do a manual pair through the BKool software; if it will not update the firmware beyond v3.02 then it won’t work on Zwift.
I have now well over 3000 k on my BKool pro and it is absolutely brilliant, easy to use and would recommend.
Solid base with extendable leg, no screws or knobs to control tyre resistance and ANT+FE-C works without problems from first day.
They also have their own software which gives you literally thousends of routes, s/w not as good/pretty as zwift but if you like the mountains, boy do they have mountains…!
I got BKool because they were the first affordable ones who bothered with software for my iMac, before zwift.