PedalSmart.blog

Your bike's Q-Factor is the width of your crankset or the distance from the outer edge of one crank arm to the other.   More important is the measurement of stance.  That's the distance between the centre of each pedal. Getting your stance the same across bikes can make riding more comfortable while potentially avoiding knee, hip and back problems associated with less than optimal bike fit. Most of us can agree: Overall bike fit is critical. I described my method in a previous post: Better Bike Fit .  Getting the  stance the same between bikes is a probably less critical but still worth doing . Measuring Stance Road bike stance is easy to determine since the bottom bracket centre aligns with the rear wheel. Just measure from the spoke nipple centreline to the middle of each pedal. Indoor bikes, like my Stages SB20, don't have a definitive centre line so you need to measure the distance between the centre of each pedal. No big deal.  A ruler and set square ...

My Indoor Bike has 2200 Watts. I'm good, right? Answer: Maybe. Indoor Bike Resistance Let's first understand how an indoor bike creates the resistance that makes riding more realistic. 🔔 In this post, I use the term indoor bike to refer to smart bikes and trainers . My indoor bike is the Stages SB20 smart bike . I use it in most examples. Eddy Current Brakes Modern indoor bikes use an "eddy current brake" to produce resistance. It's a near magical device. An aluminum disk spins past one or more magnets that creates resistance thanks to eddy current waves . Resistance increases when the disk spins faster or the magnetic field strength is increased. That's somewhat counter-intuitive when you consider that aluminum is not magnetic. Eddy current brakes provide the smooth and progressive resistance that makes indoor riding so much better than even a few years ago. 🔬 Faster spinning = more resistance.  Keep this in mind.   Later, we'll see how lower RPMs c...

Riding inside can be tolerable - and even fun - when software, hardware and environment is right 🚴🏼‍♂️.   Here are 10 improvements I made for better indoor riding . 1.   Multiple Displays 2.   USB Upgrade 3.   On / Off Switch & Wireless Charger 4.   Improved Shifting 5.   Better Fitting Zwift Play Controller 6.   Better Internet Connections 7.   Better Bike Fit 8.   Fans 9.   Let's Talk About Sweat 10.  SB20 Rocker Plate

10 of 10 - Leaning one way and another Rocker plates make indoor riding more realistic. I'm not entirely convinced. Indoor bikes struggle to recreate outdoor resistance, road conditions, pedalling dynamics and acceleration. I'm not sure that side-to-side movement helps with realism. My personal take is more conservative. Two years of rocker plate riding has improved my overall comfort and helped with out-of-saddle sprints.   My Journey I began experimenting with different rocker plate designs in 2021, starting with the following requirements: ✓ Progressive side-to-side movement that offers stronger resistance as you move from the upright or vertical position. ✓ Forward-and-back movement. Many riders claim this is a critical element in real-world riding simulations. ✓ Small footprint. Commercial products are often quite large to accommodate a wide range of bikes. A custom design for my particular bike should be smaller. ✓ It should remain easy to get on and off the bike. ...

9 of 10 - A Sweaty Problem When I added fans to my indoor bike, I thought my problems with sweat had been blown away. There was less sweat on the floor mat but it still dripped from my chin directly onto the bike. I didn't give it much thought until I read that many people were seeing rust on their indoor bikes. After observing moisture patterns for a month, I came to realize: Sweat on my Stages SB20 bike could be an issue. I don't think sweat problems are unique to my brand of bike. Many of the issues and fixes described here will also apply to other brands. Sweat Patterns In my case, about 20% of sweat production falls over the handlebars, 50% in the middle of the frame and 30% nearer to the seat post.   Depending on your physical measurements and riding style, you may see sweat distributed in different proportions. Where does Moisture Go? Ideally, sweat should go nowhere . You wipe down your bike after each ride and the problem is solved.  The reality is: You can miss some...

8 of 10 - Fans! My journey towards multiple fans started in 1990.  Indoor riding was just getting started. As a competitive rider who also did indoor training, I was invited to Western University to take part in a study on... wait for it... indoor fans . Researchers wanted to know if fans were needed for optimal indoor bike workouts.  Here's a summary of the study and related criteria.  1. Maintaining core body temperature is critical for a good indoor workout. Let it rise and you do less work as your body uses energy to restore proper core temperature. 2. Air volume (Cubic Feet per Minute) rises with fan diameter. You need to move sufficient air to cool the rider and keep core temperature under control. In general: the bigger the fan, the better. 3. As important as air volume, is air speed . Faster moving air cools better. Velocity drops with the square of the distance. This means: the closer the fan, the better . 4. Also important is air dispersion . Fans need to...

7 OF 10 - BETTER BIKE FIT Indoors and out, my bike position changes a small amount each season.   My road bike tends to define my optimal position at the end of the summer. It includes  millimeter  adjustments made over the course of several thousand kms.  Similarly, my indoor bike defines my optimal position at the end of the winter. When I have settled on a new optimaI position, I like to transfer it to my other bikes, including: road, gravel, indoor and time-trial .   Transferring Bike Measurements Assuming you have one bike with your optimal position , you need a method for transferring the riding position to multiple bikes.   Prerequisites and Notes: Cranks -  All bikes have same crank length.  Watch for small differences in pedal platform height. Saddles vary -  They can have different lengths and widths. To create a standard measurement position on all saddles, I use the top of the saddle  where it touches the pelvic bone . Th...

6 of 10 - Better Internet Connections Zwift leverages wireless connections that include a mix of Bluetooth, Ant+ and WiFi. They tend to be concentrated in the busy 2.4 GHz wireless frequency band. As we will see below, it's a good idea to move these connections to the less crowded 5 GHz band. Overcrowding in the 2.4 GHz band causes data dropouts, decreased performance and failed connections. Bluetooth and Ant+ use the 2.4 GHz band. WiFi ( to and from the Internet ) can use 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz depending on the device. The SB20 bike and HRMs use multiple Bluetooth and Ant+ connections. Zwift Play controllers use one Bluetooth connection per controller. All in the 2.4 GHz band. This is not a big concern since the volume of data transferred by these devices is minimal. All these devices combined transmit only a few thousand bytes per second.  In contrast, the Zwift App and the Zwift Companion app can transfer millions of bytes per second. Performance gains can generally be found...

5 OF 10 -  ZWIFT PLAY CONTROLLER UPGRADE I like the Zwift Play Controllers . Steering buttons are a nice diversion on a long ride. The dedicated power-up button is always appreciated in sprints.  Braking is surprisingly useful when trying to avoid a zapping fence on downhills. The Fit I found the controller's fit to be uninspiring. The sharp curve on my indoor bike handlebars allows for quite a bit of up/down and side-to-side movement. This is basically a Zwift design issue. The controllers appear to be optimized for deep drop bars rather than the SB20's tightly curved and flared gravel bike-style handlebars. EXPERIMENTS I experimented with various DIY foam inserts - including the shims provided by Zwift. None did much to reduce movement. “Mushy” is how I would describe most button presses . EPOXY SHIM I created a rigid epoxy shim to get better contact between the Zwift controller and my bike's handlebars. Here's what I did: 1. A shim is moulded using epoxy putty. Yo...

 4 of 10 - Better Shift Buttons The SB20 indoor bike has OK-ish shift buttons.  IMHO: The blip buttons under the handlebar tape are fine. The brake lever buttons are  mediocre.    Brake Lever Buttons There are 3 programmable shift buttons under the hoods on each brake level. I find they lack tactile feedback. You can't be sure if a button was pressed by feel alone. Also: The buttons on each lever can be difficult to distinguish - particularly in an intense sprint. Here are my modifications: 1. To address tactile feedback issues, I made cutouts in the brake hoods with a X-acto knife.   2.  I extended the buttons with J&B Epoxy putty. Each button has a different shape: round, pointed and flat . I can now identify buttons by feel. 3. I replaced the hoods and painted each button a different colour to make them visually distinct. The result is literally a "worst-to-first" transformation. The buttons now trigger with 100% reliably. It is also mu...

3 of 10 - On/Off Switch  3 years ago, the SB20 firmware was rapidly evolving - with lots of bugs. We were all beta testers in 2020.  Powering the bike off and then on was commonplace.   One of the first modifications I made was an on/off switch.   I put my switch on the bike-side of the SB20 power brick. This means power is interrupted immediately when the switch is turned off.  The situation is a little different with a remote or physical switch at a wall receptacle . These switches work fine but you must wait several seconds when powering off. T he SB20 power brick must drain sufficiently for the SB20 to reset.  Good Digital Hygiene in 2023 I remain a fan of powering on my indoor bike before each riding session. This includes restarting all of the apps I use. With no error display or indicator lights, it is impossible to tell if the SB20 is healthy. Not what I want to worry about before a big event. Version 1 The first version was a plastic ...

 2 of 10 - Improved USB Power  The SB20 smart bike was introduced 4 years ago with a pair of built-in USB-A ports. The intent was to give you USB power for phone charging or adding a tablet. The total power for both ports is 5 watts (2.5 watts for each port ). Welcome to late 2023 . USB at 2.5 watts will not charge many devices. An iPad can actually discharge if plugged into to a built-in port. What's Inside? Beneath the SB20's phone tray is a triangular circuit board for a switching power supply.  It takes 24 volts from the bike's main power brick and converts it to three 5 volt USB outputs.  Extra USB port? Wait a minute. The SB20 has two built-in USB ports. Why the extra USB output?   The beefy power supply circuit board suggests that Stages had plans for an additional device. My guess: the SB20 was supposed to have a screen for gear display. It was likely deleted early in the product development lifecycle.  For those who want to optimize SB20 powe...

 I have been riding a Stages SB20 Smart Bike for 3 years. I've made some improvements. Here they are. 1 of 10 - Multiple Displays  1. The SB20 bike comes with a spring loaded holder for single phone or tablet. The problem is: this bike needs a separate screen for showing the virtual bike gear. As a life-long bike sprinter, I know that picking the correct gear for a final sprint is critical. As such, I decided on a dedicated screen for gear display along side the app primary app like Zwift. 2. I built this dual-display rack from aluminum c-channel bars available from any Home Depot.  It snaps in to the built-in holder and holds a pair of iPads.  Each piece is cut, filed and polished by hand. Rubber weather stripping inside each channel provided cushioning. 3.  The aluminum pieces are notched so they fit the SB20 holder. An additional aluminium bar is added to between the displays 4.  The SB20's spring clip was modified to snap into the upper c-channel. Th...

ANT+ and Bluetooth are essential wireless technologies that enable indoor cycling. What do they do? How are they different? Why should you care? Assumptions: In this post, I use the term indoor bike to mean smart bike or trainer .  I own a Stages SB20 Smart Bike and use it in my examples.  Protocols ANT+ and Bluetooth are  protocols  that facilitate the transfer of data between apps and devices. In this context, they are like spoken languages . ANT+ is like  English and Bluetooth  is like  French . Both communicate similar information using different verbs, nouns and ways of speaking. ANT+ was introduced nearly 20 years ago to support monitoring of data from devices like heart rate monitors (HRMs) and bike sensors. Since then it has been extended to control and monitor fitness machines including  indoor bikes . Bluetooth  was introduced around the same time to support things like handsfree phone headsets. It was updated from 201...