You may have heard of the Wattbike – it’s an indoor bike, developed in conjunction with British Cycling, and it’s a lot more than your average piece of fitness equipment.
This training-bike-on-steroids can test a rider's potential, analyse their power and pedalling action, and compare it to real-world data.
We’re lucky enough to have a couple of these in the office at the moment, and in the coming weeks we’ll be competing against our colleagues at Cycling Plus, Procycling and any of the other magazine staff ... if they're game. We’ve done one session already, so a league table has already started.
Three things were measured in the first test – quickest to ride 200 metres, quickest to ride 500 metres, maximum power in watts and watts per kilogram.
BikeRadar’s resident long-legged pair Oli ‘Yarp’ Woodman and Matthew ‘There’s the Power’ Cole stepped up to the bikes first to hit the 500m test.
Cole finished in a respectable 30 seconds, while Woodman finished in 34.55. Commenting after the race, Oli said: “I definitely went too hard too soon. Next time I’ll be better prepared.”
Cole said: “That was fun.”
Jeff Jones sees the entrance to the pain barrier, and lets himself in
Next to step up to the bike was James Costley-White. The power in his legs as well as the colour in his face quickly drained out during his 33.23 second rampage.
BikeRadar leader, journalist world champion and swine flu worrier Jeff Jones was next up, and managed 33.73 seconds – impressive as he’s carrying an injury (not swine flu-related) and was pedalling with one leg.
Woodman (left) checks his new trainers, while Cole powers on. The tongue out makes him go faster.
Jones said: “I could definitely beat that in my prime. Watch out boys, I’m gonna take you out of the game.”
The 200m test was over in a flash, Cole taking the win and overall lead with a time of 10.61 seconds.
Here's a little vid we took of Woodman (left) and Cole racing the 500 metre challenge.
watt
See the full results below. We'll be doing more racing soon...
ArrayCome to BikeRadar Live on May 30-31 and see if you can match our results on the Wattbikes. Visit www.wattbike.com for more details, and www.bikeradar.com/live for details on the event.
