- A stand holds your bike and a roller applied to the rear wheel supplies the resistance. So the geometry of your position indoors is the same as your position outdoors.
But there is another benefit. When you apply power outdoors, your position on the bike changes in subtle ways. By making the forces at the pedal theoretically sound, the subtle changes to position you see outdoors are duplicated on the PFS. This feature is beneficial to your training and would be beneficial for dialing in position in wind tunnel testing.
- The resistance unit has enough resistance to model the strongest rider. Even wimpy riders can generate high instantaneous power. The PFS is designed to model a complete range of instantaneous power and be able to control it precisely and quickly.
- The display on the handlebars is a high-end Palm
device with a large, color display area. Display software takes full advantage of the Palm device's capabilities. We provide displays and plots of parameters. See the Photos, Screen Shot link. Workout data is saved to a sophisticated database. We provide all the measurement parameters you would expect.
- The display device communicates wirelessly with the computer in the resistance unit via Bluetooth. You can have the display device at the handlebars or your coach can hold it sitting across the room. A coach could control a group of riders from one central location.
The display manages the parameters describing the conditions being modeled. It has a selection of typical courses that one can select for a workout. This lets you train indoors for specific conditions making effective use of your training time.
- Wind is modeled to be vary during a ride just as it does outdoors. Sometimes you may need to shift a gear because the wind changes. Yes, it is different pedaling into the wind. You can improve with practice.
- Multiple riders can share the device. The database keeps each rider's data separate from other riders. You can have as many riders setup as you want.
Most intersting? Can you select various "ride profiles" on the computer? For example, say I don't want to ride hard on a 'windy' simulation. Any provisions for that?
ReplyDeleteA rider can setup any ride profile.
ReplyDeleteA rider can set wind speed to zero to give a "windless" ride.
When riding outdoors on a smooth, flat road on a windy day, wind speed typically goes up and down causing a rider to increase and decrease effort in response, maybe even to the point of shifting gears. It's this constant change in effort that makes riding in wind different from other types of riding. Making wind speed constant is not the same.
The Pedal Force Simulator takes wind speed and direction as selected by the rider and transforms it in a way that gives realistic outdoor increases and decreases in wind speed and hence a more realistic "windy" experience.