You may have been surprised to see a different speed from that of your bike console or GPS counter. That's normal because we don't use the raw speed sent by your equipment. Let's see how we calculate your speed:
How your speed is calculated:
Simulation engine:
This enables a fair comparison to be made between the performance produced by different models of fitness or cycling equipment, without relying on the manufacturer's engine.
Thanks to this simulation engine, the calculations are the same for all types of equipment, as long as they provide the watts produced (otherwise we use the watt calculation that we'll see later).
This simulation engine is there to reproduce the outdoor experience as faithfully as possible, taking into account the fact that you can stop pedaling to recover, without being stopped directly. As in real life, you can stop pedaling in the application and keep going. You can even accelerate downhill without having to pedal, just like on a real downhill after all. This is made possible by our simulation engine.
Our simulation engine is based on the power produced, either sent directly by the equipment or calculated by the Kinomap application if this is not the case:
A classic home trainer with a speed/cadence sensor or exercise bikes that don't provide power:
When you use a home trainer with a speed/cadence sensor, the application takes your raw speed and your manual resistance level as inputs to estimate your power output.
We then obtain a calculated WATT value which we integrate with numerous other parameters: the main one being the gradient of the road, but also your weight, kinetic energy (= your previous speed), and rolling resistance coefficients to recalculate what your real-life speed should be.
The main disadvantage of this type of equipment is that we don't know what level of resistance you've set, as your equipment can't send it, which means that if you set a lower resistance than expected, your calculated power output won't be accurate, as you'll certainly be riding faster than if you'd applied the correct resistance. Similarly, if you apply a higher resistance than expected, in fact, you'll probably produce more power but, as the calculation is based on theoretical resistance, you'll certainly produce less power.
Smart Trainer or power sensor or exercise bikes providing power:
This is the most accurate experience, as there is no estimation of theoretical power. If you change gears on the bike, the power sensor will measure your actual effort.
When you use a power sensor or Smart Trainer, the application takes your power as input and does the same calculation, using the gradient of the road but also your weight, kinetic energy (= your previous speed), and rolling resistance coefficients to recalculate what should be your real-life speed.
Comments
6 comments
Dear Kinomap,
Is there a possibility to calibrate the speed. I've a Flow Fitness DSB600i Interactive Spiningbike and it's embarrassing how fast I should be.
My rides are all published on Strava and I'm often getting the comment when I'm becoming a pro.
When I look at the ratings of the Hammer Series, it surprises me that the top 10 are all Interactive Spinningbikes or interactive hometrainers. It's the only reason for me not feeling guilty of being third.
My rides are in my opinion on average 30% to fast and the power is on average 30% to high.
10%-15% I can explain, because you don't have to brake before corners and other traffic. But the rest is wrong input from the bike.
Can you think of a solution, I am becoming tired of al the comment I'm getting and think cycling with Kinomap is to much fun not to do it for the comment.
Your sincerely,
Erik1187
Dear,
I have the opposite problem compared to the user above: I have connected an elliptical (Focus Fox 3 iPlus) and almost can't get above 7 km/h, even with massive effort. Whe running in real life I can easily sustain 9-13 km/h.
Is there anyway to calibrate the speed to be more realisticly matching the effort made?
Thanks!
Dieter
Definitely agree with the other posts. I wish that I could have the option to mirror the speed from my indoor cycle for consistency purposes so that when my bike reads that I'm going 15mph the Kinomap app doesn't show me as going 45mph. That disparity is ridiculous.
Also to be able to calibrate the running cadence would be huge. The app says that my speed is 15mph, when in reality it is 8mph. Just too big of a difference to make the app realistically usable.
Thanks
Hello,
Whatever formula you are using. It is wrong. Can I get a 1:1 for my cadence and speed sensors? And if I want to use the resistance then I will. The map tells me I'm going 1 mph and I'm going at least 20 mph. I did a 4 mile map and it felt like I went 30 miles. Let the user decide how to work out. I want 1 mph to equal 1 mph and 1 mile to equal 1 mile. Then I will choose what resistance to use. Either the maps suggestion or what I want to use.
Thanks
Yeah, is it possible to calibrate in the app?
I've got the same problem als the first person.
Im cycling during work in a kind of relaxed way getting sweaty after maybe 30 minutes, but im at a constant of 35 km/h, where i think that with this speed it should be more like between 22-26
I have set the cycle at the max weight to make it a little harder, but that doesnt seem to work enough.
When I cycle in variable mode, the film moves at a crazy pace.
I always log my workouts in parallel on a Garmin Edge 1030 bike computer. When I ride a virtual ride in the Tacx training app, the speed and distance calculations matches perfectly with the computer. With Rouvy the speed is within +/- 1.5 km/h but with Kinomap the speed can be as much as 25 km/h faster than on the bike computer, resulting in a way to high average speed which just looks silly in Strava. I am using a Tacx Neo T8000. I hope it can be fixed because apart from this, Kinomap is a very good app.
Please sign in to leave a comment.