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Hello Zwifters...
I'm having problems with my Elite Novo Smart turbo, the chain came off during a workout yesterday and it hasn't been happy since. It says I'm only putting out around 100 watts and only getting up to about 15k on a 0% gradient, I've been shifting long enough to know that I'm putting out way more than that feeling like that.
Has anybody else experienced this and even more importantly does anybody have a way to fix it? :frowning_face:
Its about 18 months old and its been a great turbo for the money, and at the moment `I really can't replace it.
This probably isn't what you want to hear but mine did something similar - the resistance seems to be controlled by magnets that move on plastic sliders. The sliders wore over time and detritus built up in the channels. Initially I cleaned this out and it worked for a while but eventually it gave up ghost. If you take it apart you will also find a threaded bar that might also be jamming - but you will tend to hear a 'buzzing' noise if this happens.
I had done about 10k km before I had to scrap it so hopefully yours will just need a clean?
Eek! I really hope its not dead AD 🙁
Its done about 5000k I reckon, how did you go about cleaning it? Did you have to take it to bits?
It happened pretty suddenly so I'm hoping its not wear, it was working totally fine until the chain came off, its like it needs reset but obviously thats not something you can do.
I found it easiest to remove the flywheel/roller unit from the base.
The 'top' of the unit and flywheel is just held together with Philips screws. Once you get this bit off you'll be able to see the 'slide' unit and screw jack that drives it. Mine was full of bits of tyre and plastic 'shavings' off the sliders. I then just vacuumed it out which in fairness did work for a while.
Definitely worth a try anyway - good luck - hope it works!
Cheers man! I'll give it a go 🙂
Hey AD...
Last question I promise!
Did yours go suddenly or over time? I’m just asking as mine was working totally fine until Sunday when the chain came off. I’m just holding off with the spanners as I have ten thumbs when it comes to fixing things and I can foresee a garage floor covered with springs and screws with no idea where they came from or how to rebuild it 🙂
Mine initially went suddenly - there didn't seem to be a particular event (no chain jumping/falling off/spilling water bottle into it) that caused it.
I basically switched it on (I have an old bike permanently attached to the turbo) and it began making a buzzing noise - the screw jack motor - and basically the resistance wouldn't change at all. Having stripped it down/vacuumed it out it then worked ok for months before finally giving up. The final death definitely being because rails had worn.
It really isn't that complex inside (you do have to lift off a printed circuit board too but again this is just held on with screws). In my case I had nothing else to lose by taking it apart 😀
Good luck either way.
Ah cool, I took it to bits earlier and couldn’t find anything glaringly wrong but I hadn’t taken the circuit board off. I’ll give that a go