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I've heard Halfords sell them and i need to buy a blue tooth dongle for my old pc that is near the static bike. I hope to be able to record sessions and upload to strava.
I've no idea how to do that.
Is zwift etc worth it?
Lots of threads on this type of topic recently; but here goes ..
I got an Elite Direto smart trainer and run it off Apple 4K TV console onto a TV. No need for dongle etc type things.
I personally think Zwift is worth it. I only use it to do the races ... riding around the different courses is boring unless you chasing other riders; but the races really motivate yourself to push harder than you would ordinarily.
If you want to train the zwift training stuff is actually pretty good. You can just do single sessions or if there's something you want to focus on then there are longer programs that last month's.
Elite direto is £600. I don't have any apple stuff.
Halfords seem to have lots of morr basic Elite trainers for under £200. Are they any good for zwift?
I guess I'm looking for the cheapest zwift system now.
Recently got a Cycleops Magnus from Halfords for £300. It's supposed to a decent but not mega pricey option.
Anyway, it's good. Much better than the previous non smart trainer I had which wasn't a cheapo either. Nice feel and the ERG mode makes Sufferfest, Zwift etc much better.
I'd recommend spending £12 on am ANT dongle to link with Zwift, Sufferfest etc with your laptop.. For me, it's much less fiddly than Bluetooth. Bluetooth and Zwift hate each other.
Elite direto is £600
It's worth it.
You can go cheap but there are other factors to look into like gradient and max power that the trainer supports and how good it is at applying the feedback. That's if you buy a proper smart trainer, you can go real cheap and non smart trainer.
You'll also want a good fan/aircon to cool you down.
I picked up a Tacx Flow smart turbo for about £180 from Decathlon. Just needed an Ant+ dongle for my laptop. Use it for the Sufferfest videos. Sometimes the shift up a resistance is a bit more incremental steps than gradual but for my needs of spinning through winter it's fine. It works for me having a setup that controls the resistance so I don't have to guess how hard I should be working as it's all based on effort levels calculated on a fitness test.
i believe that Sufferfest and others now allow smart trainer control by Bluetooth from iPads etc but you would have to check.
it all comes down to how seriously you want to train, if you are just going to use it s night or two a week through the winter when the weather is poor then for me the entry level smart trainer is enough. If you are using it religiously as a primary method of training then you might want something that is a bit more capable.