[Closed] sorry, direct-drive smart trainers?

Elite Direto (or Direto X) here - works really well, no complaints, about £530 now and I Halfords do them at a discount if you are a BC member.

I have a recon Kickr which I got from wahoo direct. They've put the price up £200 since I got one, but still £150 off a brand new one.

Getting anybody with anything in stock is going to be your problem...

ta. The Elite Suito is also in the mix. The Direto looks pricier than that...?

I had a Tacx Bushido (wheel on) which developed a fault, Garmin replaced it with a Flux S and so far it's been good. quicker to trasition between intervals.

So currently i'd recommend a Flux S.

When Garmin sent it out they said there was a 2 week wait then it arrived next day so i presume they still have stock.

This is going to turn on what you can find in stock.

I've got a Tacx Flux S, it's fine but it's noisy on warm-up (a known problem).
I'd get the Elite Direto if I was buying again.

I had a Core, it was great then 11months later it wasn't
I then had another Core, that was bust after 2 rides
Then I got a KICKR, it's good so far. Wouldn't pay the extra though

Not sure what i'd get if buying again tbh

Elite Suito - superb, will replace the Direto at some stage. Just works and brilliant with Zwift.

ALWAYS had issues/niggles with various TACX models. Went through the Flux debacle. Never again.

Got a Direto very soon after release (dec 2018), felt a big gamble at the time for me spending ~£640 on a turbo, it's been mostly a good thing (albeit needed a new belt and I've not been able to match the calibration value exactly with the replacement; 6334 vs original 6335), but if I was starting over I'd be tempted to spend extra on a Tacx Neo2 or a Saris H3.

I had two Tacx Flux units that basically ate themselves (band slipped and contacted the case). The watt floor and ceiling in erg mode was a bit rubbish too - needed to shift gears for most interval based workouts. Maybe this is better in the revised versions.

I now have a Direto and it’s better in pretty much every way.

Recently got a Kickr Core and very impressed with it. No experience of anything else other than the Wattbike they had at my old gym and it's as nearly as good as that was for Zwift for what I use it for.

@GHill that's good to hear. I bought a flux 2 and a firmware update killed it so have replaced it with a Direto.

cheers all. Sounds not that straightforward then...

I had a direto but got fed up with it by the time of the third belt and pulley change.

From there to a Neo 2 (no calibration -yay, very accurate - boo, expect to lose watts after a direto), and that's been great for two years, but now has a slight vibration and I'm replacing the bearings this weekend.

See dcrainmaker.com for comparisons

I know very little about smart trainers, but it's good to hear that the Direto is a decent unit as I've got [my first] one on order from Decathlon; unfortunately it's a while away as delivery was estimated as 10 days (they're now showing as out of stock although Customer Service have reassured me that I should get one). It was £599 at Decathlon against £770 at CRC so hopefully the wait will be worth it.

I had a look at Halfords but they had nothing available and Wahoo only had the wheel-on Snap.

I think that you'll find that the Direto is now discontinued (although there are the more powerful and expensive Direto X & Direto XR) but it's well reviewed. The Suito seems to be Elite's entry level trainer; it's more powerful than the Direto but doesn't seem to have the [url= https://www.elite-it.com/en/innovations/Optical-Torque-Sensor ]Optical Torque Sensor (OTS)[/url] which the Direto does (I'm not exactly sure what this is/does).

If you can get the Direto for around the £600 mark it looks a decent unit.

Another positive vote for the Direto here.

@PJay Glad you found something in the end. Think you'll be very happy with it.

The OTS is a power meter (a proper one, not just a software estimate).

I had a Direto for a short period, was bricked from new and Elite couldn't sort it. Took it back and got a Tacx Genius which lasted 20 month's light use before falling apart, Garmin gave me a Flux 2 which I've not actually used.

If you look into this on trainerroad forum there are issues with virtually all of the options and if you are anything like me would end up not buying one.

I got an Elite Suito a couple of months ago, again a case of what you can find in stock. I'm happy with it apart from the freehub feels a little loose/wobbly which means the bike rocks a little side to side. This isn't the wobbly flywheel that was a problem with the earlier models.

I found that the freehub was wobbly on my Elite. The freehub is held on by the screw-in axle adapters, and these fit neatly inside my cassette tool so I'd worked them loose whilst changing cassettes. Tightening it up properly sorted it.

5300km on an Elite Direto.

Very happy with it but I’ve nothing to compare to in terms of smart trainers.

I also had the same ^^ Flux experience. The first two kind of exploded internally and the third one started making noises I could only put down to a cry for help. One Flux, Two Flux S.

I ended up with the Direto. Put a lot of Zwift miles on it this year and it's been faultless. Mine was the older version (early 2020 end of the line). New ones look better still but quite a lot more cash.

I've got a Saris H3 - because it was the first to come back into stock in the first lockdown. I don't have anything else to compare it with but I'm very happy with it. It looks nice, works well, quite quiet, easy to fold up, doesn't take too much space when you aren't using it.

Had a Suito for a while now, getting on well with it. My only complaint is that the android app is shite and I have to calibrate via the PC app.....oh, that and I dropped 15% off my FTP coming from a Tacx Flow 😢

It's pretty quiet, but far from silent, if that's a problem. I do a lot of zwift workouts on it and it seems pretty quick at shifting resistance in ERG mode. The main reason I got it over a Wahoo or Flux was that it folded up nice and flat so I can tuck it away when not in use.

My Tacx Flux ate itself a couple of days ago (and luckily just within warranty), was really happy with it until then and much prefer the Tacx app with real HD film of routes all over the world than any of the make believe underwater volcano types.

I'm hoping it gets fixed or replaced as prices seem to have gone through the roof, and availability the other way

2 x Kickr Cores in my household.

First one was bought new from my local shop, worked well for a number of months, then broke. Was a fairly painless warranty exchange (although it did leave me without a trainer for a couple of weeks). Replacement has been flawless for well over a year.

Then bought a second one (for the wife), but this time a Wahoo refurb. Again has been flawless.

DC Rainmaker recently published his smart trainer buyer's guide, gave the Elite Suito a good write up here: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/11/smart-cycle-trainer-recommendations-guide-winter.html/

Neo 2, packed up after 23 months now being replaced under warranty, have to say Garmin were straight on it, sent it back they confirmed the next day, just waiting for stock (hopefully not too long) apart from that glitch its been faultless. Now on my old setup - a wheel on dumb trainer with a pwertap hub, I so miss my Neo....

Another kickr core here, still going strong after 23 months, used regularly by both me and Mrs.

I've got an elite zumo but haven't really made use of it as yet. Need to get my head round it as it was a winter impulse buy last yr but swimming has beaten indoor training so far apart from a trial period.

Do any other Elite users suffer drops outs on 3rd party apps? Mine connection is flawless over the Elite myEtraining App, but on Fulgaz and Rouvy the connection drops every 5 mins or so and leaves me spinning like a nutter and outputting zero power for a few seconds. Very frustrating. Tried a USB extender for my ANT+ dongle so that its right next to the trainer but no help at all. This is via Windows10