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My son is wanting a turbo trainer to use with Zwift. He has bought a Smart Cycle Ops Mag trainer reduced in Halfords to £89.
We have no experience with Zwift, would this do the job ?
My thoughts are that it has no way to alter the resistance and also it's basically just a standard trainer and they've just dropped a ANT+ sensor thing and some instructions into the box and called it smart on the advert.
Any advice appreciated .
Looks like it's a "Dumb" trainer, as opposed to a "smart" trainer. He'll be able to use Zwift ok with I think by virtue of being a "zpower" user. It will translate his speed/cadence onto Zwift, but won't auto-adjust resistance. Power figures might be a bit off.
I use a Tacx Flow 2240 trainer, just under £200 at Halfords (cheaper with a BC discount) , one of the cheaper "Smart" trainers, but with an Ant+ dongle it fully integrated with Zwift etc.
I guess for occasional use any turbo trainer would do, but if you anticipate regular use and want to make use of the full range of Zwift options then a true "Smart" trainer might be a better option.
It looks to be a Cycle Ops Mag Turbo, which combined with the ANT+ speed and cadence sensor is compatible with Zwift virtual power.
And
Downhillfast
That's pretty much what I thought but have no experience with these things. I think he is going to return it and go for either the Taxc flow 2240 or this elite novo, he prefers the idea of adjusting the resistance.
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/turbo-trainers/trainers/elite-novo-smart-turbo-trainer
Anyone know if one is better than the other?
Cheers for replies guys
I looked at both of the above, the Elite seems to be a Halfords/Cycle republic exclusive model (one model resistance unit in a different frame).
I got the Tacx Flow from Decathlon for £180 and I'm pretty happy with it. Occasionally have to restart the program / trainer to get ERG to work but I wouldn't be surprised if that's my laptop that's had a hard life...
ERG on the flow works ok, it definitely goes up in resistance stages rather than a smooth gradual increase. I wasn't convince by the cadence readings as they are calculated but I had a spare cadence sensor for the crank I use and it makes it much more accurate and works far better now and the ERG works much better. Fair simply to set up and get working.
I use it with Sufferfest rather than Zwift, which may account for the staged resistance increases as that's how the program increases exertion but I don't know for sure .
Just bought the CatC one, which is in decent condition for £120, so £130 is a deal for a CatB.
mine as far as I can tell has a couple of small scratches and a battered box. it's from Zyro Fisher outlet.