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Sorry if been discussed recently.
Wahoo? Tacx? Explova? Or something else?
I want something decent that can take a beating, I believe in buy cheap by twice.
However, don't think I need to go top of the range , unless you can convince me.
Other criteria is that I would like the feel to be as realistic to outdoor riding as possible. Rocking side to side motion? Incline simulation? I've only been training outdoors for the last few years and years.
My last indoor training experience was on one of the mag trainers over a decade ago. Got to the stage I could barely look at the thing any longer.
I also need to set up that whole Zwift thing but it's a different world to me so will probably need to be a different post.
Thanks all for the help!
There are a few decent mid range smart trainers. The only one I’ve used is the Wahoo Kickr Core - which is my current one. It feels like riding a bike.....in a garage. The resistance is smooth and I use mine with trainerroad which is very training orientated. There aren’t any fence graphics or racing - you’re just there to break yourself pretty much!
It’s very quiet and smooth and setup with the TR app was very easy.
I don’t think any trainers have any side to side motion built in - if you want that you can get any trainer and bolt it to a turbo rocker plate thing.
If you want to get really fancy there’s the Kickr Climbr which you attach your forks to and it simulates actual climbing. I’ve no idea if this is worth it or not - I suspect not but it’s properly fancy.
I haven’t tried Zwift - mainly as I wanted to get going with just my phone and a heart rate monitor. Haven’t needed a screen or computer / laptop / Apple TV. I think the bare minimum option is an old tv and connect it to Apple TV for Zwift.
Kickr Core is the default answer, and for good reason. Works great. Magnitudes better than my old wheel-on jobbie. Zwift is great.
Come racing with us on Tuesday nights too!
I haven’t tried Zwift – mainly as I wanted to get going with just my phone and a heart rate monitor. Haven’t needed a screen or computer / laptop / Apple TV. I think the bare minimum option is an old tv and connect it to Apple TV for Zwift.
Zwift will work on this just fine - the experience will be a lot less immersive than on a bigger screen but it will work. (Assuming a reasonably recent smartphone).
I don’t think any trainers have any side to side motion built in
The only one that does is a Tacx neo. It's a few degrees of sway, and to me that feels really nice..natural almost.
It depends on your busget.
A top line tacx neo 2t is about £1200...
Wahoo kickr about a grand...
Kickr core a few hundred less.
TBH, it IS worth spending on a good one as I've found that a turbo and zwift (I've the neo) is probably one of the best riding investments i've made....
DrP
I think the bare minimum option is an old tv and connect it to Apple TV for Zwift.
The bare minimum is any old Android tablet and Zwift. I'm using a 5(?) year old Samsung S2, it works fine.
Bit of a thread resurrection, but does anyone use this smart trainer? Seems a 'bargain' direct from Zwift.
Elite Direto-XR
Bit of a thread resurrection, but does anyone use this smart trainer? Seems a ‘bargain’ direct from Zwift.
Elite Direto-XR
yep,I've recently bought one of those, it seems good to me, but I dont have a vast experience of all the different trainers, its infinitely better than the cheapo tacx flow wheel on trainer I was using before this.
If you search the various forums you'll find a few posts with people moaning that he ERG mode doesnt seem to work well, ie that it struggles to maintain a constant power. I read all those and was a bit worried, but in use its fine, I dont know if its a newer firmware that sorted it out, or whether those people were all using it in ERG mode in the big ring - apparently most trainers ERG mode prefer it if you are in quite a low gear as its then easier to regulate the power output .
Either way, its decent, and that seems a decent price. But you can get it for £25 less from sigma sports - or at least you could a few weeks ago when I bought mine
Last week, this was 379 on wiggle..
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-xplova-noza-s-smart-trainer?sku=105588305
So, I bought one, seems good.
Probably best to wait until it's on sale again.
DCRainmaker is worth a read on all things trainer and computer based. I can't provide an answer, I'm currently looking too.
I have a Direto X which I got late last year, works fine for me, I self set workouts and listen to music, haven't touched zwift yet or an alternative yet. I also echo this:
If you search the various forums you’ll find a few posts with people moaning that he ERG mode doesnt seem to work well, ie that it struggles to maintain a constant power. I read all those and was a bit worried, but in use its fine, I dont know if its a newer firmware that sorted it out, or whether those people were all using it in ERG mode in the big ring – apparently most trainers ERG mode prefer it if you are in quite a low gear as its then easier to regulate the power output
I actually prefer using the level mode from the app as opposed to ERG mode, I find it more natural feeling.
Only niggle I had was telling either the app or my garmin the correct wheelsize, my garmin recorded for my first workout I covered 47miles in a hour, average speed of 47 miles per hour with a max speed of 146mph, but there is a chart on the elite site which covers this and the change was easy to do.
I'll chip in with my usual comment on this:
Have a look on Facebook Marketplace for turbo trainers. Its full of them that are nearly new, barely used as loads of gym bunnies bought them when the gyms were shut during lockdown. They tend to be going for about half the list price (I've just had a quick look and theres an XR Directo for £350, amongst others)
I think the bare minimum option is an old tv and connect it to Apple TV for Zwift.
The bare minimum is any old Android tablet and Zwift. I’m using a 5(?) year old Samsung S2, it works fine.
`
I use an old Macbook, which is fine
I sat with this question for a while and eventually decided on a wahoo kickr core. I didn't however want to shell out the £700 for a new one and they do refurbished units with a full warranty. They then did a sale and fortunately I managed to get mine for £500 all in.
I'd be careful with 2nd hand wahoo's as I see a lot on owners groups of issues with them that they won't fix if there's no warranty. It's my 1st ever trainer of any kind so I'm no expert but it seems a great but of kit, really enjoy using it and I've since joined the STW winter race series so it's even mixing up my riding.
In the STW tradition of recommending what you've got I'll just say that I'm happy with my Saris H3.
Worth noting that Zwift appears to be having some issues with Bluetooth on Windows 11 - I had to spend £14 on an ANT+ dongle recently to restore stable connections with the H3, HRM and cadence sensors.
Wiggle & CRC are still doing the Elite Direto for £500
I bought one a year or so ago. At the time Wiggle were doing 0% finance on them but don't seem to be any more.
I am not sure if the Direto XR-T is any better. It is a newer model, so there are probably some accuracy improvements & perhaps it does to a steeper simulated incline. Somewhere like DC Rainmaker will probably give you those details.
It is a bit of a bargain though.
I agree a bit with the comments about ERG mode. On really short sprint intervals it can take a while to ramp & stabilise. But, any rep that is 30s & over it's fine.
I am also not sure how much 'smoothing' is going on with different devices as well, so some that appear rock solid & smooth on the graphs might just be aggressively smoothing the power values...I'm not sure.
If you are considering getting Elite's version of the Kickr Climb, I have a feeling it is not compatible with the plain old Direto, but is with the newer ones.
I’ll chip in with my usual comment on this
I must have been looking on the wrong FB marketplace - the only ones I could find were all more than the ones from retailers, or the photos showed ones that looked like they'd been used for kicking practice. Having said that, I detest FB and felt unclean after visiting for more than 5 minutes
Personally, I'd recommend my own setup: Wahoo Kickr, which I've recently mounted onto a Lifeline Rocker Plate to give some side-to-side motion, hoping that would reduce some of the stress on the bike frame and make me engage my core more then riding.
I use Zwift running from a Apple TV 4K, connected to an old 27" TV. Due to the bluetooth limits of ATV, I use an old ipad mini, or my phone to run Zwift Companion App and route the additional bluetooth feeds from my HRM and Cadence meter.
There's a tacx neo 2t on FB marketplace in Brighton...£525...
That's a billy bargain....
Tempted to get it as a spare 😄😄😅
DrP
Been using an Elite Direto for over 3 years now, and apart from snapping the belt after 2.5 year and well out of warranty, Elite shipped me a belt and pulley out free of charge in 3 days from Italy during covid !! .... superb back up .... installed new belt , recalibrated and not touched for the last 6 months ... great trainer
Btw, I don't think "any old Android tablet" will quite cut it for zwift. Has to have a decent GPU in it.
I second that comment about Android tablets.
Some just will not run Zwift - the hardware doesn't meet the requirements and you can't even find the app in the Play Store.
My Wife's Samsung Tab A won't run Zwift and the app isn't in the play store when we search on it.
My Samsung S6 Lite does run Zwift & it's what I use.
It's a bit of a nightmare, but I found doing a search before buying found plenty of people confirming that the S6 Lite will run Zwift.