Yes, I’ve read the reviews for the fancy $1k units, but I’d like to hear from fellow twitchers. For background, I’ve been a road racer since 2010 and was a bit of a luddite, having trained previously on my Minoura rollers, with a magnetic resistance unit. It works fine for my road bike, but it’s less than optimal for TT bike, the main thing being that it’s exceedingly hard to crank away at threshold on the same gear for more than 5 minutes (even with the fork stand). It was also tough on the road bike, but I was able to make do.
So i’m seeing all these new fancy schmancy units, and I’d be willing to spend upwards of 1600 for the Neo, the question is, which of the units (Wahoo Kickr, Elite Drivo, Elite Direto, and whatever else I left out) make doing long, steady workouts the most manageable. I’m looking for one that can, say, vary resistance enough that i can at least shift gears to avoid the monotony. On my rollers, wheel speed was related to resistance, and there was only one speed to crank out a particular power; shifting up or down threw things off. If the trainer could allow me to go at 300W at 95 rpm on a 53x17, as well as on a 53x19 or 15, that would be great. Also, for a secondary consideration, which one of the fancy units is good for full out sprints?
Lastly, anybody have links to places where I can get these on sale? Many thanks in advance
DC Rainmaker is the go to for information and spot-on opinions. He generates an annual trainer roundup, which should drop fairly soon… I own a Tacx Vortex Smart. Works fine with Zwift, Trainerroad, Sufferfest… It’s more of a midrange-to-budget model. Works great for me but I am a flyweight, so I don’t need super high resistance. An update improved responsiveness, but at the expense of reasonable transitions. From a standstill/low power I can now stomp on the pedals and generate 1000+ W - for a second or two before approaching the ‘real’ power. Pre update, the power was slower on/off, but more accurate (I think). In any case, I’ve used it quite regularly (1000’s of miles/kms) over about 20 months. Depends on what you need, I guess…
I went from a Kirt Kinetic Road Machine to a KICKR2. In my humble opinion, the top tiers of smart trainers are all very similar to the point that price is really the driving differentiator. Your first decision is wheel-on or direct drive. Both have their trade-offs and are largely user preference. After that, the major products (Elite, Wahoo, Cycleops, Tacx) are so similar that price is almost all that is left.
If you are into the religion of road feel, then buy the unit with the heaviest flywheel.
If you want the highest maximum wattage (raw, max power) or max simulated incline (high watts at low RPM) then let those be the decision makers for you. However, again, most of the majors are pretty similar to the point the differences are immaterial.
Then, yo might be interested in some cool adjacent features like Wahoo’s Climb, Tacx’s cobblestone simulation, or just very low noise. If those matter to you, then that pretty much makes up your decision.
There is an emerging crop of ~$900 direct drive smart trainers like the Directo & Flux that are defining a new entry point. So, you may have to look for extra justification for the incremental $300 to justify the KICKR or Drivo. Then there is the Neo Smart at $1,600-- that price point is bordering on the absurd.
I have a KICKR2. I love it. If I had to buy right now, I would probably get a Directo or Flux. I am not sure that the KICKR is $300 better.
I think it’s come down to Chevy vs Ford with these trainers.
They’re all pretty damned close. I was in similar situation and considered the Cycleops Hammer, Wahoo Kickr, and Elite Drivo. Ended up going with the Hammer b/c I was able to get a deal on one that made it the cheapest of the 3.
I did avoid Tacx due to apparent QC issues on many of them. The Flux seemed particularly bad, and the Neo seemed better, but many people would develop a grinding that had to be fixed with a special tool. For $1,600 I didn’t want to futz around with that. Maybe they’ve fixed their issues, but 6 months ago they were nonstarters for me.
So far I love the Hammer. I also like the Cycleops is still made in the USA and has impeccable CS. But again, not sure there is a “wrong” choice here.
I have a kickr2 and really enjoy it. Accurate power measurements. Easy to setup. Doesn’t need a trainer tire. Great company as well. I highly recommend it. I use that with Zwift and it makes training indoors a lot more bearable.
I had 2 Tacx Flux trainers fail on me before I moved on to a Cyclops Hammer. It’s been great so far. I have one and my wife has one and no issues with Trainer Road or Zwift after heavy mileage.
I haven’t heard as much negativity about the Neo though so I don’t wanna indict Tacx as a whole, but I’ll be avoiding next time unless I hear some consistently great reviews.
I did read DCR’s review on all these, but wanted to read about some first hand experiences. Incidentally, i initially left off cyclops as i know someone who had an issue, but it seems that was a bit unfounded.
Didnt know about QC issues with Tacx, so i’ll avoid that. Funny enough, i thought it was Elite that also had issues
Performance Bike is having a 20% off trainer sale today, and I just ordered a Elite Direto for under $725. Should be enough for Zwift and most general workouts. I didn’t see the need for the more expensive ones yet. I’ll start here and if need be, I’ll upgrade down the road.
+1 to the Chevy vs Ford comparison. There’s still some quirks between each of them. It depends how much detail you want to go into, and what’s important. I’ve put a paragraph or two on almost every trainer that’s out there I’ve put a number of kms on here: https://gplama.blogspot.com.au/p/indoor-trainer-guide-gplama.html
*Most of my content is on YouTube but I needed an index of some sort. That’s the best I can come up with for now given my ‘GeoCities’ era skill with HTML
If you like rollers, you might want to take a look at the emotion rollers with the resistant unit. You can find full review in the link in my profile.
Other than that, the NEO, KICKR, DRIVO, DIRETO, and Cycleops Hammer are all very solid units and at the end of the day, it comes down to how accurate you want the trainer to be and noise.
NEO: Very Quiet. Your chain is louder. <+/-1% accurate and no calibration required.
Elite Drivo: Quiet and very accurate and no calibration required.
KICKR and Hammer: a little noisy but not bad. Not as accurate and require calibration
Direto: Super good trainer. Cheaper, very accurate and quiet. Require calibration but maybe once a month or so.
+1 from me as well. If noise is an issue Neo is obviously better than Kickr. I actually had to return mine and purchase Neo, since I could not believe how loud it was (for comparison my Kickr was louder than Kurt Kinetic Road Machine). Neo is jaw-droppingly silent.
If you like rollers, you might want to take a look at the emotion rollers with the resistant unit. You can find full review in the link in my profile.
Other than that, the NEO, KICKR, DRIVO, DIRETO, and Cycleops Hammer are all very solid units and at the end of the day, it comes down to how accurate you want the trainer to be and noise.
NEO: Very Quiet. Your chain is louder. <+/-1% accurate and no calibration required.
Elite Drivo: Quiet and very accurate and no calibration required.
KICKR and Hammer: a little noisy but not bad. Not as accurate and require calibration
Direto: Super good trainer. Cheaper, very accurate and quiet. Require calibration but maybe once a month or so.
Thanks, i found that quite helpful
Out of curiosity, which of the expensive ones allow you to have the resistance on the trainer to be dictated by whatever the PM is reading?
So if im doing erg mode, and my PM reads 280 (while the trainer reads 300), the trainer would “adjust” itself to match my PM
If you like rollers, you might want to take a look at the emotion rollers with the resistant unit. You can find full review in the link in my profile.
Other than that, the NEO, KICKR, DRIVO, DIRETO, and Cycleops Hammer are all very solid units and at the end of the day, it comes down to how accurate you want the trainer to be and noise.
NEO: Very Quiet. Your chain is louder. <+/-1% accurate and no calibration required.
Elite Drivo: Quiet and very accurate and no calibration required.
KICKR and Hammer: a little noisy but not bad. Not as accurate and require calibration
Direto: Super good trainer. Cheaper, very accurate and quiet. Require calibration but maybe once a month or so.
Thanks, i found that quite helpful
Out of curiosity, which of the expensive ones allow you to have the resistance on the trainer to be dictated by whatever the PM is reading?
So if im doing erg mode, and my PM reads 280 (while the trainer reads 300), the trainer would “adjust” itself to match my PM
I believe that’s more of a function of the software your using to control a trainer. Pretty sure Trainer Road does this, not sure about Zwift.
Wahoo Kickr and Snap can do powermatch. But you can practically do the same with most trainers if you use Zwift or TrainerRoad as long as you have both paired to the application.
Out of curiosity, which of the expensive ones allow you to have the resistance on the trainer to be dictated by whatever the PM is reading?
So if im doing erg mode, and my PM reads 280 (while the trainer reads 300), the trainer would “adjust” itself to match my PM
Ditto the above comments about powermatch. On that subject, think of your future trainer and future training software as a package deal. The software is probably more important than the trainer. Smart trainers are not meant to just sit and spin-- they are best when driven by a good training program. The training program will handle everything for you, you just need to show up and feel the burn.
The good news is that all of the mainstream training programs (TrainerRoad, Zwift, The Sufferfest) work well with all the mainstream trainers (Wahoo, Tacx, Cycleops, Elite, Tacx, etc.). If you are leaning toward Zwift for its ride gamification, then you might be interested in the Neo with its cobblestone simulation or Wahoo with its Climb attachment.
Btwn the bluetooth and the ant+ receivers, is there one that’s preferable to the other?
Pick the receiver based on the training software you choose. I have TrainerRoad, so I have an Ant+ receiver. The main reason is that TR does not get total power over Bluetooth if you have PowerTap pedals. It takes left power and doubles it. I am not sure this is a factor with other power meters, but I would ask TR if you are thinking about a BT receiver. And, TR has a specific BT receiver that is the only one that works. I do not know what Sufferfest and Zwift recommend and if they are as finicky as TR.
