What’s good at the cheaper end of the scale? Ultimately something reliable and accurate. Oh, and not too noisy.

Bike fitness has dropped and I appear to have got bigger round my middle since a job change means no cycle commuting any more.

I’ll probably be looking at zwift..

Wahoo Kickr Core.
Very quiet. Syncs easily and very quickly. Very good road feel.

Elite Zumo is £529 at Halfords and they’re available with whatever discount code you may be able to get.

Elite Direto X for me, it’s been faultless in nearly a year. Discontinued now so whatever the later model is.

I say faultless – the Elite app is appalling, but you only need to use it once in a blue moon to check the calibration I think.

Elite Zumo here, no issues apart from a bit of an oddity with cassette spacer size that means it doesn’t index as nicely as it could. No issue though as I put it in a nice gear and use zwift to regulate effort.

Wahoo kickr Core is the go to direct drive trainer these days but is mid range rather than cheaper. I’d look at the Elite Direto (had one, very good) or Elite Suito at the “cheaper” end. Find one you’re interested then look it up on http://www.dcrainmaker.com which is a great trainer review site.

no issues apart from a bit of an oddity with cassette spacer size that means it doesn’t index as nicely as it could.

I’m currently using an Ultegra 11-28 10 speed cassette on mine but it’s QR and I believe the Zumo freehub issue is related to 12mm thru-axles?

I’m running 9 speed Sora on QR and I think I have 1 spacer, 2 was too much and 1 not enough. It’s ok though, but a bit rattley.

Kickr Core for me – 18 months use and it’s been great.

I’m currently using an Ultegra 11-28 10 speed cassette on mine but it’s QR and I believe the Zumo freehub issue is related to 12mm thru-axles?

I believe it’s due to road and MTB cassettes being a slightly different width despite having the same number of gears. I have the Elite Direto with a SRAM 11 speed cassette. I don’t need any spacers on my actual rear wheel, but to get the cassette on the trainer it does need a spacer and this throws the indexing off

Elite Direto here, coming up to 3 years old, snapped belt late last year, emailed Elite pics etc, new belt and tensioner arrived 3 days later from Italy in a pandemic free of charge 🙂 … great service even though trainers outside or warranty

I looked at this and concluded the Elite Zumo was the cheapest – but it wasn’t in stock when I had the cash – and a mate had a lot of issues with his and ultimately got a refund and bought something else.

I was then looking at the Elite Suito and the Wahoo Kickr Core. Went with the Wahoo in the end – it’s pretty quiet – the noise you get is mostly just from the drivetrain going round – no massive whirring noise.

I run it in ERG mode with the Trainer Road app. I’m about a month and a week into training using Trainer Road and I definitely look slimmer and feel more powerful on the mountain bike as a result of turbo training. I like the app I’m using as it planned out an initial base training schedule for me and I just have to follow that. With ERG mode you don’t need to change gears on the bike itself – the trainer knows the power to apply from the app.

Edit – there are probably about 10 main turbo trainer apps that have different ways of training you / work for different people. Trainer Road is very stats driven and doesn’t have fake roads to watch or racing on it like Zwift. I just wanted something for a quick hour / hour and a half at a time that I could run easily off my iPhone.

Zwift seems to be the one to go for more for the social side of things and the racing – but ideally you want a monitor / tv / decent size tablet for that.

If you want more realistic scenery then something like Rouvy is probably worth a look.

Most of the apps you can get a free month trial for (which is what I did) which is worth doing.

Plenty to look at, thanks everyone.

A colleague has the Kickr Core and rates it. A friend has I’ve of the Elites and ended up firing up the lathe to make a part for it!

Anyone know of any codes for Wahoo? Longshot but worth an ask

CRC is showing the Elite Direto as in stock for £599; it’s now a discontinued model and somewhat less powerful that the Direto X that replaced it but it seems to be well regarded.

I’m not sure how it compares to the Zumo but I think that the Direto has a tad less power but does have a built in power meter (which I don’t think the Zumo does).

Decathlon have the Direto X in stock for £750.

Anyone know of any codes for Wahoo? Longshot but worth an ask

Highly unlikely to get codes, your best bet is keeping an eye out for a refurb model, they come up pretty regularly and are generally very good condition. I’ve had a Wahoo refurb twice and both times been very happy with what’s turned up!

which I don’t think the Zumo does

Zumo has BLE/Ant+ Power meter but you can also use an external one for better accuracy.

When I bought my kickr core a month or so ago the best deal (with stock) was from Certini Bike Company. Really quick delivery or you can pick up in store if you’re up north I think (their Bristol store didn’t have stock).

I also have an Elite Direto. Cheaper I guess, but not “cheap”! Seems to work really well though and very quiet. It’s quite big though, so worth measuring up your space.

Zumo has BLE/Ant+ Power meter but you can also use an external one for better accuracy.

Thanks for that. I think that I’m confusing the Zumo with the Suitio!

The Direto has an OTS power meter built it, which adds to its price, but I don’t know how ‘essential’ an onboard power meter is.

I have the Direto, bought from Halfords and was discounted at about this time last year. Had no real issues with it, it’s been a good piece of kit.
With Halfords I also purchased it through Klarna, so I could spread payments over 12 months at 0%…something you may want to consider.

I have the Elite Suito. Big improvement over the wheel on trainer I had before, even if the fact that the power meter is more accurate means my FTP has dropped quite a bit! Setup was easy (with 11 speed SRAM road cassette) and I’ve had no issues with it. It’s also very quiet, connects to Zwiift with no issues, but I agree with a previous poster about the app, it’s basic, to say the least.

Hmm, I’ve a mate with a Suito waiting on a warranty replacement from December. Which pushes me towards the Kickr, but the Direto is £100 cheaper…

Is the Kickr £100 betterer than the Direto?

Direto XR is the latest version but is £825 – its been great though.

I killed my Zumo very quickly. I think I was flexing the frame slightly which caused the belt to jump. The tracks for the belt mean if it does slip it can’t realign and it wrecks the belt (which isn’t replaceable). They weren’t able to replace so I got a refund under warranty.

I got the kickr core as a replacement and its way more robust, better feel and I’d say more accurate (and that’s with it giving lower power figures). It is more expensive but IMO worth it, a few of the guys I ride with are having issues with Elite trainer’s crapping out.

The Direto has an OTS power meter built it, which adds to its price, but I don’t know how ‘essential’ an onboard power meter is.

As the OP is looking to Zwift, I’d say the onboard power meter is essential. But are you not confusing the power meter types with whether it has a power meter full stop? My understanding is the OTS is just a particular measurement device on the Directo models and above, it seems a bit more accurate than on the lower models like the Suito.

Hmm, I’ve a mate with a Suito waiting on a warranty replacement from December. Which pushes me towards the Kickr, but the Direto is £100 cheaper…

Is the Kickr £100 betterer than the Direto?

In fairly standard recommend what you have, I’d say yes. I’d happily pay £100 more for a Kickr based on great experiences not only with the units themselves but also great customer service when I have previously needed it.

Have you checked out the DC Rainmaker reviews? He is definitely in favour of the Kickr, albeit the price points were different at the point this was written. Personally I’d still pay £100 for the road feel alone, dual BT is handy too though not £100 handy.

In any case, as with last year, I think the value prop for the Elite Direto XR is tough (last year it was the Direto X). Specifically because the Direto XR is $949, while the KICKR CORE is $899. Sure, the Direto XR includes a cassette, but a cassette only costs about $50-$60 anyway, and more importantly, the KICKR CORE has (in my opinion) far better road feel. It also has dual-Bluetooth Smart channels, something super useful in 2020 as you end up with multiple devices needing to connect on Bluetooth Smart (both Elite and Wahoo still have endless ANT+ connections). Which isn’t to say the Direto XR is bad – not at all (in fact, ERG mode was quite good). It’s just that if I’m standing in front of both of them at their list prices, I’m gonna grab the KICKR CORE every time.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/11/smart-cycle-trainer-recommendations-guide-winter.html/

I’ve also got a Zumo. As others have said, the Elite apps are rubbish but you only use them once in a while (I had to email Elite to get help completing the calibration as it wasnt working but they are very responsive on email). Various discounts available at Halfords.

Its very quiet though I got a mat as well which helped dramatically. My gears also jumped a bit at first but I found that you just need to ensure that the cassette side is snug (as much as it’ll go) rather than sitting in the middle.

Wheel On – Bkool Smart Go is the cheapest. I’ve had one, worked fine as an introduction to smart TT’s and Zwift. Was noisy though

Direct Drive – Elite Zumo is the cheapest. What I currently run and have done for about a year, few thousand kilometers on it with no issues, whisper quiet. My fan keeping me cool is the loudest part of the setup

I’d buy the Zumo again if I had to. But now I “enjoy” training on the turbo I’ll probably treat myself to a Neo Tacx 2t but that’s top end of the market

I picked up the Elite Direto from CRC for the price mentioned above – i was looking second hand but ones on ebay were going for about £50 less than that was new so i did a bit of research looked at dc rainmaker and GP Llama youtube reviews and they both seems to rate it.

It doesnt have the latest models power figures or gradient simulation but for me that doesnt matter.

My first ever turbo and all set up and running with Zwift very simply and easily.
I use mine in my garage set up permanently and its fairly quiet.

Its been absolutely faultless since set up – i use it around 3 times a week and have only had it just over a month so obviously i cant comment on longevity just yet. But really impressed with it so far.

I’ve got a Zumo, got in just before everything sold out around this time last year! It’s my first trainer of any type and I’m very happy with it. I can’t speak to how accurate the power is but TBH it works fine for Zwift so I don’t really care. Ditto ‘road feel’ – seems to respond fine to ups/downs/surface changes in Zwift.
Only niggle is that I’ve used 2 bikes on it and neither have worked well on the smallest cog.

I also got a Zumo this time last year when it was on offer and got a BC discount on top. Been great for an intro into Zwift/RGT.

I would always prefer to ride outdoors, so it’s had a steady, rather than intense, amount of use.

The only thing I can comment on is the indexing…obvs there’s some difference in its cassette spacing having read the above, but 95% of the time I don’t notice anything untoward.

If you run in ERG mode the indexing probably isn’t too relevant as long as you can get one gear and leave it there. It was recommended to leave the chain on the smaller front cog and then get as straight a chainline from there as you can.

Power is a combination of torque and speed – if you go higher rpm the resistance gets a little easier – if you go slower then you really feel the resistance ramp up.

Another Kickr Core user here. It seemed to me to offer the best compromise of price to performance/reliability with excellent warranty support if needed. You’ll need a decent fan to make training indoors bearable and that’ll easily drown out the noise of the trainer/bike.

I think I’m going to go for the Core. Looking at secondhand prices a new one makes more sense.

Quick question, I’ll be using my Arkose with a 1*11 set up, I’m guessing it will be fine with a 40t cassette?

There’s no reason it shouldn’t. I just bought a cheap ztto 11spd to save having to swap the cassette back on to the wheel when I wanted to ride outside.

+1 Kickr core. Quiet, works, (probably) available without too much wait from somewhere or other. FWIW of the handful of people I know with trainer problems over the last few months, none were kickr.

I go the KickR Core a couple of months ago – replaced a Tacx Flow thing which was terrible.

Signed up to Sufferfest and it’s all great so far 🙂

Wahoo Kickr Core ordered last night 👍

Thanks for the input all 😎