Best Smart Trainers 2022 | Wahoo vs Tacx vs Elite vs Saris turbo trainers tested
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- If you’re going to fork out for an all singing, all dancing turbo trainer, you want to make sure you’re buying the best on the market. We compared the Wahoo Kickr V5 with the Tacx Neo 2T, Elite Direto XR-T and Saris H3. Our testers compared power data against a set of pedals and crank based power meter, as well as assessing the responsiveness of the Erg mode, interaction with Zwift’s racing features, day to day practicality - such as the need to zero offset - and of course the ride feel. Read more online: bit.ly/3I2xubr
00:00 How do we test?
02:18 Elite Direto XR-T review
08:15 Saris H3 review
13:17 Tacx Neo 2T review
18:31 Wahoo Kickr V5 review
Elite Direto XR-T: £829.99/ $999.00
Tacx Neo 2T: £1,199.00 / $1,399.99
Wahoo Kickr V5: £999.99 / $1,199.99
Saris H3: £749.99 / $1,099.99
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I've had the Elite Direto (not even the XR version) now for 4 years. Never had an issue with connectivity, ERG mode is way smoother than what it was described in this video, and the new version is minimum 150$ less (at least here in Canada) than any other smart direct drive trainers. I totally recommend it if you're on a budget and would like to keep a few extra $$$ in your pocket to spend when you're back on the road 😉
I also have the og Elite Direto!, have had it since 2018, and still works great. Checked the calibration, and its spot on. Ive used it both with trainerroad and Zwift aswell as Garmin Edge 1030+ trainer mode, and all works great. Never had drop out in connection either with ANT+ nor bluetooth. Paired with the Elite Sterzo and it feels great. Have not tried any other trainer except those roller trainers, but the ERG mode feels nice for me aswell.
I love my H3. I used the first gen Hammer for about 3 years. Both are awesome and robust.
The Tacx review is HEAVILY flawed, as the front wheel needs to be on the supplied front wheel block, which entirely eliminates any forward-backward movement...SHEESH
Had my wahoo core smart trainer 1 1/2 years. It started making a loud grinding noise, really loud. I sent in a video and they replaced it, no problem. Other than packing it all up again etc… When I put it in the box and moved it around, I could hear ball bearings rolling around in the housing. Wahoo even included a packing slip so I didn’t have to pay for postage. AND they shipped a “refurbished” unit back to me super pronto, which was great. But you guys are focusing on the wrong thing. For +$1,000, you want a unit that will last 3-5 years. Right? I got other friends that said exactly the same thing about the wahoo, “1 1/2 years”…. But service is great. I used it 2 times a week in the summer, 3 times a week in the winter. 1:30 -2:30 SEGMENTS. GUYS…… DO A LONG TERM TEST. 2 Year test. 3 year test.
We can see that the Tacx is not stable at all during sprints. Why are you still saying that it was very stable while the Elite which didn't move and inch was not as good. Also other than the one for Tacx all the prices you had written are way higher than what you can get for these especially for Elite and Saris. Check the prices on bike-components. The Elite is almost HALF THE PRICE of the Tacx and about %60 less than the Wahoo, Saris is about 30 and 40 respectively. Yes the Wahoo is actually more expensive than the Tacx despite you saying it is significantly cheaper... Is the Neo with it's incredibly unreliable virtual flywheel really 2x better than the Elite? I don't think so. If money was no object I would buy the Wahoo with Climb and the rocker plate but until that's the case it's the Elite for me.
The H3 does ship with a front riser and a disc brake spacer.
What trainer works best in erg mode? Less interested in zwift but rather Sufferfest or trainer road. Seems like the h3 gets a lot of praise for erg mode? Looking in the 700-1100 usd range
So... the bit about compatibility with front-wheel risers is essentially nonsense, and could have been found out if one had been used - and while you *could* change to a Saris to avoid the road-feel of the Tacx during HIIT efforts you could, more easily, just turn it off.
Saris H3 only needs calibration once every 40 hours of use according to the manual, which means maybe once every other month. The calibration process takes a minute or two. Not such a big deal.
Thanks for clarifying this :)
Great rollers at a great price. Easy to assemble fun to ride
You can strap the Tacx or Yahoo to a rocker plate and they then don't move while sprinting. Some extra cost but worthwhile imho.
Kickr V5 all day long worth the moolah!! 👍👍
I‘ll take the Bicycle ;) thank you so much
Good tests that were done and nice discussion. Next time maybe include a table at the end with the tests that were completed and the results. Interesting that so much emphasis was put on the Kickr climb ability, nothing mentioned about the ability not to have to power plugged in or the real world simulation of the flywheel when cycling downhill.
If you want a Kickr Climb, why buy another trainer.... just buy the Kickr with the climb.
If you had a block or tire mount under front tire would that change the lunging forward on the trainers during sprints?
make something out of wood blocks if you need to.
Elite👌🤟 just great great value
What connection did you use with the Elite Direto XR-T and Zwift?? I use Bluetooth and it drops off every now and then. Should I try ANT or the same happens? Thanks
I use ANT on my XR-T my ANT-dong that is contected to a desktop PC via USB-C and it works just fine and no drop of on Zwift or any of the other apps that I use so far after about a month. I have not used bluetooth with my trainer more then a little using my mobile and it worked during that short time. What could be with bluetooth is a problem named in the past, concerning that there can become disturbances between Bluetooth and Wifi. They have at least in the past been sent on about the same frequencis. Since the problem is old I most certainly will say that collisions was about the 2,4 ghz band which was before the only band used for wifi. Concerning ANT my knowledge is very limited but as I understand it, Ant is developed as a variant of its own coming out of Bluetooth.. A company that has been very involved the development of ANT is in fact Garmin. Well I hope you got some hold of problems with Bluetooth and Wifi at least and that I did not get to much into IT mumbo jumbo.
bluetooth has too much radio interference, avoid it and stick with ant. you may need an active usb extension cable and place the ant sensor right next to the trainer. once i did this, 0% dropoust over 10k miles on zwift.
so the trainer for 1200usd is better then the one for 600. Thank you!
Now, can you compare the Wahoo Kickr V5 vs the current Wahoo Kickr Core? What do you really get for the extra £300 / $300 other than an 11spd cassette? That's a significant chunk of adding the Climb to your pain cave.
Axis feet and an easier setup. More compact when it is put away, too.
1% accuracy, no manual calibration required, adjustable feet, direct connection, well worth the extra cost imho
Auto calibration
@@thelmaviaduct Thank you for the list. I've been on Zwift with a wheel on smart trainer for a while so any of these would be a big upgrade.
How will these compare with a cheaper magnetic trainer? I think I would prefer to set a resistance and ride at that level but it sounds like these flywheels I've never used will make it feel like your carrying speed instead of a constant resistance. Is there anyway of changing that?
They leave cheap magnetic trainers in the dust …. Not even close.
No think rider x5 ?
Really dont understand why testing the stability of the trainers on a carpet floor would give any authentic understanding of their performance in this regard. Would be more fair to test the trainers on a surface with greater friction as that is the way they are supposed to be set up.
I was laughing my ass off seeing that , on the Carpet, I thought am i supposed to take this seriously..
Carpet is not the issue… it shouldn’t move on any surface
Kickr V5 is the best
Why didn’t you talk about the ability to use the Tacx without power?! Massive advantage if using to warm up for a TT. Especially as your ridiculous film on the carpet shows it unplugged!!
There's no mention in the review that the Kickr Climb adds $600US to the cost of the Wahoo trainer.
Despite what he said, the Tacx neo2t does come with a riser block for the front wheel. Unfortunately, these days you can't trust reviews. This review is clearly biased towards Wahoo.
@@MrRJH90 He means unit like Kickr climb to simulate gradient. But I believe Elite RIZER can be used with any smart trainer and basically all the comments about lack of dedicated unit means that it's not Wahoo trainer so Kickr Climb won't work with it ;)
What's the life of a trainer? my Directo X is sick after 2yrs hard graft and circa 2000 hrs?
I have had my direto since 2018 and not a problem. What is the sickness of your trainer? Maybe its an easy fix? (but I have no strong legs, which might help :D ftp at 264 watts)
Doesn't the Direto XRT come with a riser Block?
Elite trainers come with a free headache, not sure about the riser block though???
@@thelmaviaduct Direto XR-T does come with a riser block. I just wonder why the reviewer did not use it.
As for the price quoted a 3 second Google search throws up prices around £630 from UK based suppliers.
@@michaelgurd7477 Would sooner spend £1k on something that works than £630 on a ballache 👍🏿
@@thelmaviaduct True, but a lot of folk will not be able to justify the £400 real world price difference between the Direto and Saris H3 and the Tacx Neo. (~£300 for the Kickr).
@@michaelgurd7477 They can mate, I'm on shit wages and learned the hard way. Plenty of places are doing 3 years interest free payment, works out cheaper than gym membership and still worth money once payed off. Pointless spending £600 on a POS, it's a false economy, been there and done it.
Based on weighting you used I.e. realistic feel (not measurable) and extras ... the kicker won with. 4 stars? but based on cost/ stability/ function of basic turbo comments then the Saris H3 won also with 4 stars? LOL
Having used a few Elite trainers, the V5 Kickr is like night and day. The review of it is spot on. I'd sooner spend double on something that works, than half on something that causes you a self inflicted headache. The trainer is very smooth, quiet, accurate and fast to respond to short erg intervals. Would sooner buy £1k of metal than £1.2k of plastic also, the build quality is great, no creaking or flex, but the new feet take the edge off. Heard bad things about the H3 longevity, and I wouldn't touch an elite trainer ever again. The v5 has had a few firmware updates over the past 14 months I've had mine, this shows the mfrs are still trying to improve their already great product. Their ceo took ownership of the v4 issues, that took balls, so credit there also. Pay cheap pay twice, buy the v5, it just works with zero hassle.
👌🏼
I'm on an Elite and could not agree with this more.
Belt issues?
@@michaelgurd7477 no issues at all, it just works.
@@thelmaviaduct I've had 2 Direto's. First one I broke the belt and that was replaced under warranty by Halfords. The second is 2 years old but I have got a spare belt just in case.
You use rubber carpet and you dont have problem
precisely, not sure why common sense was not used in the evaluation...
Don't worry, whilst we filmed on a carpet the testing was done in a different location, over a much longer period of time, with far less carpet under the trainers...
@@cyclingweekly worth editing the video then. Looks totally ridiculous!!
Video not accurate. I think these guys were paid. I have the Elite XR and the Neo 2T and honestly i find the Elite WAY BETTER than the Neo 2T. All the people at my Team think same way.
This video is totally FAKE....
Cycling Weekly, you guys need to do some research...
Hey Juan care to share more? I'm looking at these trainers and I'm very divided at which one to choose, my biggest concern is stability on the bike and having good resistance while working out. Thanks!
Hi
Does anyone know if I can get a smart trainer that is compatible with my specialized turbo creo bike pls
Please add CC or let him know he dosent need to speak so fast and unclear 😅
Erg mode is for masochists