ELITE Tuo Home Bike Trainer

Product Information

However, what caught my eye is that your left-side is measuring a fair bit lower than I’d expect (on Favero Duo’s) – but in particular, that’s oddly flipped on your Giant (where your right side is measuring a fair bit lower). Typically speaking I don’t see people flip-flop dominancy that much. They tend to increase/decrease the dominancy, but not usually flip it the other way 10-12w per leg. If we ignore the Giant data, then the Favero and H3 are actually within the realm of reason of drivetrain efficiency losses combined with accuracy claims (right at the edge, but within the envelope nonetheless). Direct drive turbo trainers are the undisputed last word in indoor bike training, but the one area that they do lose out to classic or wheel-on trainers such as the Elite Tuo is portability. There’s once again been almost no appreciable shift in this category this year, so things stay basically the same as last year. And, there’s really only a few entrants in this category anyway. Only Tacx, Elite, and in some areas Magene compete in this realm as a true smart trainer (ones where you can control resistance).

When stored, thetraineris really compact so you can place it anywhere in your house or office, enhancing the tidiness and refinement of any environment. TOP 3 FEATURES OF THE ELITE TUO Finally, Elite does have their own app that you can use for a handful of functions, but frankly I had no use for it here at any point in the testing cycle. And technically, there are two apps here. The first is their Elite My E-Training app, from which you can do calibrations: A non-smart trainer will give you an adjustment knob to up or reduce the resistance yourself. But a smart trainer will vary resistance automatically, which opens up a much more interesting experience when you link your trainer up to Zwift, Wahoo X or any one of a number of indoor training apps. Again – virtually everything on this list has already taken into account all of these considerations. But still, it’s worthwhile thinking of them and how they factor into your decision-making process.

Elite Tuo Trainer Specs

When I look at recommendations across all products I make, I try and recommend products to you in the same way that I’d do to friends and family. I keep it simple and explain exactly why I feel a given way. Zwift: As soon as it says ride 37kmh - ride above 55kmh. After a few seconds it says let you wheel get down to 0kmh. The Tuo follows the same app compatibility standards as previous Elite products, and essentially follows the industry norms as you’d expect from a high-end trainer. As you probably know, apps like Zwift, TrainerRoad, SufferFest, Rouvy, Kinomap, and many more all support most of these industry standards, making it easy to use whatever app you’d like. If trainers or apps don’t support these standards, then it makes it far more difficult for you as the end user. I also tried disconnecting the trainer from its power supply and reconnecting after 5 minutes hoping that this would reboot the trainer. The result was speeds of over 100 km/h and power of 500 to 1300 Watts. Utterly ridiculous values. Elite had no knowledge of this one. Turbo trainers have adjustable resistance to make it easier or harder to push around the pedals. With wheel-on trainers, this is achieved through friction between the rear wheel and the roller. In most cases, such as with the Tuo, magnetic resistance adjusts this and can be controlled with a handlebar mount on standard models.

So far so good, but the flipside to this is that when riding in ERG mode and doing a session such as 20/40s or 10x1min – anything where there’s a big power differential – you can quite easily end up in something of a ‘death spiral’ of ever-increasing resistance as you struggle to spin your legs up to speed. In previous years, several units made the budget trainer recommended list. All have been dropped save one: the Tacx Flow Smart. As usual, I put the trainer up against a number of power meters to see how well it handled everything from resistance control accuracy, to speed of change, to any other weird quirks along the way.

POWER ACCURACY

Although, with that said, the ERG mode wasn’t as aggressive as the Elite’s and it was possible to ride without any additional resistance from climbs or the ERG mode without spinning out – so the Volt 2 does have some positives over the Zumo. I’m usually OK at setting up new equipment, but the Tuo threw me for a loop. A massive instruction manual and complicated setup instructions took me by surprise. I followed the instructions – so I didn’t install anything improperly, but in the end, it was total overkill.

Overall, the Tacx Flux S simply has a significantly better ride feel and, in those areas where the Flux S isn’t the test leader (i.e. accuracy and gradient simulation), the Volt 2 doesn’t ‘do the double’ either, and so isn’t a compelling option. Buyer's guide to the best cheap smart trainers Likewise, the resistance and ride feel of this entry-level model is impressively close to that of Tacx’s flagship trainer. Changes in gradient were fast and smooth, whilst the resistance remained steady even when climbing at a low speed and low cadence – a challenging combination for a trainer. However, there are points which do let it down in comparison to the Flux S. First is the stability: these two-bar designs are much less stable than three leg versions – and the Flux is particularly solid.

ERG MODE

This experience has brought home to me just how vulnerable a good product is to the proper operation of its associated software. Without the software the product is practically useless, as there is no other way of controlling the product. LeMond Revolution Pro: The company has folded and ceased operations many years ago. Like CompuTrainer, they’re out of business. Trainers FAQ: The reality is that all these freehubs, cassettes and bearings on wheels or trainers have manufacturing tolerance. As such, the precise location of a cassette (essentially the final left-right location) dictates when there may or may not need to be a rear derailleur alignment adjustment made. It’s quite common to need a small adjustment (barrel adjuster for mechanical cable, trim on electronic) when you swap between wheels or trainers. Tuo sends Power, Speed, and Cadence data, and can be managed via the My E-Training software (12-month free subscription) or other indoor cycling services (which usually require a paid subscription) such as Zwift, TrainerRoad, The Sufferfest, Bikevo, Kinomap, and many more. 5. COMPATIBILITY Ja, Elite Tuo er designet til at fungere med din egen cykel. Du skal blot montere cyklen på hjultræneren. Det gør det muligt for dig at træne indendørs med den samme cykel, som du bruger udendørs, hvilket giver dig en sammenhængende træningsoplevelse.

Wheel-on smart trainers are an affordable option for indoor training and although they are often seen as the budget choice there are reasons this style of trainer could suit you better. As the name suggests, with this trainer the rear wheel of your bike stays on and this is set up against a roller. I suspect we may be running into a wattage floor issue here. And I suspect that if I were to toy with gearing (which in turn impacts speed), I’d find a setting that ‘works’ well for low wattage…but then inversely breaks high wattage. And vice versa. It’s a pattern that’s common in some trainers. Another issue was that when not using the ERG mode - even using a 53/11 gearing - I was having to pedal at 122 RPM to sustain around 400 watts. For larger or more powerful riders, this is a power level that can be sustained for fairly long periods of time, so would present a problem for those who prefer to spin a lower cadence. At least the ERG mode is an option, though.If you're not sure how to decide on the best budget smart trainer for your needs, out buyer's guide will answer some key questions. For further advice, it's worth reading our guide to the best smart trainers that we've tested here at Cycling Weekly. What makes a trainer smart? This is something that’s true of all trainers to some extent, it’s generally a good idea to spin up your cadence just before entering those intervals to give yourself a bit of a buffer. But this was a particular issue for the Zumo – and was also a problem for the higher-end Direto that we tested last year, so it seems that this is a more general problem for Elite. It’ll connect to the rear of the trainer, where you can see the LED status lights just above it. These lights indicate power (that it’s on), Bluetooth connectivity (Blue), and ANT+ connectivity (Green).