Smart trainers have exploded in popularity, but with more options available than ever before, picking which one to buy isn’t a straightforward decision.
I’ve tested 17 different models over the past few years, so I’ve got a good idea about which ones are worth your hard-earned cash – and which ones aren’t.
While there are countless trainers at a wide variety of prices, smart trainers can broadly be broken down into three price categories: budget, mid-range and high-end.
Given this, I’ve picked my favourite option at each of those levels. If I was in the market for a new smart trainer this winter, this is what I’d buy.
Best budget smart trainer – Van Rysel D100
At the lower end of the market, smart trainers cost around £200 / $200 to £400 / $400
Until recently, your options were limited to wheel-on models – some of which were okay, but all of which tended to suffer from a lack of stability, increased noise and relatively poor ride feel.
With the recent launch of the Van Rysel D100, which costs £259.99 / €299.99 with a Zwift Cog singlespeed adaptor, there's finally a direct-drive option at this end of the market.
Luckily, it’s also a good one, although it's worth noting it has a few limitations that mean it isn’t suitable for everyone.
The biggest is that the D100 has a maximum power output of only 600 watts, meaning it can’t supply any more resistance to your pedalling past that point.
Of course, not every virtual race or group ride ends in a sprint, and most ERG mode workouts don’t even include them – so this might not be a deal breaker for everyone.
But if you're a fairly powerful rider, or have aspirations to be one, you’re better off saving up for a better-specced smart trainer. As we’ll discuss shortly, you don’t need to spend that much more to see big jumps in spec.
That said, if that maximum power-output figure isn’t an issue for you, there’s otherwise a lot to like about the Van Rysel D100.
The ride feel, for example, is leagues ahead of similarly-priced wheel-on smart trainers, such as the Tacx Flow Smart or Elite Novo.
Likewise, while the cadence data accuracy offered by the D100 is dreadful, I was pleasantly surprised by how accurate the power data is.
In my testing, it generally averaged within 3 per cent of on-bike power meters, such as Favero’s Assioma Duo pedals and a Quarq DFour spider, once properly calibrated – which isn’t too far off the +/- 2 per cent or better most pricier smart trainers promise.
Another area where the D100’s spec is compromised on paper is with the maximum simulated gradient, which can only go up to six per cent.
In my experience, though, this is much less of an issue in reality – on Zwift, for example, the default trainer difficulty setting is set to 50 per cent, meaning you only feel half of the on-screen gradient at the trainer.
Set up like this, then, Zwift won’t max out the D100’s resistance until the in-game gradient reaches 12 per cent.
If you use Rouvy or another indoor cycling app that has a greater focus on realism, it may be more of an issue, because you’ll likely hit that resistance ceiling faster and more frequently.
For the most part, though, it’s far less limiting than the 600-watt maximum power output.
Wait for a sale
If you’re shopping on a tight budget, but can’t get hold of the Van Rysel D100, the best strategy is to shop around and wait for a good deal on a pricier direct-drive model, rather than settle for a wheel-on trainer.
Given the increased competition in this space, a lot of smart trainer prices have gone down in recent years – and if you can have a few options in mind and wait for a sale, it’s often possible to get fantastic deals on slightly older models.
During last year’s Black Friday sales, for example – you could get an Elite Suito for only £274.99 in the UK, which was an absolute steal.
Best mid-range smart trainer – JetBlack Victory
If you’ve got just a bit more money to spend, though, your options really start to open up.
Here in the mid-range, the new undisputed champion is the recently launched JetBlack Victory.
Priced at £399 / $399 / €449.95, the Victory has class-leading specs, every feature you could ever want, plus a great ride feel and accurate data to top it all off.
For only £140 more than the Van Rysel D100, the JetBlack Victory can simulate gradients of up to 16 per cent and can provide up to 1,800 watts of resistance.
In my opinion, that’s going to be enough for anyone who isn't a world-class sprinter.
I occasionally saw the power numbers averaging a little on the low side, compared to on-bike power meters at the beginning of rides. But this always sorted itself out within about 10 minutes of riding, likely thanks to the automatic calibration feature.
Beyond that, it also has WiFi connectivity, which gives you a stronger, potentially more stable connection than with Bluetooth or ANT+, and Race Mode.
This means it can send and receive data packets to and from the smart device it’s connected to at a much faster rate, giving you a more responsive feel in whatever app you’re using.
As the name suggests, this is particularly useful in virtual races, where having a more responsive system means there’s less lag between your input at the pedals and what happens on-screen.
Both WiFi and Race Mode are features that even some super-expensive high-end smart trainers, such as the Tacx Neo 3M, don’t have. To see them here on a £400 trainer is amazing and I hope other brands take notice.
Availability issues
The JetBlack Victory is the clear category leader at this price point, but it’s quite hard to get hold of currently, because the brand is struggling to keep pace with demand.
Luckily, there are plenty more great options around this price.
There’s nothing that has the full featureset and low price the Victory has, but options we’ve reviewed, such as the Wahoo Kickr Core (£449.99 / $499.99 / €499.99), Elite Suito (£499.99 / €549) and Elite Direto XR (£649.99 / €649) are all great trainers and can generally be had at discounted prices if you shop around.
Best high-end smart trainer – Wahoo Kickr V6
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If you’ve got a large budget to spend on a smart trainer, you have a lot of great options to choose from.
Before we talk about specific models, it’s worth pausing and considering whether many of us really need a high-end smart trainer.
For the most part, all you’re getting for the extra money is a slightly better ride quality, and higher maximum power and simulated gradient specs – and how many of us need more than 1,800 watts of resistance?
It’s like the difference between Shimano’s flagship Dura-Ace groupset, and its Ultegra and 105 options. Dura-Ace is undoubtedly shinier and a little lighter, but 99 per cent of us will be able to get by perfectly fine with either of the cheaper options.
All that said, if you want a high-end smart trainer, I think the best option is currently Wahoo’s Kickr V6.
It’s a couple of years old now, but it’s got every feature you’d want, including WiFi, Race Mode and so on.
It’s also got a substantial, 7.3kg flywheel that generates lots of inertia and makes the ride feel excellent.
In terms of fluidity through the pedals, the difference compared to something such as the Kickr Core or JetBlack Victory isn’t massive. However, the extra stability of its wider, three-leg design and much heavier overall weight of just under 22kg, mean it’s super-stable underneath you when cranking out high power efforts.
For someone as light as me, that doesn’t make a huge difference, but if you’re a bigger, more powerful rider, you’ll likely appreciate a trainer with more ballast such as this.
High-end competition
In terms of other options around this price, it’s fair to say there are few bad choices.
The Elite Justo Two builds upon the original Justo, with almost identical specs to the Kickr V6. Given the Kickr V6 is around £200 cheaper, though, it’s still the obvious pick for me at this level.
The other big contender at this end of the market is the Tacx Neo 3M, but we’re yet to fully test that.
On paper, though, it’s incredibly expensive – £1,749.99 / €1,999.99 / $1,999.99 – and doesn’t seem to offer much more than the likes of Wahoo’s Kickr V6 or the Elite Justo.
In fact, it’s even missing key features such as WiFi connectivity and Race Mode.
Given how good its predecessor, the Neo 2T, was, I expect the Neo 3M to offer excellent performance in most areas, but it’s hard to see on paper why it costs double what the Wahoo Kickr V6 does.
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