Have trainers reached their peak?

General Discussion
27

100% these.

Zwift did the smart thing and partnered with JetBlack to come up with the Zwift Hub. No reason they couldn’t find someone like Octane Fitness or whatever and release what amounts to an adjustable exercise bike frame that attaches to the Hub, or any trainer for that matter. Instead of derailleurs (which means wear, and service required) the frame could go belt drive and have a simple freehub adaptor for the belt.

I’ve mentioned similar before in other threads but I’ll post a photo of the closest thing to exist so far: the “Adjust-a-Bike” or “PowerWatts Bike”.

Adjust-a-Bike
Adjust-a-Bike1576×1280 126 KB

At scale, producing something like that would be “a few hundred dollars” at most. Bundle it with a Zwift Hub and you have, effectively, a smart bike, adjustable for every family member, for under $1000USD. Let’s round up and say $1500 for profit-sake. That undercuts every other smartbike by thousands.

OK, topic at hand. I own a NEO2T and I do think trainers have almost peaked.

A few features I’d like

  • aforementioned virtual gearing
  • HR sensor rebroadcast
  • Autocalibration (NEO has it, latest couple of Kickr generations, Elite Justo, Hammer H4, Zwift Hub but every trainer should, not just flagships)
  • multiple BLE connections (Wahoo does this already so you can configure the trainer on the fly - Tacx has been the hold out)
  • more standard power input - no more barrel plugs and external bricks - USB-C power delivery or a built in brick (like the Tacx Flux) with standardized NEMA type cord
  • price - Zwift Hub may be the new king here - I think Tacx would do well to offer a “NEOlite” with smaller flywheel and lower power/gradient. Many of my friends are much smaller and won’t get anywhere near the flagship trainer limits but still want the benefits of autocalibration, silence, road feel etc.

I think there’s more innovation to be had with “other stuff” like smart buttons for controlling apps. I get that elGato StreamDeck has some cool options for Zwift buttons but that’s PC/Mac only - it needs to be integrated with the game regardless of platform, with no extra user trouble.

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