Hi, my CompuTrainer is too old now. I need to buy a new Smart Trainer. What is the best one for sale now?
Thank you
There is good info on many trainers in this article:
Annual Winter 2017-2018 Bike Trainer Recommendations
I watched this and bought one …
Direct drive trainers are best. Wheel on trainers like the Snap need warming up and a spindown done every ride. That’s 10 minutes before you can start a workout / race etc. Direct Drive are also more accurate. No tyre wear and or slippage either.
direct drive was out of my price range and I don’t mind warming up to do the spin down. In my experience the break strength is very similiar/identical on each kicker snap spin down so it might be you dont need to do this every time. Looking at Shane’s video I am happy with the accuracy level.
I paid $360 at Performance for an Elite Qubo Digital Smart B+ trainer. It took some messing around with the Elite app to get the power settings right (using their wizard) but after that it’s great for an entry level smart trainer.
I love the direct drive kickr. More expensive, but I’ve used it a lot. And as I weigh a good amount - 100kgs ~ the wheel in trainers are a bit fragile when I get around 1500 watts.
I treat my kickr purchase like buying a bike. I’;m going to use it a lot and want it as sturdy as possible.
Last season I tried both a Tacx Neo and a Kickr. My baseline was a Kurt Kinetic Rock and Roll with the Pro flywheel (a dumb trainer):
IMHO the ‘road feel’ of both the Neo and Kickr was inferior to the Kinetic.
In addition I found several issues with direct drive, some technical and one major (to me) convenience item: I ride the same bike outdoors that I use on the trainer and I like to be able to switch easily (from trainer to outdoors) depending on the day.
I wound up selling both the Neo and the Kickr in favor of a Wahoo Kickr Snap.
The Snap road feel is equivalent-to-slightly-better than Neo and Kickr AND it’s much easier/simpler to take the bike on/off quickly.
IMHO comments about tire wear and slipping are grossly overblown; I use the same tire year 'round, indoors and out, and it works perfectly well – there’s easily 4000 miles on the tire I’m running now. Just clean with rubbing alcohol after riding outdoors. Inflate to 100 PSI (tubeless) and use the same roller tension each time. My 2¢.
Don’t have any issues with slip but my road tyre delamination after a short time of usage. Bought a trainer tyre now.
**DB Smith (65+) **But how accurate is your power on the Snap? Yup, they are nice to ride on. I had 2 of them but could never get them calibrated right. I ended up getting a refund and now ride a Hammer. Power is near enough to my power meter. Still got my Fluid 2 trainer. I prefer the Hammer to ride on. Plus it doesn’t need a spindown every ride after a warm up period as the Snap does.
Yup, tyre wear isn’t really an issue if you use the right tyre and inflate it properly.
Hi fellows,
I procured a Tacx Neo. I did a lot of research, the Wahoo Kickr was my second choice. Has anyone heard anything about Tacx coming out with a front wheel elevator to simulate hills like Wahoo is developing?
Thank you,
CP 
How accurate is power on Kirkr Snap? – Don’t know, don’t care. The trainer behaves consistently and predictably i.e. it gets harder when it should and gets easier when it should and – all the time – is nice to ride because of the excellent flywheel effect.
I don’t own a power meter – at my age all it would do is embarrass me and make me feel old(er).
I spend on average 5-6 hours a week on my trainer. I need to have something that’s fun to use. If it shows my power output a lot higher or lower than it actually is, it’s ok with me so long as it’s consistent. I think the Snap is consistent.