I had to make a difficult choice to wait and save or run out and buy a “good enough” smart trainer knowing that waiting meant spending a lot of money on a product that I knew little about in a tactile sense as a relatively new bike rider. However, I decided to wait and get a Tacx Neo and I could not imagine a better experience. I would advise you to get a trainer equivalent to it, or the Neo itself. One thing I have seen talked about that I will never know on a personal level is spin downs and calibrations for various trainers, something that would drive me nuts. This probably doesn’t help you since you seem pretty fired up to buy a trainer within your budget but reconsider if you can find the strength.
I have a Kickr and a Kickr Snap. I’m happy with both, but if I had to do it again I’d just buy two Snaps (for me and my wife). It’s very quiet and the experience is very good. You can probably find it for 20%off right now somewher.
Definitely go for a direct drive trainer if you have time to save up for it. I can highly recommend the Elite Direto which is one of the best value-for-money smart trainers on the market right now. Also one of the most accurate on power measurement. I use it directly connected via Bluetooth to Apple TV 4K. Super easy to set up and amazing quality.
Hi Mark, Like you, I’m restricted by budget (especially at this time of year!) I picked up one of these in Halfords (it’s a halfords exclusive and not listed on Zwift website) and I can confirm it works via ant+ for zwift in terms of resistance. It’s actually one of the better trainers i’ve had. I prefer it to my wife’s tacx vortex.
I’ll try and hook it up via bluetooth this evening and leave another comment to let you know how it goes.
Hi Marc, or to anyone who got here researching if Zwift and Elite Novo Smart are compatible…
I picked up one of these from Halfords couple of weeks ago. It works with Zwift. It’s fully controllable… BUT there are some more details you need to know.
With Zwift running on PC, and if you have MobileLink installed on an android device on the same wifi network, you can use the bluetooth of the phone to give cadence and speed data to Zwift. However, when connected like this, Zwift CAN NOT control the resistance on Novo Smart - so it’s more or less like a dumb trainer + speed sensor. Elite’s own MyETraining can control Novo Force’s resistance over bluetooth if you attempt one of their own programs (code for a years subscription comes with the trainer). However Zwift can’t do that.
What you need is an ANT+ dongle. With that on the PC/laptop, Zwift experience is perfect (just managed to get that going today and had quick spin). Resistance goes up and down, and everything is working as expected. Cheap smart trainer, once you acquire an ANT+ dongle (and a USB extension lead).