Elite Direto XR-T Smart Trainer

I have the first generation of this trainer, the Drivo 1. A friend plugged in a 24v power supply into my Drivo which requires 12v and damaged the control board. Elite support helped me get a replacement board in a very timely manner. This for a trainer that has been out of warranty for 3 years. So if you are looking at a smart trainer you should consider what support will be available after the warranty period. My Drivo is now back online and performing perfectly.

I bought one of these when Western was offering a 20% off promo. It replaced a wheel-on "semi-smart" trainer that got me through one winter of Zwifting. I'm super happy with the Elite Direto XR. It's performed flawlessly and has really improved my off season training experience.

Has worked perfect for 3000 miles. Only trainer I�ve ever had. I don�t even think about it. I just ride Zwift and it purrs along without any issues. I used my own 9 speed cassette with no problems. I�ve always had good luck with bike stuff made in Italy. Other countries too of course. I like this trainer though.

I was looking to upgrade from the wahoo kickr snap and looked at many direct drive models. Settled on the elite direto for four reasons 1) built in power meter; 2) included cassette; 3) 5 min set up right out of the box. 4) Cheaper option to wahoo kickr and core considering it includes the cassette. Power is accurate- I have compared with my garmin power pedals. And resistance and sustained connection to Zwift have been way better than the snap. With the snap, I had to use a USB extension chord- no need with the Direto. It does take some time/ trial and error to figure out which directo component to pair with zwift. For the power meter it's pretty straightforward- just pair it to the direto power meter. For the controllable trainer portion DO NOT pair to the option that comes up as the elite controllable trainer. Pair it to the other option that just comes up as elite (with the serial number). Once you remember that resistance to Zwift will always sync properly, albeit with a second or two delay on rolling courses. If you don't want to use Zwift, you can also control the trainer manually thru the Elite "my training" app on your phone. Just hit the training option and go to level mode. From there you can manually adjust tension in case you want to do interval training or whatever w/o a formal cycling app. The other thing I liked about this trainer is that you can now purchase the Elite Rizer, which is a grade simulator similar to the wahoo kickr climb.

I'm level 30 on zwift. I have been riding on spin bikes with tensioner and power meters. I was really looking forward to having zwift control resistance with terrain and according to workouts. But even after getting it connected and working, I have to disconnect and reconnect the controllable resistant part to get it working. And then during workouts it won't give enough resistance the majority of the time. Zwift will tell me more power during a workout. I don't control resistance, the trainer and zwift do. I petal faster, zwift drops the resistance more. That goes on till there is almost I resistance and then snaps to a good resistance but immediately lowers it. Zwift never gets the equipment to test from these guys. These companies often out source the software to people who don't bike and if they do it's like 15min at 60rpm and 150watts is their workout for the week. If you want to zwift I don't recommend this trainer.

Compare this with the Wahoo Kickr, the Tacx Neo and you will see this trainer is the top of the line. The cost, which is less than the Wahoo and the Tacx, is refreshing. Super Easy to set-up, and pretty compact to put away if needed. The actual use is perfect. Works amazingly with Zwift, Sufferfest, and a few other training programs. My power reporting has been perfect, compared with a 4iiii power meter. The gradient simulation feels amazing, and the included cassette is a nice bonus. A nice bonus is in the box was a 1 month swift membership, and a 1 year voucher for the Elite Smart Training program. Support is good, I get why some people rate the support from Elite as poor, there is a slight language barrier (Italian vs other languages) but they do try and solve the issue. Having owned several Elite products they really do stand behind their products and make things right. 10/10 would but this trainer again. No regrets!