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I race downhill at crazy speed. Rocks, meadows and trees fly past. The wind blows in my face. But as soon as I reach the first bend, I realise that I'm not up to the challenging trail. I try to avoid the branches and sharp-edged stones that protrude far into the track. But I get caught out on the narrow wooden bridge: in the middle of a sharp right-hand bend, I lose control of my bike - I slide straight towards a rock face ... End of terrain, or rather: game over!
Crashes without injuries, worlds that change at the touch of a button, new equipment every day - this is only possible in dreams, or in the virtual world. When it comes to crashing, you simply press the quit button and reload the track. It takes me eight attempts to get the nine stars I need for a technically clean run and thus to complete the Zwift mountain bike to unlock. Sounds tedious, but it's really fun. A future in which online training platforms want to inspire more bikers to train indoors.
For the animated mountain bike courses to bring a little bike flair into your living room, the hardware has to be right. Our roller trainer test shows: Compared to models from five or six years ago, technical development has made a quantum leap. In contrast to free rollers or most rear-wheel-based models, the interactive smart trainers are all Bluetooth and ANT+ compatible, which is what makes them suitable for use with virtual training software in the first place. So where once lengthy videos flickered across the screen, now elaborately animated, varied 3D worlds await, the course of which is transferred to the trainer in real time.
The entire comparison test with three software packages, nine smart roller trainers including all test data and MTB-specific tips for indoor training can be found as a PDF in the download area below.
The test costs 2.49 euros. Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in BIKE. We don't charge for them, but the opposite is the case: we charge for them - hundreds of thousands of euros every year.
SOFTWARE
- BKOOL
- Road Grand Tours
- ZWIFT
ROLLER TRAINER
- Elite Suito
- Elite Direto X
- JetBlack Whisperdrive
- Kinetic R1
- Saris H3
- Tacx Flux 2
- Tacx Neo 2T Smart
- Wahoo Kickr
- Wahoo Kickr Core
You can find this article in BIKE 2/2020. You can read the entire digital edition in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or the print edition in the DK shop reorder - while stocks last:
