 Wahoo, Cyclops or Tacx or Tacx. I still can't quite figure that one out. What are the differences between these smart trainers? Personally Did you jump up? I don't have much of an idea, but the gentleman I was with yesterday, his name's Gabe Sullans He's the owner of Cannondale dealer base here in Melbourne, Urban Peddler, 20 plus years of industry experience and the official dealer to a number of these smart trainers He kindly walked us through the different functions and features of the Wahoo, the Tacx and also the Cyclops Now for the first seven minutes We walk through the different functions and features of these different smart trainers And if you want to go deep on flywheels for the last three minutes, Gabe explains the impact fly Impact flywheels have on overall ride quality on these machines. Hope you enjoy this video But whilst I'm here, can you explain to me the difference between All these trainers that you've got here the Wahoo, the Cyclops and the is it the is it Tacx or Tacx? Tacx, I believe is the main thing. I've heard it pronounced both ways But some of the some of the main things and really I think what we want to talk about is the ones that people are talking about today The most popular ones are the direct drives So those are ones where the the bike Attaches to the trainer and you can see that the rear wheel is taken off and there's a cassette mounted onto the trainer Now one of the main benefits of that is the whole thing is lower if you've used a traditional trainer in the past It's really tall to get up and over it Because it's everything sitting higher because the rear wheel is rubbing on the drum So when we're talking about just the direct drive units Now we've got some of the most popular models here and we'll we'll go in price order We'll start with the Tacx flux Now the flux is it's a it's a solid trainer. It's got a traditional flywheel on it 1099 1099 Now um It is direct drive and it has a lot of the the main features that everyone's looking for in a smart trainer It is also more one of the more popular ones because of the price Now it uses a traditional flywheel and that's important when we get to the neo We'll kind of talk a little bit about that Now going up in price. We're talking about the next the kicker is probably Overall, I think has really got the most popularity on the market It's definitely the one the brand that people recognize the most They really owned very very early on they owned the whole smart trainer idea and they I don't I can't tell you if they were the first but they were the first that I remember And and I was around when it was happening So the the neat thing about the wahu is they've worked with a lot of the the app developers And they were first to go in and work was whipped and some of the other ones So that when you're using their their trainer with the apps, you'll find that they're seamless Almost every one of them is seamless Now the the hammer was kind of a latecomer and you'll notice that they had a couple rough edges and I believe That's the cyclops It's called the hammer now one of the neat things about the hammer is it's really easy to fold up so Pull that you do the other side and it's got a handle built in Now if you are in a house where you have to put up your trainer if you use it every time that is an extremely important feature It's one of the more quiet ones as well. So The the hammer is a solid one I've had this in my house for the last six months and have been using it and it has been one of my favorites It's also Very easy to change the axle caps on here for through axles So if you want to put a mountain bike or a road bike that has through axles These caps unscrew literally with your hand So you don't need any crazy tools and you've got a little bag of adapters that comes with the trainer It's not and that honestly, I'll tell you if you have a road bike with through axles And or you have a mountain bike with through axle that you want to use one of maybe has boost And that's those are all issues And we're talking about different axle lengths and caps that you need to work with So all of those caps come in the box and you just unscrew them with your hands and put them on and put the through axle through That comes with your bike. So the as far as compatibility with disc brakes and through axles This is definitely a win. My road bike has a through axle and disc brakes And I have had issues with some of the other trainers in compatibility So I found this one very very easy to use Um, I also currently don't have the luxury of leaving my trainer out all the time And I have to put it up after every use You don't want to decide to get on the trainer and 30 minutes later you're on it after setting everything up. It's got to be quick So I that's one of the things that I really liked about this one. This is 1649 Yep So, um The the wahoo is 1599. So these are pretty close in price The wahoo does fold up pretty easily But I just The name of this one This is the one that's I'm actually trading out the hammer this week and going for the wahoo because we've just recently become a wahoo dealer and uh, this one I'm going to give a good run over the next few months Reliability and the name out there. That's definitely top Now the last one on the list is the neo Now The neo is unique in that it uses a virtual flywheel So if you notice most of the trainers have what looks to be the drive system and then A pulley system that drives a big flywheel and it's spinning that flywheel up It gives you the feeling of accelerating and then when you Decide to stop pedaling it coasts down slowly and that's that flywheel continuing to spin The neo uses a virtual flywheel So it's actually using a computer controlled motor to drive that rear end So if you decide to stop pedaling it figures. Well you weigh 80 kilos. You're on a 7 gradient You should be able to coast at this speed and it'll actually drive the speed up So the virtual flywheel matches your weight of acceleration and deceleration closer to your weight more than a Fixed flywheel on all the other trainers And then it has the downhill drive which actually will drive it when you're coasting Now that affects your riding in the realism of your riding a little bit You don't really notice it until you try Trainer like that. So I'd say it just takes the realism one step further on the neo But it's also the most expensive of this bunch. So that is 1899 for the neo Now the neo none of the other trainers come with cassettes and that's one thing It's a need about the wahoo. It comes with a cassette an 11 speed cassette already mounted on it Which I'd say 90 of the people that we sell trainers to have 11 speed bikes And so you're gonna buy you're gonna buy cassette if you buy one of the trainers Yeah, you buy it usually you get a trainer and then if you want to use your heart rate monitor and you want to use Your cadence sensor then to get that data in you need an ant plus antenna So a little dongle that goes into your laptop. So there are little things you've got to figure out That that you've got to add on and then you get into the accessories and things like that too But that that cassette is one of the neater ones having that in the box for 1599 What's so what's your most popular? Right now it's the wahoo by far. It's taken off like a like a fire with us and that Being the ones that really got into the smart trainers first and they've owned it And it's we've been waiting four years to become a dealer So we're now a dealer and we've I think we've run through like six of them in the last week So yeah, it's definitely working the best for us All right, so the compression and expansion of the longitudinal waves cause the erratic oscillation You can see it there of the neighboring particle. So gaban always going deep on flour wheels together Let's uh, yeah, do you want to tell me that again? Yeah, so These trainers use a flywheel to offset the body weight of the rider So if you're a heavy rider flywheel is the flywheel on the wahoo, I think it's I think it's this piece here. It's really dense and heavy might even be lead I don't know what they make out of it, but if you look on the hammer You've got Something that's heavy underneath this shroud and that's what takes a little while to spin up Right and that's on all your trainers You have something heavy that it takes a little while to spin up and a little while to spin down And that's what gives you that sense of realism on these trainers But the If you are a heavy weight rider Then that flywheel is not big enough to offset your body weight to make it realistic Because a heavy weight rider should take longer to accelerate 90 plus kilos that little flywheel is nothing So zoom you just spin up to speed super quick on the sit on if you're using Zwift Or whatever you'll notice it's really easier than it would be in the real world And then a big heavy rider a 90 kilo rider when they let off the gas and start to coast They have more momentum and they can go longer But a lightweight flywheel relative to their weight would spin down more quickly than it would be for their weight Okay, does that make sense? Okay, so if you have a heavy flywheel It's good for riders that are heavier riders and a lighter flywheel would benefit lighter riders Well, all of these trainers come with one flywheel and if you look and you dig in dig into the specs You can actually find the weight of the flywheel Or the virtual weight of the flywheel how many kilograms it's meant to offset and they're not the same And then if you get into one of the advantage one of the tech advantages that the tax neo has is it uses a virtual flywheel So from your profile when you've logged into a program it knows how many kilograms you weigh And then it's knowing the gradient that you're riding on so it adjusts The sensitivity of that flywheel to your body weight. So it makes it more realistic It doesn't have a flywheel. It's what is it? It's using a combination of a motor and its resistance To make it feel more realistic to you. So it's computer controlled using a motor And basically if you're a 90 kilogram rider and you're riding a neo It'll take longer to wind up just like it would in in real life But you'll also coast longer when you let off the gas like you would in real life And if you're if you log in and you're a 60 kilo rider Then that flywheel virtual flywheel will be adjusted according to your weight and be more realistic for you So that's a tech advantage when you get the top of the line trainer But most people are fall into the average range and the flywheel feels fine But it is just a little thing that goes towards making it more realistic and when it's more realistic It's more engaging and when it's more engaging you're more likely to enjoy it and do it more often So every little feature that these companies are adding as they keep doing New improved versions of their trainers. It's all towards making it more realistic so that you can really Thoroughly enjoy and immerse yourself in the experience of the indoor ride Thank you