- Morning, traniacs.
(dull thud)
I get asked a heck of a lot,
what is the trainer that I use.
Historically, for the last year,
it has been either the Wahoo KICKR
or the CycleOps H2.
This is the Saris H3.
So, there's been a name change from CycleOps
to Saris, and a price drop.
Now, the question is, is this new third generation
of Saris CycleOps Hammer Model
one of the best direct drive, quietest,
high-end trainers, even though it's become
a little bit less expensive?
Well, I'm gonna take it for the first ride,
do a little bit of review, a little bit of a noise test,
and compare it to the Wahoo KICKR
that historically, has been, more or less
the go-to for everyone in North America.
Let's give it a try.
(upbeat techno music)
(techno music)
Whoa, all right!
Just finishing up the last minute of two hours.
And I'm impressed!
As far as bang for your buck goes,
comparing this to the previous versions of this trainer
and the competitors, sort of like the apples to apples
comparisons for this trainer,
Saris you made a bit of a statement with this.
Allow me to explain.
See that tricep?
Totally not flexing.
Okay, there.
Whew.
And there.
So, the reason that I'm doing this as a comparison
is because I think that's a better indication
of how good a trainer is.
So many of these trainers that are say, over the $600 mark,
they're all getting really good.
Even some of the $600 trainers like the Elite series,
they're getting really good.
They're certainly a serviceable, smart trainer
that you can do just about everything with.
The Wahoo KICKR Core is really good.
But, if we're looking at the best experience
that you can get, what we're talking about
has traditionally been the Tacx Neo 2t is the latest model
and the Wahoo KICKR itself.
Now, in that price range used to be the CycleOps Hammer,
the CycleOps H2, now that CycleOps has been rebranded Saris.
And, now the Saris H3 is that high-end model.
And why I think that we need to look at these
as a comparison and not just a standalone
is because everything is so good, but who buys
which of these, or the Tacx, or the Wahoo KICKR CORE
depends on what you're looking for.
So, they have to be looked at together.
Now, the specs for the Saris H3 are a 2,000 watt max,
a 20% max grade, $999, that's pretty good,
and a 20 lb. fly wheel.
How that compares to the Wahoo KICKR
is that this is $1,200.
This has a 16 lb. fly wheel, so potentially not as realistic
a road feel.
2200 watt max average, and the same max grade.
And the tax is very, very similar.
Slightly higher max power, slightly higher max incline,
but the most expensive of all the three.
And when you're looking at the Saris H3,
it looks basically identical, same as the Wahoo KICKR,
they haven't changed in about 3, 4 years.
But this has a new belt drive, basically all new internals
on the inside, and that is supposed to make it the quietest
and one of the cheapest trainers out there,
as far as quiet, almost silent trainers go.
What's also nice about this is that you're speed,
you're cadence, you're power can all come through this.
So, if you're using Zwift off of an Apple TV 4k,
which only has three Bluetooth inputs,
one of which is taken up by the remote,
you can get all of your speed, your cadence,
everything like this so you don't have to use
the Zwift companion app, which is,
that's a legitimate thing because using
the Zwift companion app to pair with the Wahoo KICKR
is a bit of a process.
And as you have more and more devices
and you've got more things around you in the same room,
things start getting paired and unpaired fairly easily.
In this case, if you can just set it up to pair
to the trainer once, it was really quick.
However, it took a little bit of finnicky-ness
to actually get this calibrated.
What I found is that the calibration in Wahoo,
it just wouldn't work.
What I had to do was download the Saris app originally,
calibrate it in the Saris app, then unpair it
from the Saris app, pair it back to Zwift,
and there's just a little bit of finnicky-ness there,
but the nice thing about it is that once that's done,
this is the only thing that is paired to Zwift.
So I don't have to unpair it and re-pair things
as I found that I've kind of had to do with this
through the Wahoo companion app.
I think I called it the Zwift companion app.
The Zwift companion app.
Because it is the Zwift companion app.
Now, one of the things to know,
and this is kind of the biggest deciding factor,
which I'll get to in a bit, is that this does not pair
to the Wahoo KICKR CLIMB.
You can use the Wahoo KICKR Headwind,
which in my opinion, is a fair bit less exciting
than the Wahoo KICKR CLIMB which tilts
the front of your bike up and down.
I really like that, personally.
I like that tactile feel of when I'm going up inclines
or down, in addition to the trainer changing
and the Wahoo Headwind changing the speed,
having that bit of incline up and down,
it's a really nice tactile feel that makes me feel
like things are kind of moving and they're dynamic
whereas this, yes, I would say the road feel on this
is every bit as good as this,
whereas the original Cycleops Hammer,
the CycleOps H2, there was a slight lag
in what was happening on the screen
with the incline and the decline and the power.
In this case, it's almost perfect.
I would actually put this as one of the best road feels,
I would actually say the best road feel
of any trainer that I've ever had,
and I think that that's because
a) the new belt drive system
b) the 20 lb. fly wheel
whereas this fly wheel here is 16 lbs.
So, the road feel alone of this is great.
Almost perfect.
But, you can't use the KICKR CLIMB.
So, if you're looking at getting that KICKR CLIMB,
the entire ecosystem of going up and down on inclines
and having a headwind in your face,
you gotta go with this.
There's no way around it.
As far as what you get in this,
when you're setting it up and taking it out of the box
it's the same as what you've had before,
you don't have a cassette included in this
as you do with the Wahoo products.
So you're either gonna have to go buy
an extra cassette for this,
or you're gonna have to swap out what's on the rear wheel
of your existing wheels.
And that could be a problem if you don't have
extra wheels, and you're kind of indoor / outdoor.
You have to then go back-and-forth,
mounting the cassette, you can't just take your bike off,
you gotta take your bike off and then re-mount the cassette,
in that case, this probably isn't for you
because you can just leave the cassette on this.
This also comes with a front wheel block
to stabilize the front of the wheel
because, whereas you can mount the front of the fork
into the KICKR CLIMB with this,
and you don't need the front wheel on,
you can just literally use any old frame,
and that's all you need, you don't need any wheels.
You do need a front wheel on this
with the mounting blocked to keep that front wheel stable
and when you open up the legs, it falls out.
I thought that that was always a really nice touch.
But, that's just where you're at.
If you've got a dedicated bike,
you probably want something like this,
if you need to go back-and-forth,
there's just a little bit more setup with that.
One other thing that's notable,
I thought that, depending on how your setup is,
if you need extra slack with your power cable,
this comes with probably about four to five feet more slack
than what I've seen typically comes on power supply
for any other trainers.
So, if you need that extra slack, you got it here
and it can be a little bit cleaner
than running extension cords throughout your floor.
Now, as far as how does it actually perform?
Really, really good.
As I said, probably some of the best road feel
of anything that I've used.
It doesn't have that incline, decline that you have on this,
it doesn't have the vibrations when you go over cobbles
like you've got on the Tacx Neo 2t,
but as far as just a road feel, really good.
You can also use this as basically a fluid trainer
if you don't have access to a power source.
So you can bring this to a race, or anything like that,
and just use it by itself.
Couple of things that were a little finnicky with this,
like I said, that bit of pairing at the start,
but then the other thing is that as you change gears
with this, because the cadence is coming from ratios
of speed-to-gear ratios and power and things like that,
as you change gears in this,
you might have your RPM dip down to zero, nothing,
for a few seconds, or 30, 40, 50
for as much as five to ten seconds
before it figures out that new pattern and cadence
that you're actually spinning in.
So that's something to worry about,
but as far as the actual experience that you're riding in,
doesn't really change at all.
And then getting to the sound test of this,
I was really impressed.
That bike over there has a really, really dirty drivetrain
and even with that, it maxed out at the decibel reading
of about 58.
This one claims to have a max decibel at 20 mph at 59.
Talking is in the low 70s.
KICKRs and Tacx, they claim to be same sort of thing,
high 50s.
Basically the only thing that you're going to hear
is the drivetrain.
And that depends entirely on how clean your drivetrain is,
what gear you're in, how well aligned it is,
how creaky or cracky your bike is,
if you have a sound, basically silent drivetrain,
you're gonna have a silent trainer experience with this.
This is the most silent trainer I've ever had in here
because this is a 2018 KICKR.
Now, who would actually buy this?
So, number one, it can't be somebody who wants to use
a Wahoo KICKR CLIMB.
If you want the CLIMB, you have to get a Wahoo KICKR
or a KICKR CORE 2017 I believe, or newer.
You also don't want to be too wrapped up
into the Garmin and Tacx ecosystem,
which isn't quite as built out as the Wahoo ecosystem
but Tacx is just a different brand.
And, in my opinion, that's kind of a better comparison.
Whereas this, the question is not,
is it a good trainer?
It's a great trainer.
The question is, do you want the CLIMB?
And if you want the CLIMB, you gotta think about this
or the CORE.
If you don't want the CLIMB, then this starts comparing
to things like the Elite series that around that $600 mark.
This has higher max power, higher max grade,
so then I would say that this really only compares to
the Tacx Neo 2t, in which case this is $500 less expensive
and really all you're giving up is that not-bumpiness
when you go over cobbles.
I've never experienced that, but I've heard from people
that use it and they say that it's kind of a gimmick,
that it's not really anything that adds to your experience.
So then this really just compares to,
I would say the Wahoo KICKR CORE,
this is $100 more than that.
It does have higher max power,
it does have a bigger fly wheel,
it does have a higher max simulated grade,
probably has a little bit better road feel.
I would say, probably just a little bit
more all-around better.
Every little thing from the decibel to the noise reading,
to everything is just a little bit better,
however, it's about $100 more,
plus the cost of the cassette,
wherever you're getting that from.
So I would compare those two really, really closely
and the question comes down to,
do you need the Wahoo KICKR CLIMB?
In my case, yeah, I'm probably gonna go back to it.
But if you don't want that,
I think that this, with the price drop to $999
is probably one of the best buys out there
if you start getting into that really high-end
premium smart trainer market.
It is going to do everything you want,
be nice and quiet, have great road feel,
I think that that price drop was a statement.
So, way to go Saris.
Thanks for sending this out.
We're in Zwift season right now,
so make sure you go follow me!
First name is Triatholon Taren.
Go check it out!
Later, trainiacs.