- What's up guys, this is Tariq here
from SmartBikeTrainers.com.
This is the Elite Nero Interactive Smart Rollers.
If you are familiar with the Elite Quick-Motion Rollers,
this one probably looks very familiar
and almost looks the same.
The Quick-Motion has three levels of magnetic resistance,
where the Nero is fully interactive,
meaning it communicates with third-party apps
using ANT+, Bluetooth FTMS,
and it can be used in ERG mode or slope mode.
And the Elite Nero costs $899 US,
but if you keep your eyes on the price tracker,
available on Smart Bike Trainers,
you might find a good deal on one there.
Actually, before you buy any smart trainer,
make sure you go and visit SmartBikeTrainers.com
and click on the Trainer Deals on the top navigation menu,
and you might find yourself a good deal
on a smart trainer or a smart bike.
Okay, let's talk about the Nero,
but let me first get rid of this thing here.
(snaps fingers) (bike evaporates)
Okay, well that worked.
Okay, I wanna set the stage here
before getting into all the details.
The Nero is not a good electronic trainer
or a wheel-on trainer.
You're looking at rollers here.
You have to balance on them, keep your focus,
and there's a risk of falling off
and breaking your head or TV
or freaking out your cat and dog.
Also, the specs tend to come down a bit on smart rollers.
So don't expect to get the same performance
as a direct drive trainer.
And I think rollers can be a very good complimentary tool
to a direct drive trainer.
You can easily make a case for owning both, actually.
The Nero can simulate slopes up to 7%.
This is pretty typical for rollers.
Having a lot of resistance can slow down your cadence,
and very slow cadence rollers
can result with you falling off.
Maximum resistance on these can vary per rider.
The advertised range is 830 at 40 kilometers per hour,
or 1,350 watts at 60 kilometers per hour.
Your weight, tires, rolling resistance
play a role in all of that.
The Nero is pretty simple to set up.
You take it out of the box, read the manual,
which I did not do, of course.
But I did look at the measurement here
and I did not measure my bike or anything.
I kinda just eyeballed it and it worked just fine.
Basically you want to have the front axle
over the center of the front rollers
and rear wheel sandwiched between the two back rollers.
But again, I ride rollers all the time,
so I kinda know how to set these things up.
But if this is your first roller,
I highly recommend you do read the manual
and measure the wheel base like shown in the manual.
And if you do it wrong,
you will find out pretty quick.
The front rollers have 11 different positions,
so you can use it with a mountain bike,
road bike, or a TT bike.
The Nero is foldable and it folds pretty nice
for storage or travel or to take it to a race.
I do wish Elite made some kind of a strap
to keep everything tied together and folded.
It makes it easier to carry that way
and prevents unintentional unfolding of the unit.
By the way, you can use it unplugged as well,
but you are not going to get any resistance
and it will just work like a classic roller.
You will find the Nero a little easier to ride
than traditional rollers,
and that's because of two main features.
The front roller itself is parabolically shaped.
There is a little curve towards the edges,
and if you accidentally go too far to the right or left,
it will redirect the front wheel
back in the right direction.
I tried to demonstrate that here to see what I mean.
Also, the Nero has a floating system
to absorb any sudden movement.
It makes it easier to ride,
especially for newbies,
and keeps you in a nice, stable state
and just concentrate on riding.
It also makes getting out of the saddle
and standing much easier.
The road-feel felt pretty good.
Elite added six pound flywheels in each roller in the back
to provide some momentum and inertia.
If there is one thing rollers do and do well
it's that good and close, realistic road-feel.
There's also this little fold-down step.
It's there to help you get on and off the rollers.
Personally, I could not use it
or found it awkward to use.
I'm just used to getting on rollers in a certain way,
and having that step made things a little awkward for me.
It's just a personal thing.
I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
And I can't believe I said that.
I'm not that old.
It's listed as a feature, though,
and some seem to like having that step.
In slope mode, I found it to be good.
It responded well to changes in Swift,
and like I said, it only goes up to simulating 7% gradient,
so plenty enough to make you feel some of the hills.
Okay, with all this outta the way,
let's take a look at power accuracy and ERG mode.
The Nero broadcasts power,
but it's not going to be accurate.
Looking at the specs sheet that I received from Elite
and the description on the website,
Elite does not even list power accuracy claims.
Just like other rollers I reviewed on this channel,
this is typical with smart rollers as of 2019
and they are generally best used with your own power meter.
You can link your power meter to the Nero
and the rollers will interact with your power meter
and adjust resistance when doing a workout in ERG mode,
based on power from your power meter.
Honestly, I am okay with that
and I actually prefer to have that option
rather than dealing with that inaccurate power measurement,
frequent calibration, keeping tire pressure consistent,
and all these different things.
So the Nero can estimate power.
This is all going to vary per rider,
the information you input into the app and calibration.
I tested it for a quick five minutes and it wasn't accurate
and I wasn't expecting anything different.
Now let's move on and take a look at the power match option.
You can pair your own power meter to the Nero
using the Elite Training app.
Here, I linked it to my Assioma pedals.
This half-power option you see here
is meant for single-sided power meters
or dual-sided power meters that broadcast one side
when using Bluetooth,
like PowerTap, for example.
But since I have Assioma,
that's not an issue.
In ERG mode, the Nero does smooth out the power
and you will notice a delay.
There are two kinds of delays.
The first delay is in resistance.
So as you enter each interval,
the resistance will take a little time to kick in.
This is not necessarily a bad thing.
On rollers, you don't want that resistance
to kick in very fast.
The second delay is in power.
So as you feel that resistance change,
the Nero will take a little time
to broadcast that correct power.
So here's an example in Swift.
As I am going from 122 watts
to the next block at 205 watts,
it took the Nero a good 20 seconds to get me there.
But in reality, I was already pushing over 200 watts
about 10 seconds ago.
To help explain this,
let's take a look at another workout.
So looking at this chart,
this data is from the Nero.
The interval started at 5:51:28,
and I reached my target watts at 5:51:55.
So that's about 26, 27 seconds delay.
Now if I look at the data from my power meter
to see when I actually reached my target power,
from the start of the interval
until I reached my target power,
that was about 14 seconds.
So there's a little over 10 seconds delay
between the Nero and my power meter.
Now per Elite, this latency is due to the fact
that the power meter signal has to go to the Nero
and travel to Swift.
I think this can be improved a bit, though.
In ERG mode, the Nero did not do well
when switching to a bigger gear.
As you see here, my target was above 200 watts
and the Nero could not get me there
when I switched to the big ring in the front,
and my power dropped to 160 to 180 watts.
But as soon as I switched back to the small chair ring,
the power went back up to my target watts immediately.
The Nero can also link to your cadence,
if you have a cadence sensor
or if your cadence or your power meter broadcasts cadence.
But that also did not work well.
It was a bit all over the place.
As for noise, the Nero itself does not make much noise.
But you have your bike wheels in contact with three rollers,
so it will make a little bit of noise.
But let's listen to it.
(biker pedals on bike on roller)
(biker slows pedaling)
(biker pedals faster)
(biker slows pedaling)
I didn't think it was noisy.
With good tires, I think you will be fine.
But if you live in an apartment and worry about noise,
rollers in general might not be a good idea.
Okay, in summary,
if you are looking for a roller,
something that is interactive,
easy to use, looking for a variety in training,
to work on your balance, pedal smoothness,
something that is easy to carry
and take with you to races,
the Nero is an option for you.
If you get a hold of one of these rollers,
let me know what you think down in the comments section.
Okay, I hope you find this review helpful.
Hit the Like button if you did,
and don't forget to subscribe.
Thanks for watching,
and see you in the next video.
(electronic sounds)