- This week on GCN Unboxing
we have a particularly timely product
'cause we've been talking a lot recently about
indoor training.
Now whether that's doing structured intervals on your own or
making the most of the time that you have available to you
by using software like TrainerRoad or Zwift Workouts,
or indeed just enjoying riding around on Zwift.
Indoor Training has never been more popular than it is now.
And it's not that much for surprise really
because of products like this:
The Elite Drivo, a cutting-edge smart trainer
that takes indoor riding to whole other level.
Ngeeee (making conveyor noise)
(sound of box dragging through table)
If you don't have one already
then this could be your lucky day
because in the tradition of GCN Unboxing
after we've unboxed then had a really close look at the tech
we are going to give
this trainer away to one jammy GCN viewer.
Potentially you.
That's right, all you gotta do
is enter the competition I'm gonna tell you about
a little bit later.
But for now
let's unbox.
You ready?
(sound of tight box opening)
Ooh-hoo-hoo
Wow! That is a serious bit of kit.
The first thing
you might notice, is the weight.
Generally speaking, weight in trainers is a good thing
as long as it's constrained in the right place though.
And that place being the flywheel.
Heavier flywheels normally meaning
that you'll get a more road-like feel
because there's more inertia to it.
This one
has a six kilogramme flywheel so that's pretty punchy.
And the second thing you notice is that it is
a direct-drive trainer.
So you fit a cassette on here
you take the back wheel out of your bike
and then clamp your frame directly into it.
It'll fit both 135 quick releases so like a standard one
and then if I rummage around in this bag of tricks,
A-ha! Also 142 mm thru-axles as well.
Through to the advantages of direct-drive trainers
firstly, they are particularly well suited to explosive
really hard intervals or actually
something like a race on Zwift
where you gonna be accelerating really hard
and there is therefore no possibility
for your tyre to slip on a roller
which can sometimes happen on the other time.
And then of course
there is no tyre to wear out on a roller as well.
So that also is a cheeky little bonus.
The heart of the trainer is the resistance
and this is provided
by an electronically-managed magnetic unit.
So basically you plug the Drivo into the mains
and it will happy generate up to 2,000 watts
of resistance at 35k an hour.
Or will also simulate gradients of up to 24%.
Now, I'm not entirely sure why you would choose
to ride up gradients up to 24% but if you wish
it is an option.
The way the unit actually works also I'm told
makes it very, very quiet.
So the chances are the loudest thing in the room
is probably gonna be your breathing.
Or possibly whimpering actually if you did go for that
24% gradient.
You could alter the resistance of the unit
either by downloading the Elite app
onto your phone or your tablet
and then connecting up to the trainer via Bluetooth.
Or you use the ANT+ connectivity to connect to up
to something like a Garmin head unit.
And then once you are connected up
you can either set the trainer to hold you
to a specific wattage regardless of your cadence
although I do warn you now that has the potential
of being absolutely brutal.
Or more conventionally perhaps
you ask the trainer to mimic a certain gradient
and then you use your gears to tailor your power output.
Kinda like how you would do on a normal trainer.
But undoubtedly the best thing about smart trainers
is their ability to automatically alter the resistance
that you feel at the pedals.
So that might allow you
to follow along to a course you've already ridden
or indeed would like to ride at some point.
Or just take advantage of those third-party apps
that we talked about earlier like Zwift.
And then what separates a good smart trainer
from just an average one is the ability of the trainer
to actually alter the resistance quickly
although not too quickly
and then also, accurately.
Now this now does change resistance quickly so I'm told
and then its accuracy is definitely its ace card
because this has a built-in power metre that is accurate
so just plus or minus 1 percent.
You just don't have to take Elite's word for it
because they send off pre-production units to the
Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
which if you didn't already know
is a lab in Germany that tests for these things and
they gave Elite a certificate.
Yeah.
The way the powermeter works is absolutely fascinating
because it does away with the more usual strain gauges
and instead it has a pair of toothed discs that sit
on either end of the axle
and their orientation to one another is monitored
by optical sensors.
So in practise what this means is
you never need to zero your power metre
and it's completely unaffected by changes in temperature.
Additionally, because of this design and then also
a cadence sensor which I'm guessing
is gonna be inside this box.
You can break the power data down
into pedal stroke analysis
giving you data...
Ooohh
for up to 24 points per pedal stroke.
And then in order to interpret this data
we need to turn back to our app.
We can use it in realtime
or it'll save all the data for later
so then you can digest it in realtime
whilst relaxing on a sofa post-workout.
There are a load of useful graphs
but his one: the Polar View is particularly useful.
Basically at a glance it will tell you how even
or choppy your pedal stroke is by telling you exactly
how many watts you are putting out
at different points on the pedal stroke.
And then there's this page here
which would be particularly useful in realtime
because as well as giving your power data
it also tells you a Uniformity Index
which is the ration between peak power and average power
per pedal stroke.
Well that is a serious bit of kit
so I imagine that right now you are dying to know
how you can enter the competition to try to win this.
Well, as ever, in the description beneath this video
there is a link; click on that
and you will get straight through to the competition.
And then all you gonna do is wait
because we will announce the winner
in a forthcoming GCN show.
And then in the meantime
well you might as well start by subscribing to GCN
if you don't already
it's completely free and if you do it means that
all the GCN content is just one click away.
Yeah, that's worthwhile.
And then if you're after more training contents
some realtime indoor training videos
and why not click just down there or down there
because we have a couple there.
You don't need a smart trainer
you just need to be prepared to suffer.