- Just a few years ago, training on a bike indoors
was horrible, basically.
Was like watching paint dry with a lot of pain in your legs.
Now though, it is entertaining, it is immersive,
and dare I say it, almost enjoyable.
Alright, it's an industry which is booming
and we've been heading around the stands at Eurobike
to find some exciting new products
in the indoor cycling world.
(chill electronic music)
And we are going to start with this product
I am very excited about.
I think this is going to take your indoor training
up to another level.
It comes from our friends at Wahoo,
who did the first ever smart trainer, back in 2014.
And they are continuing to innovate.
This is the new Kickr Climb.
It basically does what it says on the tin.
So when you're riding on something like the Zwift,
which is what Rolli here is doing behind me,
and has been for quite some time now,
it will simulate the gradient that you're on.
So when you go uphill in Zwift,
this will simulate gradients of up to 20%
when you're going uphill, and do the same on the descent
as well, up to a 10% decline.
Which I really think is very cool indeed.
Now, if you aren't using something like a Zwift,
but you want to do your own workouts,
you will have the ability to mount a remote-control
on the handlebars and specify yourself
what the gradient will be.
And in turn, with the new Kickr,
which is what it's compatible with, or the Kickr Snap,
which they've also released here at Eurobike,
that will in turn simulate the resistance that it associates
with that particular gradient.
As I said, crowds have been looking at this
for quite some time.
I'm not sure how much energy Rolli's got left,
but I think it'd be rude not to give it a go myself.
Just to, you know, give him a bit of a break.
(energetic music)
Zwift really has been the major player in terms
of making indoor cycling a whole lot more entertaining.
What is really cool about it is,
that in the last couple of years, pros have been using it.
Of course Matt Hayman used it to train in order to win
Paris-Roubaix in 2016, and now a couple of teams,
Canyon-SRAM and Team Dimension Data,
are using it as talent identification.
So who knows when we'll get the first ever Tour de France
winner who has been identified on something like Zwift.
And I've just been speaking to them about development
of their own product.
Android users like myself will be pleased to hear
that the Android version of the software
will be released this winter.
It will also be available on Apple TV.
They've just introduced group workouts,
which means that people of differing fitness levels
can do the same workout related to their own fitness
while staying together on the virtual road of Zwift.
So that's pretty cool.
And I'll even be able to stay next to Si,
from that point of view.
And also, I pressed them on any new courses
which might be coming out.
And they didn't say much to me.
They did say there are new courses on the way.
Plural.
I understand one will be released in October,
the next one in March.
And I'm looking forward to seeing what they're like.
We've come over to the Elite booth, to check out
their latest addition to the smart trainer market,
this being the Direto.
It comes in at $899 or 850 euros,
but it's got some very cool features for that price point.
So the power meter inside this is not through strain gauges
that it's measured, but instead through a laser.
And they've managed to cut the price down
from the higher-end Drivo by using just one laser
to calculate the power as opposed to two.
But still, this is accurate to plus or minus 2.5%,
which is up there with some of the best power meters
that you can get to put on your bike.
Also, it can simulate gradients of up to 14%,
so great for when you're riding around on Zwift, et cetera.
And one of the things that they've changed on this
particular trainer, is the foot span, which is 20cm bigger
than anything they've done previously.
Apparently, a few riders were finding that they could
rock the thing from side-to-side when they were doing
a full-out effort.
And I can tell you, having just done a sprint myself,
this thing felt very stable at close to 700 watts.
We're now over at Feedback Sports, taking a look
at this, which is their Omnium Trainer.
Which isn't actually new to the market.
I perhaps should've seen this before,
especially given that some famous people,
such as Matthew Van der Poel, the famous cyclocross rider,
have been using these to warm up on for previous races.
This is great on two fronts.
Firstly, for people like Matt Stephens,
who don't actually have to balance like you would do
on standard rollers,
but more because of its versatility when travelling.
This is what it looks like when it is fully built up,
which only takes in the region of ten seconds,
as I've just seen someone do it.
This is how it looks when it is folded down.
It fits into this nice, neat bag,
which you can actually travel with on an aeroplane,
putting it into the overhead lockers.
It comes in at just 14 pounds,
which is around about 6.5 kilos.
If you've got a fair amount of space in your home,
quite a lot of spare cash, 8000 euros to be precise,
and a bit of balance as well,
then you might want to consider one of these.
This is the Tacx Magnum Treadmill Indoor Trainer.
I've had a couple of goes on it at the show now.
Today, I actually got to join Matt Hayman very briefly
on his ride before he dropped me.
Yesterday was my initial go.
Was quite wobbly to start with,
but thankfully I don't think that was caught on camera.
Some pretty cool stuff going on in the world
of indoor cycling, then.
I think probably time that we did
another indoor shoot training video,
so you got more to train along to this winter.
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