What Is A Smart Trainer?

Smart Trainers have been growing in popularity massively in recent years, with many cyclists choosing to switch their winter training schedule indoors thanks to the invention of these clever cycling gadgets.

These smart trainers are mounted on your bike and a smart trainer works much in the same way that a more traditional indoor trainer has always worked - by providing resistance to pedalling. One of the main differences is that smart trainers vary the resistance and are twinned with a number of different apps which can control resistance.

A smart trainer makes indoor training so much more fun and engaging - riding virtual courses allowing you to ride in a group and enjoy virtual competition. The most popular way of using a smart trainer is with a smartphone, tablet or computer. A cycling app is then used to choose workouts and different features.

There are two main types of smart trainers to choose from, the first is a wheel-on smart trainer - which requires your rear axle to be fixed onto your bike, with a drum providing resistance against your tyre. The other type of smart trainer is a direct drive smart trainer, which replaces your rear wheel, and requires a cassette. There are benefits to both types, with direct drive trainers providing the most stable platform for use.

Tacx Neo 2T Smart Trainer

One of our most popular smart trainers is the Neo 2T Smart Trainer from Tacx. These trainers effectively simulate an outdoor ride, by using dynamic controls and mass inertia to provide variable feelings of weight, speed and incline angle - providing a massively realistic performance.

This trainer works with Zwift, as well as Tacx software to provide vibrations and feedback through the trainer to simulate riding on different road surfaces, which are encountered in the real world. When hooked up to a power supply, this trainer also provides descent simulation.

This trainer is also incredibly quiet, easy to store, and allows the rider to experience up to 25% gradients - allowing you to climb higher than you can on other smart trainers. It can also be used completely disconnected - simulating a flat road, with a faster ride providing greater resistance.