Originally Posted by
himespau
Does anyone have any experience with the Elite Direto XR? It is on the Kickr Core pricing level (even cheaper if you buy from one of the European sites and don't mind waiting for shipping), but claims to have higher resistance and gradient simulation than the Kickr. At 1.5% claimed it's a bit less accurate than either of them though.
I've been using the previous Direto X for 2 years now and it has been faultless. So I would imagine the XR is even better and reviews seem to suggest it is an incremental improvement. Accuracy is a wash I think. All these higher end trainers seem plenty accurate enough. Elite use an optical torque sensor to derive power and it seems pretty consistent to me. I haven't tried a Kickr Core so can't really comment on differences in ride feel. The Direto usually gets labelled middle-of-the-road in that respect by most reviewers. To me it feels fine, not super-smooth but more than adequate. The XR has a slightly heavier flywheel, so probably a tad better. The Kickr is often seen as the benchmark for ride feel. But then the Core has a smaller flywheel, so maybe it's a notch down too.