MinnMan

Well, I've been riding it a little. It's....interesting. Maybe I will love it eventually, but for now, it's an adjustment. The change in difficulty and power for hills is kind of cool, though it has a bit of a strange feel that will require getting used to. I can tell that from now on, serious training sessions, such as intervals, will probably be on Tempus Fugit, so that the difficulty level stays constant throughout my intervals (though I suppose I may have to learn about erg mode....).

When I mounted the bike on the trainer, I put a new cassette on the trainer. Of course, this meant that the derailleur wasn't perfectly tuned and so pedaling was rather clanky. I made some adjustments, but it's still not quite right. I'm used to aligning derailleurs on a bike stand, where the sprocket is close to eye level and there's no resistance to turning the pedals with my arm. It's not as easy with a wheel-off trainer. Any pro tips?

Also, manual says calibrate once a week. Fortunately, Zwift provides an easy way to do this, without having to switch around to the Elite app. But really? How much difference will it make if I don't? I am not going to care at the level of 5-10 watts.

Sy Reene

FWIW, it's recommended you use the trainer's app to perform calibration.
https://support.zwift.com/performing...own-ByUaXPoi9#

PeteHski

IME with a Direto X it's not very important to calibrate that often. I usually only calibrated mine before doing an FTP test or aiming for a course PR. Whenever I did a spin down the resultant calibration value was always the same. There is a factory reference calibration value printed on a sticker somewhere on the trainer. When you do your first calibration you should get a very similar value. If not there is likely to be a problem.

himespau 

With my Direto XR-T that I've had for probably at least 18 months, the calibration number hasn't moved much at all. I only very rarely use the app to calibrate it, and when I have, it fluctuates between 6525 (the number on the bottom of the machine), and an absolute minimum I've ever seen of 6524 and the max I've sever seen of 6526. So not really much at all relative to the numbers involved.. I do calibrations on Zwift more frequently. Every time after I move it and, if I'm doing a race where I've had at least 10 minutes to warm up and still make it to the pen 5 or so minutes before the start and have already started my music, my Sauce for Zwift, and my stream with enough time left over, I'll do the recalibration in the pairing screen. So maybe once every week or at most 2. Don't really see a change, but it makes me feel like I'm keeping things up to date and precise.

MinnMan

I did another ride. The derailleur is aligned now, so the annoying clanks are gone. (Something about doing mechanical work while kneeling on the floor, rather than with a bike stand, was particularly aggravating. Probably it has to do with my old knees). And I turned the trainer difficulty down to 25%, to help me get used to the feeling of variable resistance. Overall, a good experience.

I kept looking for ERG mode, but I was riding with a pace partner. Doh. It's for workouts only - I get it.

unterhausen

There is no more annoying bike mechanics related task than working on a bike on a smart trainer. Definitely made me appreciate how much stronger my legs are than my arms.

There was someone on one of the randonneuring group rides that had just come from a workout. Their workout continued during the group ride. They didn't understand why their resistance kept changing. I don't know if you can do that any other way, or if it's a bug that they fixed. I think what happens is a button pops up saying your group ride is about to start, and if you click it, you go to the group ride while still in the workout. So I don't think you can go to a pace partner while on a workout. OTOH, you can start following a pace partner while in a workout, if you run into one.

I keep thinking I should do a spindown on my kickr, but it's never convenient.

spelger

So i've had this Direto for about 2 weeks now and thought i'd share some first hand experiences with it. i've done some routes in IndiVelo and a couple of ERG mode training sessions. i did not like the feel of the gradient changes but determined that it was caused by IndieVelo and not the trainer. changes in grade were too noticeable. i also notice that in IndiVelo the grade changes from 1 -> 2 -> 3 % etc. i tried reriding a real route from the weekend on my application and when i change grades it is by the 10ths of a percent, not by the whole percent. it feels much smoother so glad to see it was not the trainer.

on the other hand, ERG mode is adequate. to me it has a hard time either due to the smaller fly wheel or the PID implementation, or some other hardware limitation. having had a Kicker it is just not as good. for instance, during the beginning of a training session with a ramp up in power it struggles to maintain the proper lower power level, it improves as the power level increases. it has the same typical lag when stepping from a lower poer to a higher one much like the kicker did. but even maintaining power in steadty state there was a lot of power variation 5-8 watts maybe. i tried this in my application as well and this is certainly the trainer becasue it behaved the same, when i ran the Kicker it was real good at controlling the output power regardless of what application i used.

but for the $ spent it is a good trainer. i will say that i think it is far more stable than the Kicker. the outrigger legs extend at a nearly 90 degree angle from the center leg compared to about 60 for the Kicker. that extra stability does come at a larger foot print though but i'm in a more open place now so not an issue for me.

Sy Reene

A somewhat impulse buy, just ordered a Justo since the v1 version is now being well discounted in the US. The Justo v2 basically only seems to add WiFi connectivity, and that wouldn't be worth the ~$400 extra to me. I don't see this model mentioned too often, but since my Direto has held up for the last few years, I went with an Elite.

PoorInRichfield

Food-for-thought... A good price, but I personally would pass and use the money towards a more modern trainer.

Virtual shifting with a device like the Zwift cog is pretty clearly "the new hotness" that eliminates the need to mess around with getting your bike to shift correctly on and off the trainer. I personally won't buy a trainer that doesn't have some kind of virtual shifting capability when it comes time to replace my Saris H3 trainer.

I also noticed the Elite trainer doesn't appear to be height adjustability like the Wahoo Kickr has. Depending on your bike's wheel and tire size, you may find your bike is far from being level on this trainer. I had to put my Saris H3 on blocks to level-out my bike as the back end of my bike was a good 2" lower than the front. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't sold my Kickr to get the H3 for that reason.

Here is how the Kickr compensates for different bike sizes:

Sy Reene

That's strange, but I guess it can depend on the type of bike mounted. Otherwise, running a standard road bike, height differentials aren't an issue -- typically the front end needs to be raised and hence the popularity of riser blocks. As to shifting with a cassette, it's been a non issue for me.. I just stuck the same cassette on my trainer as is on my road bike. Shifts exactly the same going between a wheel and on the trainer. One thing I don't know regarding the cog -- since there is only ONE cog, does that mean you will wear through the teeth that much quicker, vs spending some riding time with a chain running on various rear cogs? Interestingly, Zwift doesn't seem to sell (yet) spare cogs for the COG.

Speaking of Elite XRT, timely release.. have you seen this?
https://www.elite-it.com/en/products...-cog-and-click

What isn't confirmed as yet though, is whether other Direto models can also eventually receive the firmware and be compatible with the Cog and virtual shifting.

himespau 

That would make me very happy if I can do virtual shifting with my Direto XR-T