Looking to take your riding indoors? Here’s our selection of the best turbo trainers plus everything you need to know before buying

The JetBlack Victory proves that you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a seriously good indoor cycling setup. With high-level specs at an entry-level price, this smart trainer punches well above its weight and leaves some pricier rivals looking a little shame-faced.

The Victory works with most quick-release and thru-axle bikes and supports both virtual and traditional gears. Whether you’re building your first pain cave or upgrading an existing indoor setup, it offers the flexibility to fit around you, rather than forcing you to build your cycling life around it.

The Victory also boasts more functionality than direct competitors while undercutting them on price. That’s a pretty compelling combination: more features and no need to remortgage the house.

Unless you’re an elite athlete chasing every last performance advantage, it’s difficult to make a convincing case for spending more. Your legs won’t know the difference; your bank account, on the other hand, will.

Overall, the JetBlack Victory combines impressive functionality and broad compatibility at a bargain price. Right now, it’s the smart trainer to beat.

Garmin’s Tacx Neo 2T is an exceptional trainer, and the price isn’t quite so stinging nowadays.

This very quiet trainer is a highly capable piece of equipment that’s easy to set up and to store, and has a resistance unit that’s able to simulate road surfaces by altering the resistance hundreds of times a second. It replicates a realistic riding experience on Zwift (plus many other training apps) from the comfort of your own home.

The Neo 2T has a maximum power of 2,200 watts and is highly accurate, claimed to be within +/-1%. At lower speeds, the 2T will produce powerful resistance and is also capable of very quick changes in ERG mode. Overall, it’s quiet (which your neighbours will be happy about) as well as capable.

In 2023, the NEO 2T was superseded by the Tacx Neo 3M with built-in multidirectional movement – but according to road.cc reviewers, the NEO 2T is still our favourite top-of-the-range turbo trainer. Although you can go much cheaper, the Neo 2T is a fabulous choice that offers impressive features such as sophisticated cadence sensing, the ability to power itself wirelessly, and a realistic ride feel.

Although Saris trainers aren’t as easy to find as they once were in the UK, the Fluid2 is straightforward, affordable and simple: a classic wheel-on style turbo trainer which does its job very well. At under 100 quid at numerous online retailers at the time of writing, there’s little reason why you wouldn’t pick one up to use on the less than favourable winter days, unless your budget stretches a lot further, of course.

The Fluid2 uses fluid resistance, as the name suggests, which technically means there is no limit to how much resistance this trainer can handle (although it will start to feel unstable if you really sprint). There’s a handy click mechanism at the back to tell you when your tyre is properly mounted, so there’s no guesstimating involved during set up.

Although this offering from Saris is cheap, you don’t need to miss out on riding with friends or using your favourite indoor riding apps. Usefully fitted with a speed/cadence sensor, this means that the unit works with training apps like Zwift and Rouvy. Therefore, although basic, you can still enjoy some visual stimulation and motivation for a fraction of the price of other turbo trainers. That said, it isn’t as quiet as a direct drive turbo, and the simulated power reading will just be an estimate.

If what you want is a standard, simple, easy-to-use turbo trainer that is both user-friendly and much cheaper than what’s currently available on the market, the Fluid2 is a very good option. It’s basic, but it does the job and does it well.

Want a smart trainer with high-end specs but without a high-end price tag? The ThinkRider XXPRO delivers a lot of indoor cycling performance for the money and could be just what you’re after.

Setup is refreshingly straightforward: bolt on the legs, fit a cassette and plug in. That’s it. The ANT+ and Bluetooth connections work flawlessly with apps like Zwift, TrainerRoad and MyWhoosh, while the direct-drive unit is quiet, stable and impressively smooth. It’ll supposedly handle 2,500W and maximum simulated gradients up to 25%. That puts it in the top tier of trainers.

Power measurement is another highlight. Testing against Favero Assioma Pro-RS2 pedals showed excellent agreement. Cadence readings were similarly close, generally within 1rpm. In short, the ThinkRider XXPRO gives you consistent and accurate figures.

We did find that the ERG mode adjusts resistance a little too leisurely, particularly when you’re standing up to attack a hard interval. That’s not ideal when the workout demands fireworks.

That said, the XXPRO is remarkably capable at this price. It’s a proper bargain and easy to recommend if you want smart-trainer performance at a superb price.

The Flux S direct drive turbo is an excellent and pretty affordable smart trainer from the Garmin-owned Tacx brand. This pick in our best turbo trainers selection offers a smooth ride quality and doesn’t produce much noise at all. It’s also very accurate and offers great consistency of numbers, so it’s a great option for those wanting an indoor trainer for the colder months or to mix up their training.

Tacx claims the Flux S reads your power to an accuracy of +/- 3%. As well as that, this model can also simulate a maximum resistance of 1,500 watts, which is very reasonable and good enough for most riders and their training needs. Additionally, the Flux S can simulate a climb of up to 10%.

Overall, the Tacx Flux S smart trainer is a solid option for training purposes. It’s easy to set up and connect to your other devices, but the maximum resistance offered is a little lower than other direct drives. Also, it does notably struggle to deliver lower levels of resistance. But for the price, it’s a great option.

Wahoo’s Kickr was already one of the best smart trainers you could buy in its previous iterations, and the latest version has been upgraded again with Wi-Fi connectivity and a more refined ERG mode.

The ride feel is high quality, it’s highly accurate with power accuracy a claimed +/-1%, and not even world-class sprinters will trouble its wattage ceiling at a huge 2,200 watts. The Wi-Fi connection is claimed to be 65% faster than Bluetooth or ANT+, so if you race on indoor training platforms like Zwift, it’s among the best on the market for ensuring nothing cuts out mid-event.

This is the Rolls-Royce of turbo trainers according to our reviewer, who added: “If you want to elevate your Zwift racing experience and ensure your connection is rock-solid and stays uninterrupted, there’s nothing quite like the immersive experience offered by the Wahoo Kickr v6 smart trainer.”

The Cycplus R200 is a compact and highly effective self-powered smart trainer that works as well in the home as it does in a car park for pre-race warm-ups. It weighs far less than most ‘wheel off’ options and yet is stable. In fact, the performance is really impressive throughout.

Setup is straightforward, although you’ll need to supply your own Shimano HG cassette (you can swap the freehub if you run SRAM XDR, although Campagnolo and Shimano Micro Spline aren’t supported). Once assembled, the R200 is impressively fuss-free, working easily with Zwift, TrainerRoad and other training platforms. You even get a two-month Rouvy subscription.

Cycplus claims power accuracy of ±1% and a 2,200-watt maximum. Our testing against Favero power pedals showed readings generally within 1-2%, with minimal lag. Gradient simulation goes up to 18%, and a handlebar-mounted Bluetooth controller delivers instant virtual gear changes. Perhaps best of all, the R200 can run without mains power, so outdoor warm-ups are entirely possible.

The H-shaped stand provides excellent stability without taking up too much space, and noise levels are reasonable at moderate efforts, although the flywheel does get louder when the resistance rises.

There were niggles: the companion app wouldn’t connect to a Wahoo TrackR heart-rate monitor, and the plastic leg endcaps proved vulnerable to clumsy dismounts. Still, these are minor grumbles considering the price.

Compact, accurate, robust and remarkably affordable, the R200 is an outstanding budget smart trainer.

The Wahoo Kickr Core 2 comes with practical updates that could make it the most popular trainer on the market, although our reviewer found the performance compromised by software bugs and a few flaws.

The latest Kickr Core brings Race Mode, integrated Wi-Fi, LED status lights and redesigned legs, while the Zwift Cog and Click version we reviewed adds fuss-free virtual shifting. Setup is simple, with the trainer assembled in minutes, but getting connected wasn’t as straightforward, with app dropouts and firmware updates causing frustration.

Once up and running, things improve considerably. Virtual shifting is smooth while Race Mode delivers snappy responses to power changes. We found power accuracy to be extremely good, averaging within 1W of the dual-sided 4iiii integrated power meter we compared it with, and cadence readings are similarly impressive.

There are caveats, though. Bluetooth connectivity wasn’t the most reliable, with heart-rate and Zwift Clik connections dropping out. ERG mode occasionally lagged behind target power, and the legs allowed some unwanted rocking during sprints.

The price is competitive, but the £399 JetBlack Victory offers similar headline features and arguably better value.

Overall, the Kickr Core 2 is a capable, accurate indoor trainer with useful upgrades. Sort out the software gremlins and it could be a winner.