Elite Zumo Smart Interactive Turbo Trainer

The Elite Zumo is one of the cheapest interactive smart trainers on the market and performs well above its price tag. The power data is acceptable and the impressive ride feel makes racing that bit more realistic. The price makes this a great option for occasional indoor smart training.

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Setting up

The Zumo is quite easy to set up out of the box, though it doesn't come with a cassette like its slightly more expensive sibling, the Suito, which Dave was testing.

You just bolt the legs to the main body and adjust the feet to suit the ground under the trainer. It's a bit of a lump, but the carrying handle makes moving it around manageable. 

The legs can be tucked under the main body of the trainer, allowing it to be stored in a relatively small space if you need to pack it way after each session.

Initially, you'll need to connect the trainer to the Elite Upgrado app to check the firmware and calibrate it. I found it connected instantly via Bluetooth and the updates required only took a couple of minutes.

Next, you'll need to warm the trainer up for 10 minutes before doing the spin-down calibration. A rolling Zwift course is good for this, or you can just pedal away for 10 minutes, throwing in a few sprints along the way. The trainer then needs to be disconnected from Zwift before you open up the Elite My eTraining app to perform the spin-down calibration. Once this is done, you can pair back up with your chosen training app and you're ready to go.

The whole process took me the best part of 25 minutes but once it's done, you'll only need to re-do the spin-down test once every couple of months.

Accuracy: Okay, but not the best

Before I excite you with data and graphs, the power numbers that the Zumo provides are more than acceptable for the money. I've been happily training on the Zumo all winter and only calibrated a couple of times. Before I recorded this set of data, both the Zumo and 4iiii Precision were calibrated after a 10-minute warm-up for the trainer.

For my testing, I did some of the efforts that I've been doing most frequently this winter. There's some very easy spinning, consistent seated 500W efforts, 10-second standing sprints, and a leadout-style effort where I ramp up the power into a sprint. Overall, the Zumo has provided entirely usable data. That said, there are a few small differences to my trusty 4iiii Precision.

At low power levels, around the 90-100W mark, was where I found the biggest discrepancy, with the Zumo reading 4.2% above the Precision. For me, this is a recovery level, so I'm not too concerned at all. If you're a smaller rider, or you regularly ride at this power, then you might want to look for something that's a little more accurate around this range.

One of my 'favourite' intervals is a series of over/under efforts with the over section sat at 500W. This 20-second over block shows pretty consistent data with the Zumo 2.8% up on the 4iiii data.

My sprint power on the road has never reached 1,200W, so I was never going to trouble the Zumo's 1,300W max. Add to that my inability to sprint when the bike is fixed in place and the best that I could manage was around the 900W mark. The trainer felt perfectly stable here and picked up the start of the sprint a bit quicker than the 4iiii. The max power read during this sprint was a touch lower from the Zumo. But it was very close.

While there's no getting away from the fact that the Zumo isn't as accurate as some of the more expensive trainers out there, the data that it provides is good enough. It's also consistent, allowing you to plan a training schedule around it.

Ride feel

The ride feel is very good in some areas: riding in simulation mode on Zwift, the changes in virtual gradient feel very realistic. I found that if you hit a climb with loads of speed from a steep descent, pedalling remains light until, just like out on the road, the gradient really starts to bite, forcing you to shift through the gears rapidly.

Flat roads and descents also feel good, with a high cadence needed to sustain higher power outputs. Riding on the various mountains of Watopia, I never felt hindered by the maximum slope replication of 12%, though this might limit you if you prefer apps that map real roads.

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The ERG mode left me slightly disappointed during certain workouts. While it is very good at holding you in a certain power range with only a few seconds delay once an interval starts, I found that it would kick me down to a cadence that I just couldn't get out of in certain intervals. For a skinny climber like me, getting the cadence up from 40rpm when the trainer wants to hold you at 400W requires a full-gas sprint. Sometimes, at the back end of a hard interval, that just isn't in the legs.

That said, there were interval sessions that I could complete perfectly accurately. This may well take a bit of trial and error to find sessions that can be completed indoors, but once you find something suitable the Zumo works brilliantly.

I also had some issues with the ERG mode disconnecting if I stopped pedalling for a while. It will reconnect eventually, but it was very temperamental.

Zwift racing

For racing on Zwift, I found the Zumo easily good enough. Generally, I just want to get into a race to get a hard session in. If you really care about your result you might want to look for something with a higher max resistance and power data accuracy of around 1%.

The Zumo was reactive to the gradient and bunch riding, with a noticeable change when you hit the climbs. The trainer felt responsive when following attacks and transferred from high to low resistance smoothly when going over the top of climbs into a descent.

Noise

The Zumo is a very quiet trainer, especially if you're using ERG mode. I measured 59.4dB at the handlebar with the chain in the inner ring and in the middle of the cassette at 200W. Put the chain in the outer ring and wind up the flywheel and there's a noise increase that is noticeable when you've got the trainer on a wooden floor.

That said, I've managed to avoid annoying my family, even through some of the toughest sessions.

Value

At £450, the Zumo is one of the cheapest interactive trainers you can buy, and you certainly get your money's worth. The ride feel is spot on and the power accuracy is entirely usable. For my usage levels of mainly winter training during the week and the occasional weekend ride when the rain is falling heavily, I really can't see the need to spend more.

If you're dead keen on Zwift racing or you're a powerful rider, you might need a bit more than the Zumo can provide. The Suito will do 15% max slopes and a whopping 1,900W (yes, a full 1,000W more than I managed).

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Some units, like the Elite Suito, also come with a cassette installed as part of the price. If you've not got the tools to install/remove a cassette then they have to be factored into the price, too. A cassette will set you back just over £30 and the tools another £20. That takes the Zumo up to £500, which is still £150 less than the Suito at rrp, though the Suito is available at £550 pretty much everywhere.

Conclusion

If you're looking to get a direct drive smart trainer on a tight budget and you've already got a cassette along with the tools to install it, the Zumo is a great pick. It's quiet, responds well to the virtual environment and provides usable power data.

Verdict

Very good budget interactive trainer, offering a great performance for the price