Elite Suito Smart Turbo Trainer Review
Updated: 13th February 2020
Overview
It wasn’t long ago that indoor turbo sessions were less than fun. Many a monotonous hour was spent staring at a blank wall whilst your ears were pummelled with the sound of rubber against metal. That was all before Zwift and Smart Trainers changed the way we approached indoor cycle training.
The Elite Suito is one of the smart turbo trainers that are leading the way to more fun and realistic indoor cycling challenges. Gamifying the indoor training session has added a whole new level to static cycling. Now riders all over the country are arriving home from work, itching to hop on the trainer and enter virtual riding worlds like Zwift and Rouvy.
Arriving on your doorstep all but ready to ride, the Elite Suito has all the credentials to deliver that fun and engaging virtual ride experience. This promises an easier route to improving your fitness by engaging your mind as well as your body. Read our Elite Suito turbo trainer review to find out more.
Straight out of the box, the first thing you’ll notice about the Suito is just how slim this turbo trainer is. With legs folded the unit is only about 14cm wide. Ideal if space in your home is limited and you don’t want to keep the turbo out all the time. Lay it flat and it’ll easily slide under a bed or sofa. Stand it up and it’ll slot nicely next to a bookcase or inside a wardrobe.
Lifting the Suito out of the box is easy thanks to the carry handle, something which most other turbo trainers lack. It’s a well thought idea by the team at Elite. Like many of you, our turbo setup isn’t in place 24/7 so when it comes to packing up after an hour’s graft, there’s no grappling, no back bending – just a quick fold of the legs, a grab of the handle and you’re away.
Adjacent to the handle, three status lights give you an indication of the Suito’s connections. One’s a power light, one is a Bluetooth connection status and the last is an ANT+ indicator. Train your eye to the rear of the turbo trainer and you’ll find where to plug the Suito in. A groove down the middle keeps the power cable tidy when you run it from the trainer to the nearest plug socket.
Another nice touch is that the Elite Suito is shipped with an 11 speed Shimano 105 R7000 cassette already attached. That means no faffing around with chain whips, lock ring tools or ‘time-out-of-your-day’ trips to your local bike workshop. OK, if your bike runs 9 or 10 speed or Campagnolo this isn’t the best news, as you will need to fit a cassette that's compatible with your bike, but most cyclists don't need to bother with this step.
Dig a bit deeper and in the rest of the box, you’ll find a front wheel riser stand, quick-release skewers, thru-axle adapters, power charger and details of how to claim your free one-month trial of Zwift. Now you know what’s in the box, let’s find out what this thing is like to ride!
Once you've got the Elite Suito out of the box stetting up is easy. To swing out each leg you’ll need to lift a little tab next to the body of the trainer. Once extended, adjustable feet make it easy to get the trainer level. This means that you can get a solid training platform even if your temporary training room has an old and uneven floor.
Secure your bike, pop your front wheel in the riser, make sure you’ve plugged it in and you’re nearly good to go. Because the Suito works with both ANT+ and Bluetooth communication channels, the tech setup side of things is quick and easy. We’ve tested both. Bluetooth on an iPhone and ANT+ on a laptop. Connection with the Suito was instantaneous and we didn't experience any glitches during our rides.
One other point to note before we move on is Elite’s Upgrado and ETraining apps which allow you to customise plenty of detailed Suito settings as well as updating the trainer’s firmware quickly and efficiently.
The ETraining app will gain you access to another one of the Suito’s features: Power Meter Link (PML). If you already run a power meter on your bike, you can choose to run your turbo sessions using that device rather than the inbuilt power measurement system on the Suito. The inbuilt power sensor is pretty good, but If you’re hot on your power numbers the ability to use your own power meter is a feature that'll appeal.
The Elite Suito is a smart trainer which means it’ll automatically change the resistance you feel when pedalling. In simulation mode (the one we used for our Zwift rides) the Suito replicates a given gradient and just like when you’re riding outside, changing up or down gears will make pedalling easier or harder respectively. In ERG mode the Suito will sit at a specific power level, irrespective of what gear you’re in.
Back to simulation mode, the Suito will simulate up to 15% gradients, more than enough for most trainer sessions and with a maximum resistance of 1900watts, unless you’re Robert Förstemann, Chris Hoy or Andre Greipel, you shouldn’t reach the power limits of the Suito.
Get riding and the Suito starts to shine. The direct-drive platform combined with the wide legs and balanced 3.5kg flywheel makes a trainer session as joyous as it can be. It’s quiet too, certainly no louder than the big fan you’ll probably have running simultaneously, and like us, if you ride the turbo with headphones the noise certainly doesn’t detract from the tasty beats throbbing in your ears.
Easy to set up, with a smooth realistic ride feel, the feature packed Elite Suito Turbo trainer is one of the best mid level smart turbos around. Combined with Zwift it gives you a virtual ride experience that'll add some welcome gaming inspiration to your pain cave fitness session.