Elite wants to make training at home easier, so their new Suito direct-drive home trainer is built for minimal setup. Straight out of the box it is completely assembled, including a cassette, so all you do is unfold the legs, remove your bike’s rear wheel & pop it onto the Suito, plug it into the wall & pair it wirelessly to connect to your favorite indoor training app. From opening the box to smart training in around five minutes, according to Elite.
Elite Suito easy-setup, direct-drive smart indoor trainer
Stable, compact, easy-to-use & quiet, Elite tried to make their new Suito direct-drive trainer an easier experience to get the most out of home indoor training. The interactive Suito smart trainer communicates power, speed & cadence data wirelessly via Bluetooth or ANT+ to connected devices (without needing a cadence sensor), and allows remote resistance control for that immersive indoor training experience. All of that with fast & easy setup.
Tech details
The direct-drive Suito is an electronically-controlled magnetic resistance trainer, designed to simulate up to 15% slope climbing. An internal belt drive ensures reliable & quiet operation from the 3.5kg flywheel to the resistance unit.
The steel-bodied direct-drive Suito is also quite compact, with two fold-away legs that lock in place for stability (and get adjustable height feet to provide a stable base on any surface). Plus, there’s a balanced carry handle to easily move the 14.5kg trainer out of the way -it’s just 56x15x49.5cm (22x6x19.5″) folded.
Looking back at that quick setup, it appears the Suito may come preset for modern disc brake road bikes with a 12x142mm thru-axle, but adapters are also included to work with 130 or 135mm spaced QR axle bikes. A Boost 12x148mm thru-axle adapter is available separately.
Elite includes a Shimano 105 11-28T 11-speed cassette pre-installed to work on many road bikes without any adjustment. That’ll work pretty well out of the box with any 11sp Shimano, SRAM or Campagnolo road setup. But the standard HG freehub body can take many other cassettes, and a Campy-splined body is available separately.
Its internal power measurement capabilities are said to offer +/- 2.5% power accuracy for consistent power training (max 1900W at 40km/h, 2900W at 60km/h). But it also has a Power Meter Link function to connect to a power meter installed on your bike to balance resistance to your own device’s measured power.
Train online with Zwift & My E-Training trial memberships
Elite partnered with Zwift to give anyone who buys the new Suito a taste of interactive online training. With purchase of the trainer, you get a 1-month free Zwift trial to test out the interactive, virtual training platform to see if it is right for you. Plus, you also get a free 12-month subscription to Elite’s own My E-Training software that offers personalized training programs, a number of ride-along videos & the ability to create Google Maps based rides that recreate pedaling resistance based on real course elevation profiles.
Pricing & availability
All that simple setup & connectivity will cost you $800 for the plug & play Suito. The new trainer is being used by Movistar & AG2R to warm up for TTs at the Tour de France this week. But you’ll have to wait until mid-September 2019 for consumer availability.
