Novo Smart Elite - questions

PatrickSmithUS

I purchased one of these in Halfords when the restrictions kicked in.



It worked great the first time I used it but since then I feel like it's way too easy.



The instruction for set up were terrible and I ended up finding some YouTube guy who ran through it, not in much detail though.



Do you need to use the spindle for it to work properly and is a front riser any use?


Also whats the best app to use for it? I'll only be using it once or twice a week and I@m not looking to spend a huge pile of money.

positron

I have been using one of these for over a year at this stage. What exactly is the problem you are having?

How are you connecting it, and to what? I recall not having much luck with the bluetooth, but it's working perfectly with ANT+. I got an ANT+ yoke and a 5 meter USB cable wired to the laptop. I found putting the ANT+ dongle on the bottle cage works best to pick up the trainer signal, Garmin spd/cadence sensor signals as well as the heart rate from the watch. Heart rate sync drops time to time, but sure not too bothered about it.

I have used the trainer with their own myETraining software (you will get 12 month license with the trainer, it's 20 quid a year from there on). It's basic but works, you can even create routes based on your real-life rides. The trained maxes out at around 12% gradient or something like that if I recall, you will see it in the specs anyway. I have also used it wiith TrainerRoad, Zwift and currently using it with BigRingVR. Works perfect with each of these, no problems at all. I am a noob really, and I only ride it on ERG mode, so I don't really know if that is hiding any of the issues that you are seeing.

Overall, I am fairly happy with it - no complains at all. Happy to help with if you need any more details on this!

PatrickSmithUS

positron wrote: »

I have been using one of these for over a year at this stage. What exactly is the problem you are having?

How are you connecting it, and to what? I recall not having much luck with the bluetooth, but it's working perfectly with ANT+. I got an ANT+ yoke and a 5 meter USB cable wired to the laptop. I found putting the ANT+ dongle on the bottle cage works best to pick up the trainer signal, Garmin spd/cadence sensor signals as well as the heart rate from the watch. Heart rate sync drops time to time, but sure not too bothered about it.

I have used the trainer with their own myETraining software (you will get 12 month license with the trainer, it's 20 quid a year from there on). It's basic but works, you can even create routes based on your real-life rides. The trained maxes out at around 12% gradient or something like that if I recall, you will see it in the specs anyway. I have also used it wiith TrainerRoad, Zwift and currently using it with BigRingVR. Works perfect with each of these, no problems at all. I am a noob really, and I only ride it on ERG mode, so I don't really know if that is hiding any of the issues that you are seeing.

Overall, I am fairly happy with it - no complains at all. Happy to help with if you need any more details on this!

Not gonna lie I know nothing about these things and bought ith when the pandemic broke out. Do you need to use the spindle thing that comes with it or just click in your own bike as is?

Takca

I've been using one of these for a while now, its the first turbo I've had but it seems to be doing the job.

Most of the time I use rouvy[1], you can use it to control the turbo in ERG mode for up to 1 hour for free
- install app and open a free account
- in the App go to "free ride"
- make sure bluetooth is switched on on your phone and the trainer is powered on, you should see a little red light flashing beside the power connector
- click "select trainer and sensors" and find your Novo (sometimes this take longer then others and I have had days where it wouldn't connect at all, not sure if turbo or phone is to blame)
- once its connected you can click "start ride"

thats it all going well, you can use the +/- buttons to increase and reduce the resistance

Once you get that part working you could go about calibrating it later if you want.

1. https://rouvy.com/en/

PatrickSmithUS wrote: »

Not gonna lie I know nothing about these things and bought ith when the pandemic broke out. Do you need to use the spindle thing that comes with it or just click in your own bike as is?

Do you mean the quick release skewer? This is a specific QR skewer for your rear wheel that better fits into the turbo when clamping in the bike. You most likely should be using it as the head of it is the correct shape and it can better take the strain of being clamped into a turbo as its steel.

positron

+1 to what Takca said. Your bike might fit the turbo as is, but use the skewer that came with it for peace of mind. You can use it on road - that is you don't have to keep switching it every time you take the bike off the turbo. I just realised to this date I am running the skewer from an ALDI turbo trainer I had couple of years ago. Never bothered to change it.

PatrickSmithUS

Thanks guys! I'm going to give it another go this week.