Xplova Noza S Smart Trainer

The Xplova Noza S Smart Trainer is quiet, simple to set up, and secure enough for even the most powerful rider. It is also a good choice for a variety of bike types as it has the adjustability to fit almost everything short of a pennyfarthing. Power accuracy could be better during quick power spikes, but overall it tracked my power meter.

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Setup

The Xplova Noza S Smart Trainer is quick and easy to set up, with the total time from box to Zwift at roughly 15 minutes.

First off, you just need to attach the two stands. The front is adjustable with spring-loaded buttons that fit to either a lower or upper hole. This is is a nice touch and means that you can fit bikes of different types or sizes.

To keep everything tight at the front, there is also a bolt and dial at the top which is easy to get nice and tight to remove any movement. The back legs are simply attached with a nut and bolt, which is then tightened with the supplied spanner.

The Xplova Noza S Smart Trainer doesn't come with a cassette so you'll need to stick whatever cassette you want on. This isn't a surprise given that it's designed for mountain bike, road, and gravel, each of which would require a different cassette. The trainer comes with spacers, so if you're running a 10-speed setup you don't need to supply anything else to get it working.

Given that this is a trainer designed for use with several bike types, Xplova has included a number of metal holders that sit on the offside of the trainer, so you aren't forced to use a quick release or thru-axle – something that is necessary when you have a trainer that can be used for so many different types of bike. The only slight downside to this is that they aren't secured in place, so it might be easy to misplace them – something to be aware of if you put the trainer away once the weather warms up.

Once that's done, you just plug it in and connect to your trainer app of choice. For me it was Zwift, and it picked it up on Bluetooth within a couple of seconds and then I was ready to go.

The one thing that could be improved is a means to move it more easily – there is no clear place to grip and manoeuvre it around. Just a handle or something to grip would make it much easier.

Accuracy

The claimed accuracy is 2.5% and at moderate and steady power it generally falls within this range. This means that if you're doing interval training or similar then it will track sustained efforts well. Given that the main reason for turbos is to track those miles at sustained effort – this is accuracy where you most need it.

As you would expect, given that I'm tracking what Zwift records rather than the total output from the trainer, when the pedalling stops, it doesn't track 0. However, during big spikes, where your effort suddenly increases on a sprint or steep climb, the power tracking is less accurate. For instance, in one spike the turbo was tracking 14% higher than the power meter.

Across the board it generally tracked slightly higher than the power meter, which means that those really difficult training rides will feel easier than they should, but in general not by a huge amount.

Ride feel

Ride feel on Zwift is good and I found that when the road ramped up on the screen you could feel a very quick difference on the pedals. When hitting the slopes with some residual speed you also had a lighter pedal for the first few metres until, like on the road, you have to put in the normal amount of power to get up the hill.

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On the flat you needed to have a high cadence in order to get the power up, and given that my optimum sprint is around 1200W, the 2500W that the Noza can take is more than enough for practically everybody unless you're an Olympic track rider. This is helped by how secure the stand holds the bike in place. I found that I could put in a huge amount of power even while standing, and it held everything in place perfectly well.

Noise

One element of the trainer that I was really impressed by was the lack of noise it creates. I found that with normal grinding the decibel level was around 58 and at its peak sprint, the maximum I produced was 68 decibels at around 900W. Given that I was using this on a vaulted floor which has the potential to amplify any sound at all, it's particularly impressive.

Value

At £699 this trainer is towards the lower end of the direct-drive smart trainers range, with many costing around a grand or more. You can get others for less, though.

> Buyer’s Guide: 18 of the best turbo trainers and rollers

For instance, the Elite Suito that Dave took a look at a few weeks ago comes in £50 cheaper and is more accurate, if slightly louder. There's also the Elite Zumo that Liam was using, which comes in a full £150 cheaper, although it's perhaps not quite as responsive.

Overall

All in, I was impressed by this turbo trainer. It doesn't have the same kind of accuracy as it promises in all areas, but it does where it counts. You can tell the difference between this and a top end Wahoo Kickr, for instance, but for day-to-day training if you aren't looking for something to race on, it does everything it needs to.

It's secure, it's quiet, it's simple to set up, you can use it for different types of bike, and it doesn't break the bank – what else do you really need?

Verdict

Good day-to-day turbo for getting in the winter miles, if not as accurate as others