The Decathlon D100 smart trainer is easily the best budget smart trainer on the market today. With a normal price of 249EUR, and occasional sale price down to 199EUR, it’s impossible to beat no matter how or what you compare against. However, that does not mean there aren’t better trainers for a little bit more money. Nor does it mean it’s flawless.
In fact, there’s a number of fairly notable caveats on this unit. Some of them are paper caveats that aren’t actually meaningful in real-life, and others are very legit blockers for certain riders.
Well, both myself and my wife have been putting this unit (or rather, two units that I bought) through their paces for months, since back in November. And the results surprised me: It exceeded my expectations in many areas, but face-planted in others. Whether or not it works for you will depend your needs. Thus my goal here is to give you all the information you need to make that decision yourself. And while Decathlon isn’t selling this unit in the US, the D100 is simply a rebranded Magene T110, which is available in the US for $299USD (and as I’ll outline, the Magene variant includes some features disabled by Decathlon).
With the – let’s get into it.
Finally, note that I bought both of these units myself (yes, I bought two of them). If you found this review useful, consider becoming a DCR Supporter, which gets you an ad-free site, plus the behind-the-scenes video series between both myself (and my wife) on everything that happens in the DCR Sports Tech Cave/universe.
The Key Specs:
First up, we need to dive into the key specs, as this one’s a little bit different than most trainers. Decathlon has intentionally disabled features here after rebranding the Magene T110 trainer. Magene makes and has made trainers for many companies in the space, including some of the biggest indoor trainer brands, as well as a slate of small brands/companies/retailers you’ve never heard of. Except in this case, Decathlon took the extra step of disabling more features than most. Whether or not that’s because Magene is charging them less for the trainer, or because Decathlon wants to upsell you on accessories is unclear. But there are implications for that I’ll get into.
Thus, the spec list:
– Direct drive trainer: This means you remove your rear wheel
– Flywheel: It has a flywheel weight of 1.6kg
– Cassette: Offered with both Zwift Cog V2 cassette (€299) or no cassette (€249)
– Sound: Essentially silent. Only the sound of your drivetrain is heard
– Handle: No
– Protocol Compatibility: Bluetooth Smart Trainer Control (FTMS), Zwift Protocol (Note: No ANT+ available on the unit)
– Cadence: No
– WiFi: No
– USB Connectivity: No
– Zwift Race Mode: No
– App Compatibility: Any app that supports Bluetooth FTMS
– Skewer Compatibility: All the skewers and adapters you could ask for: Road 130mm, 135mm, 142x12mm, 148x12mm
– Max Incline: 6% simulated grade
– Max Wattage: 600 watts
– Stated Accuracy: < +/-5.0%
– Power Cable Required: Yes, power block compatible with 100-240v
– Pricing: €249/£229 (no cassette), and €299/£249 (Zwift Cog/Click)
Notably, back during the holidays, it was on sale for 199EUR, which is when I picked up one of my two units I bought (don’t ask…).
Keep in mind though, if you buy it without a cassette, you’ll need to install one. For a typical 10-12-speed cassette, you’re looking at about 50-70EUR, plus 10-15EUR in cassette tools if you don’t have them.
Finally, as noted earlier that the Decathlon D100 trainer is simply a Magene T110 trainer re-branded for Decathlon. Except, the Magene T110 is actually better, as it includes cadence broadcasting, whereas the Decathlon version does not. Magene sells the T110 trainer for $299USD in the US (Decathlon does not sell it in the US). However as of this writing, no Magene trainers are currently on the Zwift Cog/Click compatibility list, thus, it would require a regular mechanical cassette for usage with Zwift.
The (Sorta) Big Gaps:
Now, there’s fourish big ticket items that stand out as irregular here amongst trainers:
1) No cadence output
2) No ANT+
3) Max resistance of 600w
4) Claimed accuracy of +/- 5%
4.5) Max incline of 6% (I’m only given this half credit)
None of the above are normal on smart trainers today, as all smart trainers from the last decade transmit cadence and ANT+. And all have higher resistance levels than 650w, and most have accuracy claims in the +/- 2.5% or better range. That said, here me out on some of these.
Lack of cadence broadcast: Ok, let’s start with this one first, and I’ll be brutally frank here: This is effing stupid. Like, it actually angers me stupid. Mainly because Decathlon is specifically disabling this (the T110 includes cadence just fine), clearly to upsell you on their 24EUR standalone cadence sensor. But doing so shows a complete lack of awareness of the indoor cycling industry and usage, specifically, the Apple TV aspect of it. It means you need to spend 24EUR to buy a separate cadence sensor to use with apps, which in an Apple TV scenario won’t work if you’ve already got the trainer + heart rate (because Apple TV has a two Bluetooth connection limit + remote). Sure, apps like Zwift can leverage the companion app, but that’s often buggy, and most other Apple TV apps don’t have that. Finally, while I’ll rarely through the environmental flag out there, this is the apex of e-waste. Nobody in 2025 (or 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024…) should be buying a cadence sensor for a smart trainer when every smart trainer in the last decade does it directly inbox. Like I said, this decision legitimately irks me, and as you’ll see later, I think will cost them many purchases. Penny wise, pound foolish.
No ANT+ Broadcast: While ANT+ broadcasting has been the mainstay of smart trainers for 15+ years now, the D100 is the first notable trainer to skip it. At first glance, that’s not a huge deal to be honest. Virtually every application out there supports dual ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart, and most consumers use Bluetooth Smart FTMS (or WiFi) to control their trainers these days on Android or Apple devices. However, what makes this decision slightly more tricky is that Magene/Decathlon selected a chipset capable of only a single concurrent Bluetooth connection. This means if you want to connect your Apple/Garmin/COROS/Suunto/Polar/whatever watch to it while also Zwifting, you actually can’t, as that connection is already taken up. That’s a legit problem for people wanting to account for training load, unless they have another power meter.
Max Resistance of 600w: Depending on your weight and power, this may or may not be a problem. For myself at 188cm/6’2” as a moderately powerful cyclist, this limit is indeed a problem for sprints. Yet for my 158cm/5’2” wife, this limitation is not at all a problem for her triathlon training. And mind you, she isn’t a beginner cyclist. Rather, she’s virtually always on the podium for her age group. The key is, as a triathlete, she’s rarely doing any sprint training, especially beyond 600w. Instead, it’s largely steady-state ERG/structured workout training. And all of those are well below 600w. Even for my structured workouts, I have nothing at all approaching the 600w range, they top out in the 450w range. Whereas for a casual sprint in Zwift, I easily exceed the 600w. More on that later, and how that works.
Claimed +/- 5% Accuracy: This one is the least problematic of the issues below, mostly because all of my testing found it significantly better than claimed (see accuracy section). Thus, my guess here is that Decathlon is trying to upsell you on the D500 instead (which claims +/- 2%). This strategy is not terribly unlike another trainer brand that literally use the exact same power meter parts in two different priced trainers, yet with different claims on them. Upsells baby! What matters though, is actual testing results. So dig into that down below.
Max Incline of 6%: While this is substantially lower than most of the other trainers at the low end, I actually don’t think this matters for most people. That’s because on Zwift, by default, the ‘Trainer Difficulty’ setting is set for 50%. This means that it takes whatever grade your riding (e.g. 12%) and makes it 6% in terms of inertial feeling. Given the overwhelming majority of riders never change this, and very few routes in Zwift go beyond 12%, this isn’t really an issue. Heck, elite racers on Zwift even turn trainer difficulty all the way down to 0%. Note: This doesn’t change how fast your avatar goes up the hill, as that’s still based on your outputted power. More on that here from Zwift Insider.
Unboxing & Setup:
First up, let’s talk about what’s in the box. In my case, I bought the unit from a local Decathlon in Amsterdam, and pedaled it back across the city in a cargo bike. There’s something about that which completes the circle of life, thus, I needed to include mention of that somewhere in here. Mission accomplished.
In any case, here’s the box:
And, here’s all the parts in the box:
The first thing you’ll need to do is install the legs on the trainer. That takes approximately 2 minutes, and is super quick.
From there, if you bought the version without a cassette, you’ll need to install a cassette. In my case, I put a 12-speed cassette on it. But you can put other cassette typers on it. You’ll need both the cassette, and a cassette tool to get it installed properly.
After which, you’ll want to get it plugged in. Here’s the power block (and the details on the back, in case it gets mixed up in a pile of power adapters some day):
At this point, you’re ready to go.
Now in my case, I bought two of these trainers (not exactly planned…but…it happens), and both of them were from Decathlon without cassette. In both cases I initially installed cassettes, and then later I changed one of them to be a Zwift Cog/Click option by buying the Zwift Cog/Click direct from Zwift:
The install process takes all of 2 minutes to swap to Cog/Click:
Or inversely, to swap back. With that, let’s start riding.
Riding Basics:
First up we’ll toss the bike on the trainer. Like all direct drive trainers, this means removing the rear wheel and mounting with the appropriate axle adapters. Both common axle types adapters (quick release skewer and thru-axle) are included in the box, so you’re good either way.
Once that’s done and the trainer powered on, you’ve got a series of status lights to validate the unit is functioning. Or, at least validate it’s powered on.
From there, you’ll want to ensure the firmware is up to date. To do so, you’ll use the Magene OneLapFit app. That’s the app that covers most of Magene’s products from a settings & firmware perspective. It’s not made or maintained by Decathlon, and is fully outsourced to Magene. In order to connect to the trainer, you’ll go to Me > My Other Device > Smart Trainer > Search
After that’s done, you’ll be able to Update your smart trainer to the most current firmware, as well as see power/speed. Additionally, you can use this app to set a given target power, slope (grade), or resistance level (0-100%). You can also do a spin-down (calibration).
Magene recommends a spin-down every 14 days, or if the equipment is transported. I did one once, forever ago, and it’s been rock-solid accurate. But obviously, if you start seeing accuracy issues, do a spin down.
Outside of updating firmware, there’s little reason to use the Magene OneFitApp for anything else. Instead you’ll likely be using an app like Zwift, Rouvy, TrainerRoad, etc… So taking a look at Zwift, in the pairing menu, you’ll see the Van Rysel unit listed as both a power sensor and resistance controllable trainer. Further, you’ll see it listed as a cadence sensor.
However, despite listing as a source of cadence in Zwift, it won’t provide any usable data. It transmits a near-constant value of 30ish the entire time. In the case of Magene’s T110 trainer, this feature work just fine. But either Magene or Decathlon decided to disable it, but instead of properly disabling it, they just crappily broke it. In the laziest way possible. I wouldn’t be so annoyed if the trainer never had it to begin with, but instead, they purposefully removed a feature to upsell you on an accessory, and then did a poor job of removing it.
Thus if you want cadence, you’ll need to buy a secondary cadence sensor, or use cadence from a secondary power meter. Setting the costs aside, that’s even more annoying on Apple TV, due to the two Bluetooth limit connection (plus remote control). That means you can’t use a heart rate strap in Zwift on Apple TV without leveraging your phone as the data source, and that’s typically a hot mess.
So. Much. Sigh.
Now, as I noted earlier, there’s no ANT+ on this. That in and of itself isn’t a deal breaker. But in addition, it doesn’t transmit as a standard power sensor either. That makes it difficult for many watches and bike computers to connect to (most bike computers don’t connect on BT FTMS, but ANT+ FE-C). Further compounding things, is that it only has a single concurrent Bluetooth Connection, so even if your watch does support FTMS (virtually none do), you still couldn’t record the ride to your watch if your were controlling it with Zwift (many people do that for training load purposes).
In any event, with that annoyance behind us, into Zwift we go:
The same is true in Rouvy, no problems there either:
The trainer will automatically change resistance to match your terrain. This worked well for me, without any issues.
Now because the D100 is limited to 6% max incline, you won’t get any more incline simulation beyond that. For example, here, I stupidly decided to do the Hardknott Pass climb, which is an average 11% gradient, but goes upwards of 33%. Most of the time it’s in the mid-teens range.
In this case, once I passed 6%, it all felt the same. Still, it was easily able to handle my 300w sustained the entire time. No issues there. However, it obviously felt *FAR* easier than doing it the week prior on the Elite Avanti, which can simulate up to 18%. In particular, my cadence on the Decathlon D100 was quite normal, because I was basically just going up a 6% hill.
Of course, when it comes to Zwift (and other apps) in terms of how fast you go up the hill, it’s purely based on power. So Zwift doesn’t really care what the trainer does, it just looks at power outputs to calculate. In fact, by default, Zwift will halve your trainer’s gradient, in a settings called ‘Trainer Difficulty’. This means that in a default Zwift configuration, a 12% grade becomes a 6% grade. In fact, many Zwift racers will even reduce this setting further down to 0%, to gain an advantage in terms of gearing and cadence.
My general opinion here though is if you spend money on a trainer to simulate the outdoors, you should…you know…simulate the outdoor climb too. Suckiness and all. I keep mine on 100%, but to each their own.
Now before we talk about ERG mode, let’s briefly switch over to a Zwift Cog setup. In this case, I’ve put the Zwift Cog on, and installed the Zwift Click.
The Click is the little dual-button controller that basically increases or decreases which virtual gear you’re in:
In a Zwift Virtual Shifting scenario, you have 24 gears to iterate up/down through, with 1 being the easiest, and 24 being the hardest. The reaction time as you shift is instant. The main appeal to using the Zwift Cog, is it’s fully compatible with any cassette type (e.g. 9-speed, 10-speed, 11-speed, etc…). In my case I used it primarily with 12-speed bikes on the D100, but also a 13-speed bike. Whereas a traditional cassette you’ll have to swap cassettes for each bike for clean shifting.
The downside to the Zwift Cog is that it’s largely only compatible with Zwift. While Rouvy just announced compatibility last week, that’s not official compatibility – and could break at any time (or, Zwift’s lawyers could try and get upset at any time – though I don’t think they will).
In any event, on the Zwift screen you’ll see a small area that shows what gearing you’re in:
All of this worked perfectly fine for me as well, in both simulation and ERG mode.
In terms of inertia (trainer realism/feel), it was so-so. Not great by any means, but not horrible either. Certainly better than the vast majority of wheel-on trainers. According to the Magene specs, it’s only got a 1.6KG flywheel, which is roughly 1/3rd the size of something like the Wahoo KICKR CORE or JetBlack Victory. It’s not big. Yet as they say in other disciplines, it’s not the size, but how you use it. And Magene uses it well here, and thus it’s certainly no $1,000 trainer in terms of road feel, but again, far better than a wheel-on trainer.
Next, let’s talk about ERG mode, which is simply structured workout mode. As a smart trainer, there are basically two core modes they use:
ERG Mode: Setting a specific power level – i.e., 220w. In this mode, no matter what gearing you use, the trainer will simply stay at 220w (or whatever you set it to).
Simulation (SIM) Mode: Simulating a specific outdoor grade – i.e., 6% incline. In this mode, it’s just like outdoors in that you can change your gearing to make it easier or harder. Wattage is not hard-set, only incline levels.
So looking at Zwift first, you can see the structured workout listed on the left side, and then the power is correspondingly automatically set to that for me. There’s typically no need to shift, unless you need more flywheel speed for intervals above roughly 350w (more about that in the accuracy section).
The same is true for TrainerRoad, where I had no problems with workout there either. It automatically iterated through each step. Though, TrainerRoad doesn’t display invalid cadence like Zwift, it simply doesn’t display anything for cadence.
Now in testing ERG mode with both, there was interestingly a slight difference there in terms of the values displayed. In the case of Zwift, the D100 seemingly properly sends to Zwift the actual power level (smoothed, but actual). Whereas in TrainerRoad, it just transmits the set-point value (what it should be). This is irregardless of the setting I configured in the Magene app (turning it off). Down in the accuracy section, I dive into how quick responsiveness and stability was.
Last but not least, in terms of sound/audio, it’s pretty much silent. About the only thing you’re going to hear is the drivetrain sounds from your bike. If your bike is clean, you won’t hear much. If it’s dirty, it’ll be louder. Like most other trainers on the market today, there’s basically nothing coming from the trainer itself. You can gear this in the video up above.
Power Accuracy:
The D100 claims an accuracy of +/- 5%, which by trainer standards is actually pretty low (as in, not good). Most trainers these days are between +/- 1% and +/- 2.5% at the worst. At least for direct drive trainers. Whereas wheel-on trainers (long out of fashion years ago), would range upwards of +/- 5%. But fear not. As you’ll see here, the D100 easily surpasses these claims (in a good way), and is more accurate than claimed.
That’s likely because most trainer companies, Magene included (the maker of this trainer) don’t really create different power sensors/algorithms for different trainers in their lineup. Instead, they re-use that same tech across the lineup (and vary things like flywheel weight, gradients, and other specs). So generally speaking we don’t tend to see any meaningful difference within a given companies lineup, assuming we’re talking within the same rough generation of trainers. They’re using the listed specs in an attempt to upsell you on other trainers.
In any event, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Both my wife and I have put countless hours on this trainer testing things out. In my case, I’ve tested it with four different bikes across two different D100 units I purchased (one in Spain and one in the Netherlands).
Let’s first start off with an ERG mode workout (structured workout). One of the things you quickly realize is that depending on how hefty the power numbers are, you may have to shift gears to give it the flywheel speed it needs to hold a given wattage. Assuming 90RPM (for your cadence), I found that once I went above about 350-360w, I had to shift one or two gears to get upwards of 450w+ in ERG mode resistance. In any case, let’s look at this workout, compared to the Favero Assioma Pro MX pedal based power meter:
This workout basically has some ascending/growing intervals, floating in the 400w range for 2 minutes each. Not super fun. You’ll notice the first of the big ones is kinda wonky, looking a bit deflated (first of the two below). This is an example of where I had to realize it wasn’t hitting the specified power, and then shifted my gears to give it more flywheel speed. After that, it was perfectly fine.
Here’s the mean-max for that data set:
So let’s talk about how it handles quick power changes, and the best place to do that is 30×30 intervals. Or short burst intervals. In these sorts of (very popular) intervals, the goal is quickly get to the interval wattage, and then quickly release it. And then rinse/repeat. If a trainer takes too long to get there, it kinda defeats the purpose. For every trainer I’ve reviewed, I use this simple 30×30 test with the same wattages, jumping from 150w to 450w. There’s three specific things I’m looking for:
A) How long does it take to go from 150w to 450w: In an idea world, that’s 2-3 seconds. Any faster, and it’s too fast, like hitting a brick wall. And any more than about 4 seconds, and you’re wasting too much time at the wrong power.
B) How stable is it once it arrives at 450w: I don’t want it wobbling about. It needs to get there quickly and stick, then hold, the landing. Else, you’re not at the prescribed wattage and either under or overshooting it.
C) Is the power accurate: And lastly of course, is the power numbers coming from it accurate.
So, let’s look at things. First up, this is what TrainerRoad shows in terms of the prescribed levels it’s sending, and then what the trainer says it’s doing:
You’ll notice on the first one, it’s not even close. That’s because I needed to change my gearing (into the big ring up front, and a harder gear in the back) to increase the flywheel speed. Without that, the D100 isn’t able to maintain the higher wattage. But a quick shift later, and I was good to go.
In terms of responsiveness, it was actually good. It was taking 3 seconds. This trainer gets a 1-second head start in TrainerRoad, and then takes two more seconds to hit the set point. That’s exactly where I want it.
As for stability, when zoomed in like above, it looks fine. But in reality, it’s still pretty darn wobbly, as we see down below. Part of this is because unlike most trainers where you want the small ring upfront to increase ERG stability, with the D100 we need the big ring to get enough flywheel speed for the higher power output. Thus, kinda like driving a car too fast, you lose some of that accuracy/stability you’d have at lower flywheel speeds. You can see this more easily, when looking at the power accuracy data:
The other thing you’ll notice is that the lines on the D100 are ‘perfect’. This is called ‘ERG Mode Smoothing’, and unfortunately, despite having a very clear toggle to turn it off (in the app), it doesn’t actually turn-off. This makes power meter accuracy testing somewhat difficult, because the trainer isn’t reporting its true power, but instead, the power you told it to be at. Thankfully in this case, these two align. However, what’s odd/unexplainable to me, is that when using Zwift with ERG mode, it appears to be reporting the semi-actual value. Whereas in TrainerRoad, they’re only sending the planned power value. Which…is odd.
Next, we’ve got a more real 30×30 interval set (well, technically it was first 40 second intervals, then 30 second intervals, then 20 second intervals). Point is, this was an hour long set of actual intervals, as opposed to my test set. Here’s that data:
You’l notice right away that the green line of the power meter is consistently above/topping over on the intervals. Meaning, it’s overshooting and wobbling higher almost the entire time. Part of the issue here is that the D100 is mostly reporting a set-point value here, rather than the actual value. Here’s a closer look at that:
On more expensive trainers, these two lines would be like white on rice. Here, it’s more like whipped cream on a cake.
In any event, here’s the mean-max for that ride:
Now, let’s switch into so-called ‘SIM’ or ‘Simulation’ mode. This is basically where the trainer changes the gradient to match whatever app you’re riding. So basically, normal mode in Zwift. Here, we’ll start off with a Rouvy ride, this one recreating the famous Cap de Formentor route in Mallorca, Spain. Keep in mind, this data is pretty darn variable because it’s a simulation ride with rolling terrain. Here’s the data:
If we zoom in on a random bit, you can see the two follow each other very closely. There’s really not much of concern here.
If we look at the mean-max, it’s pretty close here for almost all of it. More on the upper end later.
Next, we’ve got an older ride I did on Zwift, Sand and Sequoias, one of the best routes for testing trainers on Zwift. This is because it has both flats (for going fast and high flywheel speed), as well as lots of rolling terrain for resistance simulation testing. Here’ a look at that data:
As you can see, this is scary good. Like, very very good. There’s a handful of times (like 2-3) for a few seconds, that the trainer has a little bit more punch/surge than reality. But I only actually saw it on this ride from months ago, not on newer firmware. Otherwise, three units almost identically aligning for a casual surge:
Of course, with the 600w limit, you’re going to see that top-out point occurring any time I surge past that:
In terms of the mean-max, it’s very good as well:
Finally, what about a long hard sustained climb? What happens when the trainer is told to go above the 6% spec? Well, I went out and did the Hardknott Pass route, which has an average gradient of 11%, but has maximum gradient of 33%. As noted above, ultimately, the trainer simply doesn’t give any more than 6% in terms of how it feels, but it does still provide plenty of wattage resistance. In my case, I was roughly averaging 300w on this climb, and it held that just fine. Here’s that data:
What you’ll notice though is the handful of lazy sprints, all of which went above 600w, but the Decathlon D100 caps these at 600w. Again, like other aspects of this trainer, the hardware is plenty capable of more than 600w of resistance, but they simply cap it in software.
In any case, in terms of accuracy, all of this was perfectly fine.
Here’s the mean-max power on this ride, which is astonishingly good, save of course the separation at 600w (max cap):
Ultimately, the D100 is actually outperforming some other more expensive trainers when it comes to power accuracy. In my testing, it’s astonishingly good. Obviously, given it lacks cadence broadcasting in Decathlon’s implementation (the Magene T110 which it’s rebranded from, has it). And also obviously, the software cap of 600w on the power makes it challenging for anyone wanting to get credit for hard sprints on it.
When it comes to aspects like holding a set-point (structured workouts), it’s a bit more variable, especially based on cadence. It’s not as firm/strict as other trainers in the $400-$500 range (such as the Wahoo KICKR CORE or JetBlack Victory), but it’s also not horrific either. Heck, I’ve seen smart bikes on the market that are more variable in their strictness on structured workouts. Likewise, from a reviewer standpoint, the inability to turn off ERG mode smoothing (despite a setting for it, that doesn’t work), is slightly annoying.
The last piece though that’s not strictly accuracy, but vaguely related, is whether it can hit certain wattages in all gearing combinations. Meaning, you may need to shift a bit on some structured workouts, in order for the trainer to hit higher wattages. This is hardly a deal breaker, and typically you’ll just need to do it once in a workout, but something that’s usually unnecessary in higher-end trainers. But again, it didn’t bother me here for the price.
Ultimately, while the D100 has a number of tradeoffs to be made, I’m simply not seeing accuracy as one of them. It’s actually really good.
Wrap-Up:
I’d have loved to be a fly on the wall the conversations between Magene and Decathlon when they agreed to the specs of this trainer, and how Decathlon was going to hit the price points it wanted to. Ultimately, Magene sold Decathlon a higher-end trainer when it comes to hardware, but effectively disabled various software features to try and hit Decathlon’s price points. Undoutedly, Decathlon touted high-volume sales in front of Magene in exchange for a substantially lower price than we’ve seen elsewhere. In an effort to avoid undercutting either themselves or their other partners, Magene in turn cut features.
And to an extent, that works. After all, the trainer is largely pretty accurate, and can also deliver the power needed for most riders. The problem however, becomes some penny-pinching accountants decisions, which ultimately undercuts the very value Decathlon was trying to bring. Specifically, around cadence. If we play the pricing game, here’s how it works out:
Base trainer price: 249EUR
Add cassette (+55EUR): 305EUR
Add cassette tools (+20EUR): 334EUR
Add cadence sensor (+25EUR): 359EUR
So now you’re at 359EUR for a budget trainer, versus 399EUR for the very strong future-proofed JetBlack Victory that’s got WiFi, full support for ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart, and a gazillion other features (admittedly hard to get right now). To me, it’s the cadence sensor that’s breaking things here. In a Zwift scenario, you’re at 299EUR with the cassette (Zwift Cog) included. Again, that’s a solid price, with a side-dish of cadence annoyance. Had they included cadence, and the base price (non-Zwift COG) still been 249EUR, that’d be spot-on
Still, setting that aside, if you’ve got a cassette/tools sitting around, or if you just want the Zwift Cog version, it’s by far the best trainer for the price. That’s not really debatable. There’s factually nothing else in the sub-$300 realm that competes with this as a direct drive trainer. And all of the wheel-on trainers below that price point, suck, comparatively. I’d easily recommend the D100 over the KICKR SNAP any day of the week.
Hopefully, Decathlon will look at things, and re-enable the cadence in the D100. Again, it’s included in the base T110 hardware that Magene has re-branded for Decathlon. If they can do that, and perhaps tweak the price a bit lower as the JetBlack Victory becomes more widely available, they’ll easily retain the crown of the best budget trainer on the market.
With that – thanks for reading!
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