As a quick heads up the full review of the Elite Drivo II is now up, and can be found HERE
The Elite Drivo came to the stage in 2016, visually setting itself apart from the crowd of turbo trainers with it’s Star Wars Storm Trooper white case. Since this Wahoo has pushed out three revisions of their Wahoo KICKR, the Cyclops Hammer launched, Tacx has pushed out both the Flux, and now the Flux two, whilst Elite has rather taken the shiny off their top of the line unit with their own Elite Direto – ok, it is debatable how much of a problem a company has when a new product eclipses something further up the product line, when they have to ramp up production to meet demand
As a result, for winter 2018 Elite have opened up their tool kit and given the Elite Drivo and good going over. The new unit this treatment produced looks very much like the love child of a Drivo and Direto. The question will be has the Elite Drivo advanced far enough above its baby brother to justify the price difference now? We’ll have the wait for the full Zwift Gear Test for that!
Externally have broadly the same case shape and lay out as the original Drivo, but now with two stability feet influenced by the very stable Direto, and of course the move to much more sombre black.
To my mind the headline really does have to go to the new fold out feet, which have just been nabbed from the Direto. The original Elite Drivo had many great features, but one of them was not stability. Certainly not when compared to the likes of the KICKR, NEO, Kinetic or as mentioned Elites own DiretoAnother reason for the foot print change, not merely because people don’t like to fall off their trainers, is the power which the Elite Drivo II can handle, 3600 watts @60kph. Although I don’t know many, hold on, change that, ANYONE who can put out that power or speed, but that is what the internals are capable of. Heck even at a slightly more pedestrian 30kph, a power level of 2296watt is still industry leading – as is the Elite Drivo II’s 0.5% power accuracy from their OTS sensor. At which point it is worth while looking over the new unit specs
Elite Drivo II Specifications
- Communication: Bluetooth, ANT+™, ANT+™ FE-C, BlueTooth Smart Trainer Protocol – both ANT and BLE can be used simultaneously
- Slope Simulation: 24%
- Built-in sensors: Power, Speed/Cadence (Advance pedal analytics from this including pedal roundness)
- Max Wattage: Get ready to have your socks blown off the DrivoII ships with 3600Watts @60kph… but for real humans that are going to be 2296w @40kph
- Freehub: Shimano, 9/10/11 speed compatible – no cassette in the box
- Compatibility notes: bikes with 130-135mm hubs and QR skewers, or 12mm x 142 thru-axle hubs,
- Max weight of user: 113kg
- Power Accuracy: 0.5% with Optical Torque Sensor
- Flywheel: 6kg
- Weight: 21kkg
Elite Drivo II user manual can be found HERE
Elite Drivo II Accuracy
As mentioned Elite has now managed to push the level of accuracy down to 0.5%+/- as a result, they don’t believe it would be worth trying to push for an even tighter measurement. This is because being able to measure the error on the power measurement itself becomes a challenge as your accuracies are so high! Elite is happy to raise the point that the Drivo has actually been able to operate at 0.5% accuracy for some time now, something they have been able to measure, as this is the accuracy level of the factories torque meter used in testing. However, it is only with the Drivo II that this has been certified to be reliable across the entire output range. Part of this is from work done to increase the accuracy of the Elite Direto before it shipped.
Originally the torque sensor in the Elite Direto was not able to hit the desired 2% accuracy level in its first interaction during development. An approach to linearisation of the power data was developed, by including data on friction which was previously not included in the power generation formulae. This data-driven improvement in accuracy has been certified in Germany along with the OTS and now streamed to the Drivo II. This has resulted in a change for the user – calibration of the Elite Drivo II is now very important in order to get the advertised accuracy
Most of the changes which matter are very much under the skin. However one aspect which will certainly be relevant to Zwifters is the change in resistance speed
The internal brake has been adjusted so that the responsiveness speed has now trebled, meaning you are going to get a more immersive experience going through the Watopia hills
So I don’t think it would be unfair to describe the changes to the Elite Drivo II as iterative overall. However, I fully believe that for many buyers the change from white will be one of the biggest factors. I have always liked that Elite was brave enough to put out the Drivo in white – and then briefly in pink – BUT in reality, even with the best will in the world the original Elite Drivo did have a tendency to get mucky with chain oil.
I’ll follow up in a few weeks with a full Zwift Gear Test when I have had the chance to get to know the Elite Drivo II as we all know that the temperament of a smart turbo is more than just what is written on the spec sheet!
OK, that is the preview sorted, and I’ll head back to testing. However, I had a few other pictures which didn’t quite sit well in the post, so I thought I’d put them here, as I didn’t want them to go to waste.
Ever wondered what a white Elite Direto would look like? There you go!
James Gill
