Elite Rivo review: a wonderfully compact smart trainer but it lags behind the competition in key areas

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Elite’s Rivo smart trainer promises much but ultimately left me disappointed with its middling performance compared to its rivals.

The successor to the highly rated Suito, the Rivo offers a little more resistance, an updated form factor and new connectivity options.

Unfortunately, though, the smart trainer game has evolved since we awarded the Suito 4.5 stars in 2019, and the Rivo doesn’t have the ride feel or data accuracy I’d expect of a new model at this price.

There are also a couple of software quirks that I’d like to see ironed out.

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Elite Rivo with Zwift Cog and Click specification

The Rivo builds on Elite’s old Suito smart trainer, with a similar form factor and spec sheet.

Rather than sticking with the same external design, Elite has upgraded it to look similar to its flagship smart trainer, the Justo 2.

Overall, the Rivo is a fantastic-looking trainer, made with plenty of metal and high-quality plastic – giving the impression it's built solidly and will stand the test of time.

Priced at £499.99 / $549.99 / €549.99, it’s positioned to compete with mid-range direct drive smart trainers such as the Wahoo Kickr Core 2 and JetBlack Victory.

On paper, its specs are competitive, although it's something of a mixed bag in terms of how it compares to its main competitors.

The 2,100-watt maximum power and 18 per cent maximum simulated gradient are both class-leading, for example. On the other hand, its claimed power accuracy of +/- 2.5 per cent is 0.5 per cent wider than those trainers.

Its 3.5kg flywheel is also substantially smaller than the 5.4kg and 4.7kg flywheels found on the Wahoo Kickr Core 2 and JetBlack Victory, respectively.

While it does support sensor bridging for heart rate monitors, there are a few quirks with its connectivity that I found frustrating.

Knowing which of these specs matter – and which don’t – is crucial to separating these trainers, so we’ll cover them all shortly.

Beyond that, the specs are as you’d expect from a smart trainer at this price in 2025.

In terms of connectivity options, you get Bluetooth and WiFi. There’s no ANT+ here, but I suspect that won’t trouble many riders because there are few smart devices (beyond bike computers and the like) that use that wireless protocol anymore.

In terms of value, the Elite Rivo is competitive but not ground-breaking.

JetBlack’s excellent Victory, for example, costs £100 / $150 / €100 less at RRP, at only £399 / $399 / €449.95.

Wahoo’s Kickr Core 2 (also excellent) costs the same in the UK, but a little more in the EU, at £499.99 / $549.99 / €549.99.

Zwift Cog and Click

As with many new ‘Zwift Ready’ smart trainers, the Elite Rivo is available with the option of having a Zwift Cog pre-installed, along with Zwift Click v2 controllers bundled in the box.

The Zwift Cog is a single-speed adaptor that enables “almost any” 8- to 12-speed bike to be mounted to a smart trainer without the need for a drivetrain- or groupset-specific cassette.

You then use the controllers to shift ‘virtually’, by modifying the trainer’s resistance to your pedalling.

For riders or households with multiple bikes, or for those who simply don’t want to worry about whether their bike will fit a given smart trainer, the Zwift Cog can streamline the experience of getting everything set up and ready to ride.

The downside is the trainer can then only be used with indoor cycling apps that support the virtual shifting protocol – currently only Zwift and Rouvy.

Physically, the trainer is the same as the version without a Zwift Cog pre-installed, however, so you can remove the Cog and replace it with a standard bike cassette at a later date if desired.

Elite Rivo with Zwift Cog and Click setup

Out of the box, the first things you notice about the Elite Rivo are its excellent handle – a rarity at this price, sadly – plus its small size and low weight.

For riders who don’t have a dedicated space to leave their indoor training setup out and ready-to-ride, this will be a major plus point compared to larger, heavier models.

Compared to Kickr Core-inspired trainers, which have support legs that sit perpendicular to the rider and their bike, the Elite Rivo’s design also enables the two side legs to tuck in much closer to its body.

It also weighs only 10kg compared to 12.9kg for the JetBlack Victory and 18kg for the Kickr Core 2.

Both characteristics make it much easier to move around and to stow away between sessions.

Before you get to this point, you’ll need to install the three legs with the included Allen key. This is simple enough, although the legs lack the same Zwift Hub-inspired colour-coding as found on the Kickr Core 2 and JetBlack Victory, so you might have to pay a little more attention to the instructions at this point.

With that done, though, you can plug it in and install the axle adaptors.

Again, it’d be nice if Elite could include something that made the latter easier for beginners. 

It’s easy to assume everyone knows what kind of dropouts their bike has, and therefore which of the included axle adaptors they need to fish out of the plastic bag they come jumbled in – but in the interests of accessibility, a little more effort here would go a long way.

An axle adaptor for bikes with 12x148mm or ‘Boost’ rear spacing isn’t included either, so you’ll need to purchase one of these separately (for £7.99) if required.

Elite Rivo with Zwift Cog and Click performance

Elite Rivo with Zwift Cog and Click connectivity

The Elite Rivo offers Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. The latter is set up via Elite’s myE-Training app (available for iOS and Android devices), which can also be used to adjust settings and connect other sensors, such as heart rate monitors, cadence sensors and power meters.

Doing so was a seamless affair, and I’ve not experienced any connection troubles since.

As with other Elite smart trainers, updating the Rivo’s firmware requires a second app (amusingly called Upgrado), although in this instance, my test unit arrived fully up to date.

This isn’t a huge chore – especially because the WiFi connectivity means firmware updates can now be downloaded and installed automatically in the background – but it would be simpler if Elite could combine the two apps into one, as most other manufacturers do.

All of that done, though, I loaded up Zwift for the first time and, as recommended, connected to the Rivo via WiFi, joined a RoboPacer group ride and was met almost immediately with an in-game message telling me my “smart trainer currently doesn’t support virtual shifting”.

This was a problem because the pre-installed Zwift Cog meant I had no gears and therefore no ability to vary the resistance.

Quitting the ride, a quick bit of Googling surfaced Elite’s support page, which confirmed the Rivo only supports virtual shifting over Bluetooth – and indeed, switching connection types solved the issue immediately.

Because Zwift remembers whichever connection you used last, this isn’t a major problem once you’re aware of it. But it is frustrating, because this could easily trip riders up – Zwift specifically recommends connecting via WiFi on its in-game device pairing page, after all.

Elite’s blurb for the Rivo also implies high-speed data transmission (referred to commonly as ‘Race Mode’) is only available via WiFi. This means you won’t be able to take advantage of this feature using the Zwift Cog and Bluetooth.

Sadly, there’s no automatic calibration feature on the Rivo, as there is on the Kickr Core 2 or JetBlack Victory, so your only option is to perform manual spin-down calibrations.

I also noticed these can only be done on Zwift when connected via WiFi, and not when using Bluetooth – which meant I needed to swap connections or grab my smartphone and use Elite’s app to do spin-downs instead.

Again, these aren’t world-ending problems, but they are irritating. You could avoid some of them by not using the Zwift Cog and virtual shifting, but if that’s a key selling point of the trainer for you, it won’t be an attractive solution.

​​Elite Rivo with Zwift Cog and Click ride feel

Having just tested the Kickr Core 2, I was somewhat disappointed by the Elite Rivo’s ride feel – which felt noticeably choppier and less fluid through the pedals.

I also found the jumps between virtual ‘gears’ felt a bit more stark, with bigger gradations at the upper (hardest) end of the range.

The ride feel certainly isn’t terrible by any stretch, but I’d expect better of a smart trainer at this price in 2025.

Although it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what causes these differences, the primary candidate is the Rivo’s 3.5kg flywheel – which is 42.7 per cent lighter than the 5.4kg flywheel in the Kickr Core 2.

In this respect, it’s much more akin to Van Rysel’s budget-focused D100 (£259.99 / €299.99), which features a 3.2kg flywheel.

The Rivo’s low overall weight also means it has a tendency to move around you during sprints more than heavier trainers (such as the Kickr Core 2).

Similar to that trainer, ERG mode performance on the Rivo was also decent, but not amazing – the supplied resistance fluctuated slightly, making it a touch more difficult to hold hard efforts precisely.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, little compares to Tacx’s Neo 3M in this regard – but that trainer costs more than three times as much as the Rivo.

• Simon says: ERG mode is overrated

Where the Rivo pulls ahead of its closest competitors on paper is with its higher power ceiling and simulated gradients. Unfortunately, I think there are few riders in this target segment for whom either will make a tangible difference.

For a start, the default trainer difficulty setting is 50 per cent on Zwift – meaning you only feel half the stated gradient at the trainer (unless you change this via the settings).

Likewise, if you can produce more than the 1,800 watts offered by the Kickr Core 2 and JetBlack Victory, you’re probably better off looking at trainers with a bit more heft behind them anyway.

The Elite Rivo’s low, 10kg weight means it's naturally not as planted underneath you as heavier trainers such as the Wahoo Kickr V6 (21kg) or Tacx Neo 3M (23.6kg), after all.

​​Elite Rivo with Zwift Cog and Click noise

In terms of noise, the Rivo puts in a decent performance, averaging around 60 to 62 decibels when riding at 150 watts or around 30 to 35kph.

The noise levels ramp up slightly to around 65 to 66 decibels when sprinting at higher speeds, but all things considered, this is plenty ‘quiet enough’.

As I so often say in my smart trainer reviews, once you’ve got a big fan in the mix and some headphones in, you won’t be able to hear it at all.

Having the adjustable Zwift Cog helps here, because you can dial in the indexing to reduce drivetrain noise, and you also don’t get spikes of noise from gear changes, because virtual shifting is silent.

As with my other smart trainer reviews, this was measured using a sound meter app on my iPhone, which was set one metre away from the driveside part of the trainer.

Your experience may differ compared to my measured figures, though, depending on where your trainer is set up, as well as what drivetrain and chain lube you’re using.

​​Elite Rivo with Zwift Cog and Click power accuracy

Having long used an Elite Direto XR as a benchmark for on-bike power meters, I had high expectations for the Elite Rivo. Sadly, though, I found it somewhat wanting in this area as well.

Elite claims the Rivo is accurate to +/- 2.5 per cent, and although I generally found that to be true at lower wattage levels, it frequently under-reported during sprints and I also saw some instances of drift.

During one ride, for example, it under-reported my power output during the opening 10 minutes and then over-reported during a later stretch in the same ride.

In a virtual group ride or race, this will lead to an inaccurate and potentially disappointing reflection of your true efforts – no one wants to lose a sprint for the (virtual) win because their trainer isn’t reporting their true effort – but it can also affect structured workouts.

That particular instance of drift technically caused me to start the workout pedalling harder than needed, and then to not be working hard enough later on. If you’re following a specific training plan, errors such as this can negate the effectiveness of your efforts.

An auto-calibration feature might go some way to dealing with issues such as this, so it’s a shame that it isn’t included here.

Elite notes that the Rivo doesn’t feature an 'integrated power meter' like more expensive models in its range, such as the Avanti, Direto XR and Justo 2. Instead, it relies on estimating your power output and cadence based on 'internal algorithms'.

However, I’m not convinced that distinction matters much to riders – what matters is whether the numbers a smart trainer transmits are an accurate enough representation of your efforts.

And, in this respect, the Rivo is out-classed by similarly priced competitors such as Wahoo’s Kickr Core 2 and JetBlack’s Victory.

If you have a Bluetooth-compatible power meter on your bike (it must be Bluetooth-compatible because the Rivo doesn’t support ANT+), then you can link that to the Rivo and it will stream data from that to your chosen training platform instead, which should solve these issues.

Ultimately, though, this feels like papering over cracks that shouldn’t exist on a smart trainer at this price in late 2025, and will of course be little help to those without a power meter.

​​Elite Rivo with Zwift Cog and Click bottom line

Overall, the Elite Rivo fell short of my expectations.

While not a bad smart trainer by any reasonable measure, the Rivo also doesn’t measure up to the increasingly tough competition at its price point.

Instead of upping the maximum power output and simulated gradient compared to its predecessor (the Suito), Elite would have been better served refining its ride feel, connectivity options and data accuracy – all of which have a far more tangible impact on the day-to-day experience for most riders.

As it is, though, it feels as if Elite’s rivals have taken tangible steps forward while it has stood relatively still.

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