Elite Justo Turbo Trainer Review
The Elite Justo is a very impressive turbo in the sea of smart trainers, the Justo made indoor riding more engaging and waith a host of clever tech it really is a class leader. It is tricky to ignore the cost though but for those looking to keep their fitness up and start the season with a bang it’s a worthy investment.
Turbo Trainer tech has come on leaps and bounds in the past few years with the days of thrashing away in the pain cave watching videos of other people riding bikes long gone. With the latest crop of smart trainers, indoor riding has become as interactive as it can without venturing outside. We’ve been pouring (in both senses of the word) over the new pinnacle of Elite’s indoor trainer range; the Justo.
4/5
£999 | Buy from Freewheel
TL:DR
The Lowdown
±1% power accuracy
Simulates up to a 24% gradient
Enhanced pedal feel with Flex Feet
Auto calibration
6.2kg flywheel
Integrates with all smart training platforms such as Zwift, Rouvy and TrainerRoad
Bluetooth Bridge
Huge range of compatibility via adaptors for different rear wheels
Positives
Excellent ride feel
Smart features make for an engaging workout
Sustainable materials and reduced plastics
Bluetooth bridge makes connections a breeze
Negatives
Price is steep even versus other top end trainers
Adaptors need to be purchased separately
Replacing the outgoing Direto XR, the Justo brings a raft of new features to the table including the ability to simulate a 24% gradient, ±1% power accuracy and enhanced pedalling feel. All this tech does come at a cost though, the Justo will relieve you of a pound short of £1000, and yes, that is the price of a pretty good entry level bike.
Upon hauling the Justo out of the sturdy cardboard box, there’s minimal assembly to get the thing up and running. It’s a case of screwing on the flywheel cover with two screws and fitting the correct axle spacers for your bike and a cassette. A bag of axle spacers are included to fit 130 x 5 QR (the standard for non disk brake bikes) and 142x12 thru axles (the standard for disk brake road bikes and some mountain bikes. If your steed uses 135x12, 148x12, Boost or Super Boost hubs then Elite offer adaptors available to be purchased separately so this should be factored into the cost if you need extra adaptors.
Getting setup
The Justo is a direct drive trainer meaning the rear wheel is removed and attached to the trainer and comes as standard with an HG freehub which will accept up to an 11 speed cluster from either Shimano or SRAM and if you’re running 12 speed Shimano, SRAM or Campagnolo, there’s adaptors available for Microspline, XD/R and Campagnolo. Got all that?
It’s a shame to see that many users will have to fork out additional cash on adaptors to get their bike onto the Justo, especially given the initial cost and that they’re included with other trainers.
As turbo trainers go, the Justo is probably the best looking, not that it counts for much; it’s square design punctuated with the mighty flywheel wouldn’t look out of place in a modern art exhibition, let alone clamped to your back wheel. Elite claims the Justo uses 40% less plastic than the outgoing Direto XR and it’s clear to see, the vast majority of the Justo is made from die cast metal.
There’s a chunky faux leather tab that can be used to pick the trainer up and the legs fold in so the Justo is quite a compact package if it needs to be stored/carted around in the back of the car. Just bear in mind it weighs 17kg so not one to drop on your foot.
Having got everything adapted from one thing to another, it’s just a case of plugging the power cord in and jumping on.
Ride impressions
Elite offer a companion app, myE Training which allows various parameters to be set and workouts to be ridden. There’s a lot of gumpf in here that most will gloss over but a feature that deserves attention is the ability to bundle your various sensor streams into one, christened Bluetooth Bridge. Instead of having to connect your heart rate, cadence and power metre to your training platform of choice, the Justo will collect them all up and transmit a single stream so you only have to connect the Justo to your platform and everything else gets passed through.
Along with connectivity for ANT+ and Bluetooth, the Justo can also directly connect to your network using an additional adaptor which is only really going to appeal to those competing in e racing competitions where a rock steady connection is the vital.
You’ve got the power
Our training platform of choice is Zwift, so with everything setup we jumped into a ride to see how everything performed. The first thing we noticed was how smooth and realistic the ride felt, cruising along flat roads was almost discernible to outdoor riding thanks to the weighty 6.2kg flywheel which offered plenty of inertia. As the virtual road began to rise, the Justo automatically changed the resistance to simulate the gradient and is capable of reproducing gradients up to 24%. Ouch. If you fancy yourself as more of a Cavendish than Pogacar, the Just can offer resistance up to 2300 watts which should be more than enough; expect a call from the Olympic team if you’re topping out. Even throughout the most ragged sprints, the Justo stayed firm and at no point felt unstable meaning we could really go for it.
If you prefer to ride structured workouts to power, then the Justo offers an ERG mode with will hold your power at a given level regardless of gearing and cadence. ERG mode removes some of the discipline required to ride to specific powers and just lets you get on with riding.
On the subject of power, the Justo is equipped with an optical torque sensor which Elite claim is accurate to ±1%, we did a couple of rides using our crank based power metre in tandem with the Justo and found the numbers to marry up closely. To maintain the accuracy of the Justo, the trainer self-calibrates after a full spin down.
Motion built in
A unique feature of the Justo is the new Flex Feet. Many riders opt to put their turbo on a rocker platform that uses elastomers to simulate the natural sway and motion of riding a bike. Elite instead have fitted elastomers to the feet of the Justo to simulate the same pitch and rolling action without having to use a platform. Elite claim that the Flex Feet improve the activation of the quads and we noticed that we felt fresher after longer rides as we weren’t sat in one position and had to engage our core to counteract the swaying, much like riding outside.
Turbo trainers of old often sounded like a small jet engine preparing for takeoff when you got going making training nearby anyone else tricky. Hence why we often get banished to a shed at the bottom of the garden. No such issues here though, the main source of noise when riding the Justo was our drivetrain which reminded us to keep it maintained even when riding indoors. Once you’ve fired up a fan and put some headphones on it doesn’t really make a difference to the rider, but others nearby will be thankful for its whisper quiet performance.
The Justo is packed with clever tech but perhaps our favourites is also the simplest. If you’ve ever been mid interval and had to stop for any reason, it can be a monumental effort to get going again. Not with the Justo; it’ll sense you’ve stopped riding and remove all the resistance to give your legs a chance to get going before resuming resistance at any given power. It’s a great feature and one that should be integrated into every smart trainer.
If you use a turbo to warm up for races away from a plug socket, it’s possible to use the Justo as a traditional dumb trainer, just set the desired resistance before you leave home using the app and it’ll remember it when disconnected from power.
We rarely look forward to time on the turbo but when the weather is grim, it’s often the lesser of two evils versus going outside however we came to enjoy our rides on the Justo, the realistic ride feel and resistance made indoor riding engaging and added another dimension to virtual rides. It’s a shame that the cost of this added realism is so steep but if you’re pining to ride your bike even if it is indoors then it’s likely a worthy investment.