Zwift includes a cassette of your choosing – an essential you often need to buy separately for other smart trainers.

You’ll need to ensure you have water bottles filled to the brim for every ride as - we're going to get bored of saying this - turbo training is seriously sweaty work. Laptop/tablet/iPad Read more: Zwift training challenge - how fit can you get using a turbo trainer? What is a turbo trainer?Ride feel is good, with the stout 9kg flywheel contributing to a very realistic experience. At 21.3kg, it’s also a very solid platform, and while this does make it quite hard to move around, Saris has at least included a handle in the design, which makes things considerably easier. Smart trainers are interactive turbo trainers that connect with indoor cycling apps such as Zwift, TrainerRoad, Wahoo SYSTM and RGT Cycling, to control the trainer’s resistance and replicate hills, headwinds and drafting effects inside virtual worlds. The Tacx Flow Smart is one of the cheapest entry points into interactive indoor cycling. While it doesn’t compete with pricier options on paper, in practice it offers an enjoyable and immersive indoor cycling experience for an attractive price.

Durable: Made of plastic, it's durable and lightweight. Anti-slipping design, keeps you secure. With pads on the bottom, the wheel riser can protect you form slipping and your floor from damage at the same time.You also can’t easily fold the legs away for storage – something to consider if you’re not able to leave your indoor trainer setup at home. Turbo trainers are popular among professional and hobby cyclists alike, allowing them to continue their cycling training even in treacherous weather conditions and poor light by turning their road bikes into a stationary indoor bike. Here at Halfords, we’ve got a number of accessories for both Tacx & Elite turbo trainers to make your indoor cycling more comfortable, including bike trainer stands, sweat guards and floor mats. If you want to protect your new wooden floor, or reduce the noise from your turbo trainer - bike trainier mats are a popular turbo trainer accessory. Pedal-based power meters are easy to swap between bikes, but you might need to get used to a different cleat system. Ride quality is very good, especially considering it doesn’t have the largest flywheel out there, and we were impressed by its stability when really cranking things up.

Of course, price is always going to be a major consideration. So we’ve tested a range of options to suit as many budgets as possible, but there’s no denying these trainers aren’t cheap. Now things have changed and there are a range of apps available that allow you to emulate basically every type of outdoor riding indoors. You can follow training plans, head out on group rides, explore virtual worlds - many are based on real-life routes like Zwift’s Alpe d’Huez - and even race. Setup is also easy, with the unit’s legs simply needing to be bolted on. There’s no cassette included though, so you’ll have to remember to factor that in.

Wahoo KICKR Indoor Cycling Desk

Our testing showed the trainer’s power accuracy aligns with Wahoo’s claimed range of +/- 1 per cent. Like the V5, the trainer features automatic calibration.