Cyclist
Take your indoor training to the next level with the Elite Square smart frame
Elite’s range of home trainers and accessories are tailor-made to provide you with a range of smart, interactive tools that work together to transform your indoor training.
Known as the Elite Ecosystem and including everything from trainers to fans and slope simulators to mats, these devices are designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing bike – just hook it up to the Elite trainer and start pedalling.
But there’s an even better way to get the most out of the Elite Ecosystem: the Elite Square, a smart frame that’s designed to work with the Ecosystem from the ground up and provide you with the ultimate indoor training experience.
So named for its distinctive frame design – the core shape is a square instead of a triangle – the Elite Square is fully adjustable, built for purpose and battery-powered to remove the need for an external power source. It’s both app and trainer-neutral, meaning it’s compatible with all leading direct drive smart trainers and training apps – and with the ability to set up multiple user profiles and a wide array of custom settings and preferences including gearing from all three main groupset manufacturers, it truly is the smartest way to train indoors.
Fully adjustable
Versatility is at the heart of the Elite Square’s appeal, and it starts with the physical frame itself. It offers an unparalleled level of adaptability, with the ability to adjust its dimensions to the millimetre to perfectly replicate whatever size and geometry you ride out on the road.
This includes being able to adjust to the length of the horizontal tube; the height, inclination and fore-aft placement of the saddle; the height and fore-aft placement of the handlebar; and even the crank length.
Having such a wide range of precision adjustments within easy reach means you can fine-tune the frame’s physical characteristics to ensure optimal pedalling biomechanics to make sure the training you do on the Elite Square really is setting you up for success when you switch to your real bike out on the roads.
Power at your fingertips
The Elite Square’s handlebar is really where it earns its title of ‘smart frame’. Far from just a place to rest your hands, slow the bike down and change gears, this really is a smart handlebar that puts the full power of the Elite Ecosystem quite literally at your fingertips.
Yes, the handlebar includes the same buttons and levers you’re used to for braking and changing gears – complete with manufacturer-specific positioning and functionality regardless of whether you ride Shimano, SRAM or Campagnolo – but that’s just the start.
You also get two lever controls that can be set up to integrate specific functions, such as in Zwift Play, removing the need to use the touchscreen on an external device.
Plus, each controller is equipped with 10 buttons – four for controlling Zwift or your training app of choice, a pair of shift buttons plus a third for Campagnolo shifting, a brake lever-activated brake button, a steering button for virtually steering your avatar on Zwift, and a dedicated button for controlling the intensity of the Elite Aria smart fan.
You can even configure combinations of button and lever actions to enable additional advanced controls. And with all buttons and controls ergonomically placed above the grips and bar, you’ll be able to control every aspect of your ride experience without compromising your posture or the comfort of your grip on the bar.
The bar itself is 420mm wide, with a 6˚ flare, and is dressed in bar tape with soft, non-slip silicone hoods. The Square comes with an out-front bike computer mount as standard, while Elite offers a dedicated tablet holder accessory as an added extra.
Easy setup
A quick and easy setup is a hallmark of Elite’s smart trainers, and it’s a strength shared by the Square too. Initial installation and pairing with a smart trainer – whether an Elite trainer or any other leading trainer on the market – is quick and easy, with everything you need to get set up included in the box. Then it’s a case of using the Square app to pair the frame with your other smart devices, creating anything up to five user profiles, and you’re good to go.
The main advantage of using a dedicated training frame such as the Square for your indoor training is of course that it’s built for purpose and can remain permanently in place. And while the Square is very much a smart frame, it can also be used in stand-alone mode should you live in an area with poor connectivity. Using the levers on the handlebar, you can adjust pedalling resistance through 16 levels.
Indoor training ecosystem
Ideally, though, you’ll want the Elite Square to be the centrepiece of a home training ecosystem to take full advantage of its capabilities, and Elite offers a full range of high-quality trainers and accessories that integrate seamlessly with the Square.
In terms of interactive smart trainers, you can’t do any better than the flagship Elite Justo 2, a supremely capable unit that can simulate gradients of up to 24%, measures power to within 1% accuracy and has built-in Wi-Fi for unmatched connectivity strength.
The Elite Avanti is another incredibly impressive trainer that delivers most of the Justo 2’s strengths but in a more compact package and at a more affordable price point. You get Wi-Fi connectivity and – thanks to its optical torque sensor – the same 1% accuracy as on the Justo 2. As the latest Elite trainer to arrive on the market, it’s an ideal blend of advanced features and practical ease of use.
Whichever Elite trainer you choose, you can be sure it will pair seamlessly with the Square frame – as will most mainstream trainers on the market today.
The Square also integrates perfectly with other components in the broader Elite Ecosystem, including the Elite Rizer slope simulator, which features integrated steering for the most realistic climbing sensation on the indoor training market, and the Elite Aria smart fan, which can be controlled directly using the Square’s handlebar buttons.
• To find out more about the Elite Square smart frame, click here.
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