welcome to the GP llama YouTube channel and to a video on the mine T300 plus smart trainer an updated version of the T300 that I reviewed back in 2021 now this week mine have released version 0. 108 of the firmware for the T300 plus that I've been putting to the test so I thought it was a good opportunity to put together a video on this trainer so coming up in this video I'll cover off everything that's new with the T300 plus so if you're already familiar with the T300 I'll get straight to the point of what's being improved then if you're not familiar with with this trainer already I'll cover the technical specifications what's in the box my ride experience and of course a deep dive into the data recorded from this trainer after many many hours of riding okay kicking off with what's new a summary now a lot of these do directly address a number of the pain points that I found with the T300 a few years ago so kudos to majene for taking all that feedback on board and producing a better product kicking off with number one point their temperature compensation and belt efficiency compensation have been optimized which addresses the thermal drift problem good to see that one there Cadence data is now broadcast over ant Plus and Bluetooth the trainer now supports standards such as Bluetooth ftms and at plus fac giving it Universal compatibility with any training software out there and with that bluetooth ftms support it does support spin down within zift update number four on the list they've added power meter bridging allowing you to pair your power meter on the bike to the trainer if you want to squeeze a little bit more accuracy out of that trainer it's also very useful if you're using Apple TV to have sensors bridged like that number five they list improved internal flywheel structure and optimized the electronic current control logic I guess we'll put that to the test with urg mode and number six there the T300 plus now comes with a cassette as well as a quick release skewer and a front wheel Riser so later in the video we put most of those to the test to see if those improvements have actually improved the product pulling up the technical specifications of this I'll do a quick whip through these pretty standard stuff direct drive smart trainer with interactive control Sim mode urg mode so you do remove your rear wheel for this one B compatibility out of the box comes with all the adapters 130 135 quick release 12x 142 12x 148 through axle adapters there is no pivoting rear axle on this trainer so there's no support for the waho K climb or the elite Riser the freehub Shimano HG 8 to 12p speed compatible freehub stram xdr is an aftermarket option for this trainer the cassette supplied is a Shimano 1128 compatible cassette supported connections to the trainer at Plus Power Amp plus Fe Bluetooth ftms over those data channels you'll get power speed Cadence speed only coming in over amp plus Fe or Bluetooth ftms if you're using a virtual platform such as zift you don't need to worry about speed coming from the trainer that comes from the virtual world power accuracy claimed plus A- 2% although if you want to squeeze a little bit more out of that and you've got a power meter on your bike you can bridge that spin down calibration Max grade simulation 22% Max wattage 2600 Watts which I'm incapable of testing in fact I'm pushing just to get half there but you'll see that in the data later on noise level it's quiet they do claim 56 DB at 1. 5 M at 25k hour flywheel that really does depend on the environment that it's tested in though runs on Mains power has status lights on the front to indicate the connections there's a seven color LED light which is a training Zone indicator or disco depending on how hard you pedal it has adjustable or leveling feet you can do firmware upgrades and configuration via the maen utility app and the unit weight comes in at 18 kilos so it's not like but that's a good thing pricewise this comes in at $7.
49 us and availability well it depends on the region here in Australia this trainer is not available so the best that I could advise is jump on a web browser pull up Google and search for this trainer and find out your nearest distributor or stockist if you're after one now based on those specifications this is what I would consider a mid-range generation one trainer where in my categorization of trainers generation 2 would be a trainer that has things like Wi-Fi durcon 10 HZ race mode Auto calibration ation and sensor bridging although this does have sensor bridging for power meters now mine do have what I would consider a generation 2 trainer that's the T600 but today's video is about the T300 plus the T300 plus comes fully assembled so nothing to do other than unboxing and install your bike however the version you're seeing here is a pre-release version so I did need to put my own cassette on before installing my bike updating the firmware and confirming the settings can be done with the magine utility that is available for IOS and Android and then once all configured connecting to zift via Bluetooth I had no problems whatsoever I also used ant plus power to dual record for the data analysis we'll get into in a little while onto a sound check sound check 23 one two 3 free wheeel check 1 2 3 very quiet so all good there the loudest part being the drive train which could use a little waxing and once the fans are fully cranked you definitely can't hear the trainer now for the on bike experience and I can report the Sim mode responsiveness was excellent those gradient changes through Titan's Grove were very very quick there was no delay with what I was seeing and the resistance that I was feeling through the pedals into a workout and urg mode with the T300 plus and I can report it has a very very stable resistance set point so no waving up or down and with the latest firware those resistance changes are very quick between 1 to 2 seconds to adjust between intervals now to stress the trainer a little harder with a couple of Sprints and there definitely was enough res resistance to put me to the test the short Sprint [Music] here and once I'd recovered just a little bit another harder longer Sprint just here the overall ride experience and ride feel with that weighted flywheel is that it's smooth it feels very much like a kicker or a kicker core in regard to the data that's transmitted from the T300 plus there are two observations that I had firstly the Power reporting is very very smoothed in both Sim and urg mode even with urg mode smoothing turned off within the configuration and secondly the Cadence accuracy is good but can vary depending on the Sim terrain that you're pedaling on now something like Titan Grove that is an absolute roller coaster can be problematic there are no issues in urg or other more consistent Sim mode riding but for virtual terrain like Titan Grove where it's up and down and up and down and that resistance curve really drops off it can have trouble reporting your exact Cadence at the time now this is true for a lot of other trainers that estimate your Cadence from your Peak power output with each pedal Revolution okay with the on bike experience covered it's now on to my favorite website the DCR analyzer tool where we can compare multiple sources of data as an overlay and see how things stack up I've got a ton of data sets to go through I've trimed it down to three which represents My overall experience with this trainer over the last few months starting off here with the mine T300 plus up against the powmax ngco now this was prior to the recent firmware update so you can just see where things have progressed to as we jump through the hoops and do more testing so starting off here with the the warm up obviously and into the 200 W 250 W steady state the first thing we see there is no thermal drift no trending up no trending down actually I went the wrong way then didn't I you can see there on the screen everything's looking pretty smooth the data there the Blue Line being very smooth out of the mine but from the PX and GCO it's not smooth so it is jumping around a little bit but no Trends in either Direction all looking good 215 25 brilliant into the Sprint and not too far off with the Sprint but I'll dive into the Sprints later on because is something they have addressed with firmware 108 overs and unders and again something else they've improved with later firmware so this is a bit of a journey of where things have been and where they are now you can see the urg takes about 3 or 4 seconds to come up to speed and once it's there it's pretty good so what we got 206 209 with some up and downs if I grab even closer 252 254 yep even closing that Gap a little further that response time to changes in resistance you'll see later on has been improved with later firmwares but just just to give you an indication that it does work in urg brings you up to speed doesn't hit you like a truck it's all good into the flywheel speed test and the slow flywheel speed test indicates that it's able to hold that 225 watt Zone pretty good uh the previous steady States you've seen the 200 250 they were done in the small ring mid cassette so I skip that and go straight to the big ring here and here not too bad for a higher flywheel speed if you want that sort of high inertia on top of the gear field it's not too bad for the 5217 I think that was on the back and then putting in the 5211 on the back spinning things right up where most trainers fall apart this wasn't too bad but still overshooting by probably around 20 watts or so trending down towards the end most trainers failed that specific test but that's nothing too much to worry about then just riding along just riding along let's have a look at that what do we got 128 128 that's all looking pretty good onto data set number two another llama lab test the T300 plus up against the Asos and the Sr M PM9 warm-up section through here you'll see the trainer just needing a bit of a warmup before coming into its own so 206 214 23 for the first 10 minutes into a Sprint once everything settled and stabilized was into the Llama lab test for this again the as Duos PM9 looking good within a few watts of the machine and also the magine being in the right direction too just two Watts less not a problem at all with that that I see end of the Sprint all looking pretty good there too Peak powers of just under 12 1200 WTS no major separations overs and unders again the smoothing from the T300 plus is kind of getting in the way of what I would call the accuracy there you can see on the pedals and on the spider all looking pretty much one for one there and it providing a good experience fly wheel speed test same as what we saw before rewards a slower flywheel but stepping it up too far results in a bit of an overread but trending down lastly on this data set a slow ramp test and another Sprint and again things looking well as I'd expect there especially with the trainer having such smoothing to the power channel so as I'm riding along stable here it's all good as I step up pretty quick the pedals and the spite of the SRM respond pretty quickly the trainer taking a few seconds just to come back up stabilizing and right there at the end again as I just accelerate where I actually give up at around 650 Watts the train has just lagged a little bit but it's not robbing me of too many watts there after a second or so and into a final Sprint here again things looking pretty good there with the FAO being pretty spiky there at the start and my leg dying pretty quickly but again no separation of two 3 400 watts finally data set number three uh this is a titans's Grove uh startup this is up against the SRM PM9 so a few wats low there as things warm up and as the roller coaster goes up and down what does that look like for the Cadence which I discussed in my ride experience section of this video well it does look pretty ugly when it comes to the uh the Cadence where it's trying to estimate really where it can't you can see me spinning up there with the SRM and they're training to just sort of hold holding back a little bit through here not being able to pick those Peak spikes as I'm pedling with each Revolution so Cadence well overall the average 8385 not too bad but the instantaneous Cadence it's recording is a bit off going through those roller coasters again not uncommon for these trainers but everywhere else the Cadence let's just say the steady state section through here in the urg mode 90 versus 90 that's all good there back to the power side of things and to a new section of the Llama lab test that I've introduced for 2024 previously the lowest level of urg that I would be testing on a trainer was 150 watts that's okay if your FTP is 200 300 maybe 400 but what if your FTP is only 120 and you want to do work in those lower zones well this is going to answer that question with the new updated llama lab test starting off with 60 80 100 and 120 zones for urg mode we'll see how trainers perform so I perform this typically within the warm-up of the trainer and again it's revealed something quite interesting here so the magini T300 plus doesn't quite hold urg mode at about 90 to 95 RPM at 60 wats Ur now that definitely is very very low but I think it's an interesting observation as I collect more and more data we'll get a good indication of what trainers work across more zones so here the T300 plus is are holding about 10 watts low at 60 stepping it up to 80 much better stepping up to 100 a little bit better again and 120 again a little bit more stable and able to hold that set point so the takeout from that which is the first trainer that I've put to this test is that 60 wats may just be a little bit too low in that gearing at that flywheel speed now stepping back into the standard test which is 200 250 or my previous testing again looking for that thermal drift nothing there everything looking good 222 22. 8 up against the SRM uh srm's being obviously a little bit more spiky without that smoothing diving into the Sprints there a little short Sprint where I pretty much ran out of Gears I didn't have the correct gear selected for that and then punched a little harder for this Sprint here looking a lot better the machine being one point uh off for the Sprint um I have no concerns with that that's pretty much just your recording differences between two head units but again the peak power looking pretty close uh into let's grab those and the ramp and the Ride Along 134 13248 with some stop starts uh the mine probably a little higher because it just spikes a little bit right there as I come off those two intervals and uh probably the hardest new addition to the Llama lab test that I've added which is is a standard ramp test in urg that goes for 2 minutes long ending with uh just over 600 watts that's out of the subtle there at the end so we can see the trainer operating quite well for urg stability Wise from here on in so 100 Watts up to well things get a bit uglier around 550 Watts but I think we all do that's out of the settle through here but overall the numbers 1861 84.
