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At Eurobike in early September, I spent a few minutes on 4iiii Fliiiight smart trainer ($ 700, 4iiii.com). It was familiar, and yet very new. In May, the Cochrane, Alta.-based 4iiii acquired the Kitchener, Ont.-based stac Performance. I’ve ridden two iterations of the orange stac Zero trainer with their magnet calipers creating resistance on alloy rims, so

I was excited to see how things would change at 4iiii. The orange colour has been replaced with grey. I’ll miss the orange. I won’t, however, miss the weights I had to attach to my rear wheel. Because the stac unit didn’t have a flywheel to provide inertia and simulate road feel, you had to attach weights in the rear spokes, which then made spins ups and spin downs seem a bit more natural. The weights were pretty tricky to get on and wouldn’t work with novel spoke patterns such as the G3 on a set of Campagnolo Shamals. So what’s changed? The calipers with their magnets now move a whole lot more. When you are spinning down, they oscillate, managing the resistance to simulate road feel. Ah, technology. It can be wonderful. I’m looking forward to getting on a Fliiiight later this winter.— MP