UPDATE (Sept 9, 2020): Good news! Elite made several improvements to the Sterzo Smart’s design in order to prevent rust/corrosion issues and simplify setup. Read about it >
Thanks to the new FutureWorks Steering feature, Zwifters can steer on all roads in game. It’s fun, especially in races!
Now that I’ve put 20+ hours into my Elite Sterzo Smart, I figured it was time to review this unit. Additionally, sweat corrosion issues have started rearing their ugly head for some Zwifters, so I wanted to share that info and some tips for avoiding sweat-induced problems. Let’s get to it!
A Note About Supply
Zwifters must purchase an Elite Sterzo Smart steering block in order to steer on all roads. But Zwift quickly sold out of its stock and doesn’t expect more until early September. Someone seriously underestimated demand for these units!
I reached out to Elite and Zwift to inquire about when stock will be available for purchase, but that’s not an easy answer to give since Elite ships to distributors who then ship to specific stores. So while I don’t have super-specific dates, I do have this from Elite:
We are shipping product as we speak and we have taken actions to increase our production capacities by adding a new production line. We will start to see the benefits as early as next week. And some air-freight shipments are being done to reduce transit time from here in Italy where the Sterzo Smart is made to overseas customers.
The Elite Sterzo Smart will be available at other online retailers, but I don’t have that list yet.
Setup
Setup is quite simple. Unbox it, install the batteries, and place it under your front tire in the right direction. Easy!
My one complaint: the battery compartment (3 AAA batteries) has a small screw holding it closed. I’m not a fan of batteries that require tools to install – we live in the age of plastics, CAD software, and 3D printing. Certainly we can figure out a battery compartment that can be opened by hand!
When the battery compartment is poorly-designed in the first place, it’s like Elite is making me do extra work without any actual benefit. (If it uses an actual screw, shouldn’t it be tightly sealed?) But more on that seal issue later…
Pairing Up
Moving your front wheel back and forth a bit will wake up the Sterzo, then it’s just a matter of starting up Zwift and pairing the Sterzo on the pairing screen. Typically this is a quick process, but I found that sometimes the “searching” window would take 20-30 seconds to find the Sterzo, even though the Sterzo was awake and blinking.
Pairing got more dicey mid-ride, if I decided to unpair the Sterzo and repair it. Zwift seems to have a really hard time finding the Sterzo in this situation, although it seems to find it eventually. I’m not sure if this is a Zwift issue (not searching for the Sterzo properly) or an Elite issue (perhaps the Sterzo still thinks it’s paired, so it isn’t broadcasting via Bluetooth in order to pair properly?) Regardless, this step needs some help.
Once you are paired, you can move your wheel back and forth to see the reading for the Sterzo on the pairing screen. And once you begin your ride, you will be greeted with a Welcome screen that explains how FutureWorks steering functions. A simple, straightforward explanation… although I’d like the screen to stop showing up now that I’ve used my Sterzo for several hours.
In-Game Experience
Before I talk about what it’s like to ride in Zwift with the Sterzo, you must understand a few things about FutureWorks Steering:
- If you don’t steer at all, you will basically stay in the same left to right lane position during the ride. Think of the road like a slot car track, with (I think) 12 slots in it. As you steer, you are moving between those slots. If you don’t steer, you stay in your slot… although you may get bumped around a bit when moving through other riders.
- You can ride through riders front to back. When that happens, Zwift automatically steers your rider around the other rider.
- You cannot ride through other riders side to side. So if you want to cut a corner sharp, but there’s a group of riders on your inside, you won’t be able to move all the way over.
Physical Steering “Feel”
Steering with the Sterzo on Zwift doesn’t feel exactly like steering outdoors. Outside, at any significant speed, bike steering is done more by leaning (and even countersteering) than it is pointing your front wheel in the direction you want to travel. Zwift steering feels more like what you experience when climbing slowly on a mountain bike, when you actually do point your wheel in the direction you need to go, and leaning isn’t an option.
One thing I really liked about the steering on the Companion app was that I could lean into turns and the app saw that as steering. That doesn’t happen with the Sterzo, obviously, because the Sterzo doesn’t know you’re leaning. That said, I still find myself leaning (on my rocker plate) into turns with the Sterzo!
The Sterzo is spring-loaded, so it stays centered unless you actively turn your handlebars. It’s a pretty stiff spring, too, which is good because we want to minimize accidental turning when riding out of the saddle or sprinting.
The Head Tube Angle Challenge
When Zwift first released steering via Companion on Repack Ridge, there was a lot of talk about creating a steering turntable which doesn’t force your trainer to “walk” as you turn the bars. It wasn’t easy, because the turntable needed to be tilted up to match your head tube angle.
I was curious how Elite would handle this challenge with the Sterzo, since the angle really depends on your specific bike. The Sterzo is certainly designed with some head tube angle in mind, but I found that it still pulled on my rear triangle quite a bit when steering – especially if I turned the handlebars to more extreme angles. I also found that it was harder than I’d like to turn my handlebars, due to the angle not being correct.
I ended up putting a small block approximately 1″ tall beneath the front of the Sterzo, tilting it up for a better fit with my Roubaix SL4’s head tube angle. This made it easier to turn, and noticeably reduced the movement in my rear triangle.
Race Positioning
Being unable to steer through riders left to right makes positioning a challenge in races with a lot of sharp corners such as Crit City. If you want the fastest line, you have to find a gap in the riders in order to cut the corner. This means anticipating the turn and moving over when there is an opening. It also means that, the busier the race is, the less your chance of an efficient line!
This isn’t a bad thing – in fact, it’s very realistic. In an outdoor crit race, everyone knows you can corner more efficiently when you’re on the front, or in a small group than when you’re in a mass of 50 riders. I think we’ll find that racing with the Sterzo is more fun in smaller groups, and more fun if more of your competitors are also using the Sterzo.
Clearly, the Sterzo will be a huge advantage in TT races, since pack positioning will be a minor issue and optimized lines will trim valuable seconds off riders’ times.
The sharper the turn, the more you can gain from cutting the corner. So you may find that you only focus on a couple of key corners, such as the hairpin leading into the finishing straight on Crit City’s Downtown Dolphin route. Making your corners count is important, too, because you may pop out of the draft while you’re doing it! Let’s talk about the draft…
Watch my recent Crit City race to see how this plays out in an actual event:
Dodging the Draft
If the pack is on one side of the road, and you’re cutting the corner on the other side of the road, your rider will often go from the sitting up “drafting” position to the crouched “out of the draft” position, indicating you aren’t receiving any draft benefit. That’s a bad thing in races, where conserving your energy is paramount.
If you’re going to pop out of the draft, make it count, then get back into that draft as quickly as possible.
It’s worth nothing that the Tron bike does not show your avatar changing position based on draft status. This puts Tron riders at a bit of a disadvantage when steering in races.
Is It Faster?
Steering makes the ride more engaging and immersive, no one will argue that. But is it actually faster in a race? Absolutely yes, if you do it right.
Here’s the test I did: two laps of the Downtown Dolphin route at 250 watts steady, with no other riders on course. One lap without steering, one lap with steering.
- No steering: 3 minutes, 11 seconds
- Steering: 3 minutes, 4 seconds
So steering saved me 7 seconds on just one lap of the 1.2-mile route. That’s significant! Bearing in mind that you probably won’t be able to hit every corner perfectly when riding with others, and that lap times are shorter in races, I would say steering still gives you a 2-4 second per lap advantage on Crit City. That’s much more than any bike frame or wheelset gives you.
Battery + Rust Concerns
I’ve already seen a handful of posts from Zwifters dealing with rust issues on their new Sterzos. Hopefully this post will help other Sterzo owners avoid these problems!
There are two areas of rust concern on the Sterzo:
- Battery Compartment: if you’re sweating on a softer foam floor (common in pain caves), that sweat can go beneath your Sterzo and work its way into the battery compartment. This will quickly corrode the batteries and contacts.
- Rollers: sweat falling on the main platform of the Sterzo gets picked up by the rollers beneath the wheel holder, and those rollers quickly rust.
Here’s what those rust issues look like (after just three days of Sterzo use):
A rusted out battery compartment, complete with a broken conductor tab Rusty wheels/bearings on the underside of the moveable wheel holder
I reached out to Elite about this issue, sharing the photos above which came from fellow Zwifter Mike Lister. Here’s what they had to say:
Needless to say we did testing with multiple persons for multiple training sessions for multiple weeks but the images you sent from FB are very clear. So to cut to the chase, we will clearly substitute next week this person’s Sterzo Smart and will do the same for anyone else encountering the same issue and we already have our Tech team working on solutions to keep the compartment isolated with Sterzo Smart totally submerged underwater.
Kudos to Elite for being willing to quickly replace rusted Sterzos. If you need a replacement, reach out to Elite’s support at support.elite-it.com.
Here are some simple ways you can avoid rust issues on your Sterzo:
- Towels are your friend:
- If you’re on a soft floor, lay a towel beneath your Sterzo so it can soak up sweat without allowing it to puddle and fry your batteries.
- Place a towel between your Sterzo and front tire, large enough that it covers the entire Sterzo and moves smoothly with your steering. This will soak up any sweat drops and keep your Sterzo dry and happy.
- Wipe any moisture off your Sterzo after each session, and run the wheels over a towel to make sure they’re dry.
- Use a towel on your handlebars to catch much of the sweat that would otherwise drip straight down.
- Duct tape fixes everything: apply duct tape over the battery compartment to seal it from sweat.
- Fan support: a strong fan like the Wahoo Headwind should blow sweat drops back far enough that they’ll miss your Sterzo entirely. That’s been my saving grace!
Conclusions
The Sterzo works well as a steering device, although it isn’t perfect. (It’s a first-run product after all, and this is FutureWorks steering – so I don’t expect perfection at this stage.) Yet even in this early phase, steering on Zwift is fun, especially for races. I’m really looking forward to taking part in races where everyone has a Sterzo – that will be interesting!
There are three Sterzo improvements that need to be on Zwift/Elite’s shortlist, in my opinion:
- Make Pairing Faster/Seamless: with such a simple device, pairing should be quick and easy, every time. I think we’ll get there.
- Tilt-Adjustable: make the two front feet height-adjustable so users can dial in the tilt a bit, or offer aftermarket feet to accomplish this. (Note: this has the added benefit of keeping the battery compartment off the wet pain cave floor!)
- Stop the Rust: rusting after just a few days of use is unacceptable. The battery compartment needs to be relocated and/or sealed, and the wheels need to be replaced with something that won’t rust such as plastic or stainless steel. I’m happy to hear that Elite is working on improvements in this area.
Your Thoughts
Share in the comments below!
Why the warning sticker on the battery compartment about polarity… a simple 5c diode would protect the circuitry and eliminate a battery polarity issue! Strange.
I hate how unannounced and out of the blue steering came along in Zwift. Coning was in beta for weeks (where is it btw). And what I noticed is that since steering has been in-game, automatic steering was also been affected and not positively. Real shame.
I’m definitely waiting for the second generation of these steering blocks… It seems cool, but I’m not really interested unless the cost is about half of what it is, and these issues are worked out.
I heard version 3 was the one to wait for.
This based upon what information? Not trying to be snarky, just want to know if this really has basis in reality. Inquiring minds and all that…
Hey Bernie, while it’s showing as £69.99 on the Zwift website it’s worth noting that it’s available from £30-35 on a range of other sites including Wiggle (whose delivery I always find quite swift)
Be careful , make sure you differentiate the products on wiggle from the first edition (that has no battery components and you hook up via the app on the handle bars) and the smart version (the one that you don’t need the app and has the battery component) . The later is more expensive I think some websites might be misdescribing the products . I saw one or two reviews of people getting the less expensive product believing it to be the smart version , and the website descriptions (not wiggle in this case) didn’t exactly help to explain it… Read more »
Good article
The lap time savings are extraordinary
Maybe icons next to names should be added in-game to highlight those using this kit so others understand the potential advantage they have?
Agreed, would love to have icons next to steerers!
Brilliant piece Eric, thanks
The Sterzo looks awesome, I will get one as soon as they are available. To solve the sweat problem buy one of these Lasko fans. The fans are quite and move so much air that it is unlikely you will have sweat coming to the steering area. I have two of these fans and they are a difference maker. https://scene7.samsclub.com/is/image/samsclub/0004601345484_A?$DT_Zoom$
Yes, those fans work great! I’ve got one as well – this guy: https://amzn.to/2QfjyAU
You can also cake silicon over everything like I do. Good waterproofing.
The screw on the battery compartment is there to comply with EU regulations to prevent children opening the compartment and eating the batteries. (yes, really!)
Crazy European kids! 😆
Don’t knock it till you try it … hmmm sweet sweet poison . But yes , Charlie is correct , the bureaucrats in Brussels think we European consumers are awful fools and need to be taken taken of .
So how come every TV remote in the land comes with flip-open battery compartments then?
Personally I’ll be waiting to see what the next round of steering devices look like before investing. I like the idea mentioned by rob for having an new icon to indicate users with steering. Also curious if you are not using steering and you are drafting someone with steering and they move out from in front of you will Zwift auto steer you back behind them to draft again or are you just SOL until they steer back in front of you? Normally if you get bumped from the draft line Zwift will gently nudge you back into it. Hopefully… Read more »
Your avatar won’t follow a lane change by a steering rider. Watch GPlama riding with it on youtube.
I don’t really want yet another icon for a rider, you can’t really do anything regardless. If they are using it, you will notice. Don’t enter steering enabled races if you feel it’s an issue.
I’m like some others and will wait for a 2nd generation. This is the main problem with any first production unit. Until the product is in the real world with consumers, you don’t know most the flaws. Also, I don’t want to take extra steps with towels and duct tape to a brand new product to make it function at it’s best. Seems more hassle than it is worth. Eric, surprised the Tacx steering frame didn’t get more coverage. Did not even know it existed until the Sterzo came out. Unfortunately not compatible with Zwift it appears, but does take… Read more »
For basic lane changes (what Zwift steering is at the moment) I am surprised that the companion app wasn’t adequate. Although that would mean somebody somewhere wouldn’t make money from the hardware. Perhaps it will come later once enough units are sold….
I quite like the sterzo as a addition to zwift. However, I do think I found a bug with it today… after being in a group ride with it enabled, I jumped into a race that had steering disabled and for that race, I was stuck in one ‘slot’ with no draft at all. Anyone else seen this?
I’ve heard of this happening.
Yes this happened to me after doing a 10 minute warm up with the Sterzo steering on, I then joined my WKG Race which had the steering disabled and the same thing happened to me I was out of the draft and out of the bunch. Video. https://youtu.be/n8cF9SDjtl8
I was in the pen on the right hand side with steering disabled for the event which was British Cycling TT, once we had started I was on the wrong side (right hand) of the road (Queens Highway, Yorkshire) and kept me there when all other riders were on the correct side (more favourable due to the left hand turns) of the road, so I had to cover more distance to the finish line. When the event finished I was then put back on the left!! With steering enabled.
This is only BLE compatible correct? If that’s the case and you use an Ant+ HR monitor, wouldn’t there be issues using both ANT & BLE? Zwift told me to use all ANT or all BLE but not to combine them as it can cause dropouts.
I mix ANT+ and BLE all the time… typically I connect to my controllable trainer and HR via ANT, and my power meter and Sterzo via BLE. Seems to work fine.
Interesting. I had issues early on and Zwift told me that was the reason. Once I used all ANT, I had no more problems so I assumed that was the reason. But hopefully they will make it both in later gen.
Thank you!
Eric, do you use Companion all for the BLE connections then? I connect everything in Zwift itself run on a PC laptop via Ant+, could I keep doing that and connect the Sterzo via companion app on BLE on my phone? Thanks
I use Bluetooth built into my Windows PC. But yes, you can certainly connect the Sterzo via BLE on your phone.
Eric i’ve just posted on your thread in FB. I’m one of the lucky guys who is experiencing connectivity issues with BT and Ant.
For the first time in about 25k km in zwift i have had a lot of drops with my garmn HR Strap (and with my assioma connected to my garmin watch):
As soon as i disconnected the sterzo from zwift everything start working fine (see the drops in green section below):
ehm…this pic
Okay, so it will work with normal Bluetooth on the PC then, so doesn’t have to be BLE specific, good to know, thanks!!
is route choosing possible with the sterzo?
I mean free navigating in the selected world, like when using the arrows on the keyboard!?
No, the Sterzo just moves you side to side in your lane. It doesn’t choose which way you go at intersections.
Got mine earlier this week and tried it on a free ride and liked it. As Eric described, you steer your avatar into one of the invisible “slots” on the road (I actually think there are only 5) and when you let the Sterzo spring back to the center position, your avatar stays in that slot until you steer it into a different slot. I was really getting into swooping from one side of the road to the other on curvy sections, cutting across the apex and feeling fast! Then I jumped into a fast large group ride with double… Read more »
The number of lanes seems to depend upon the world. When I rode France it seems like only 3 lanes, and they are offset to the left so you run into oncoming riders in the left most lane. In watopia I identified 4 lanes and properly positioned
I’ve spent last weekend reverse engineering the protocol with another person. It’s obvious that their engineered protection is the weak point on pairing speed. Disconnect requires handshake challenge to get sterzo to work, causing delay. So if you have a weak BLE connection, it’s going to be painful.
Interested in how they are doing this, and whether we can emulate it with a web app or similar to make the same requests. Are they just encoding the position as a float or doing something more fancy?
Isn’t it all a little silly without some form of braking? The innermost line is only the racing line when you’re going painfully slow. Knowing the race line through a corner at a given speed is a skill. Hugging the inside corner is not.
I got smoked the other day in France by a rider with steering. I had more power, but he could apex turns and put distance on me. I’d catch up in a straightaway and, “poof,” he was gone whenever the road turned. It was frustrating and impressive. I’ll get it – after they fix rust and battery issues.
overall.. its a big advantage over non-steerers. its also much easier to attack bunches, but other steerers can stay with you~ the non-steerers dont have much hope.
i like mine and ive had no issues so far.
Interesting that Zwift has gone with this. So how will it also connect to the Wahoo KICKR Bike which they also heavily adverstise on the Zwift site. Does that mean it is broken an arrangement with Zwift and Wahoo – or is will it happen.
Good point. Can you even steer “smart bikes?”
most smart bikes have unused set of buttons on the hoods, likely for steering. just not activated yet, but i have heard of someone steering with these buttons already, can’t remember where i saw that.
I tested it for the first time earlier this week. On the whole it was fun, but 2 things I noticed. I have everything connected via Bluetooth (trainer, HR monitor, Sterzo). My Wahoo Tickr X HR monitor froze several times during the ride – it’s usually super consistent. It wasn’t a complete dropout but the HR just stopped updating until I unpaired / repaired it. The Sterzo makes an awful creaking sound with my tyre, which is a Schwalbe G One. I put a glasses cleaner between the tyre and the Sterzo and that’s made it go away but it’s… Read more »
This is stupid! Like power ups, it’s just another form of cheating. This steering option puts riders that have the option (or don’t want it) at a disadvantage to those that do. As for me, my front wheel is zip-tied down to a floor anchor to prevent popping wheeling every time I sprint — I have not steering option.
So who is cheating exactly, someone who steers or someone who ties down their bike because the their sprinting technique is so bad? If your control is that bad I hope you never end up in an out door sprint
Do we need to call a Waambulance for Derek? ;o)>
I’m not sure I like the idea of “steering”. I would rather see right/left buttons attached to the handle bars (similar to sprint shifters for electronic shifting). It can’t replicate real world steering, so why try. Seems clunky to me.
how about something inside zwift via your controls whether appletv or computer that you hit a button to steer? Literally, it is “slot car” steering…i.e one of these < >
Does the Wahoo Climb work with the Sterzo? I’d hate to lose that functionality especially since I dropped 0.5 Large on it.
And am I the only one that thinks of canned heat when we read Sterzo?
no worries…they will come out with a climb and steers for 800 bucks….rest easy…
Climb doesn’t currently work with the Sterzo, but people are working on adapters…
to be honest, sounds like a lot of nothing…
Like anything in electronics, the first generation is usually the one with the flaws/bugs. Elite was first out of the gate with this tech, but I’d be anxious to see what some of the other companies come out with before I’d buy something; something with a rechargeable battery at least. Who knows, Wahoo may be already prototyping a climbing steerer.
If you have adjustable feet that would lift the battery compartment off the floor you’ve got it the wrong way round according to the drawing in my instructions. The pointy bit should be at the front.
here’s my main question about this bad boy – what’s it like when putting 1000w through it? for me, no point getting it if it isn’t stable during a sprint effort.
I purchased the Sterzo over a week ago and had problems pairing with bluetooth as I have always used Ant+ form my mac as it doesn’t support BLE. I tried using the companion app for the first time to pair which did not work until I read I made a simple mistake of not switching on the bluetooth from the iPhone settings for the app (not the BLE within the app settings when opened). After applying this it was easy to connect and I tried it for the first time yesterday. After 30 minutes the steering was lost and the… Read more »
I’m curious what the tyre groove/area on the unit is able to deal with? For instance I currently only have my 29er MTB with its standard big knobbly tyre on the front wheel (attached to a Tacx Neo2 at the rear), so is the Sterzo capable of comfortably seating such a tyre? Kinda hard to tell from your pics. I assume it is, but just to be sure…
It works just fine with a bit MTB tire. The tire doesn’t seat all the way into the bottom of the groove, but that’s fine–it still sits in the groove with plenty of stability.
Eric, sorry if this has been addressed but I made an effort to find it first and didn’t. Have you used the Sterzo with SBR Rockr and if so do they work okay together? thanks
Yes, I’ve used them both. It tends to want to shift a bit if you aren’t putting a lot of weight on your handlebars… but it could easily be screwed into the SBR ROCKR to be held fast. Other than that occasional issue, it works great!
First trial with my Sterzo this evening after getting it form Zwift store @ £69.99 – nowhere else had it in stock and were charging more anyway. Lots of problems getting consistent connection with other devices via Companion app and Apple TV, all on BLTE. Using just the trainer (Neo 2T) and the Sterzo direct was much more consistent but no use to me. Tried laptop briefly and that appeared better, but will revert to the Apple TV for future trials.