Research notes and context
The H3 Plus is the budget pick for riders who want a real, heavy flywheel and a higher ceiling (2,000 W, 20% grade) than the JetBlack Victory, but you are buying on the strength of tests of the older H3. On 2 November 2026 Saris’s own store still showed it at $479.99 (sale, against $699.99 regular) and out of stock. The Victory costs $449 before tax at JetBlack’s US store, about $508 with the listed $29 shipping and $30 tariff, ships with a Zwift Cog, and has three reviewers’ measurements of the exact model. Unless the flywheel or rider weight decides it, the Victory is the safer buy.
Against the Victory: the money is a wash, the hardware is not
Against the Victory’s $449 shelf price the H3 Plus is $30.99 more; against the Victory’s delivered $508 it is $28.01 less, if Saris’s sale price includes shipping (its page, as indexed, does not say). Either way the money is close, so the choice is about hardware:
| Attribute | H3 Plus (Saris) | Victory (JetBlack) |
|---|
| Flywheel | 20 lb, about 9 kg, real mass | 4.7 kg per BikeRadar and DC Rainmaker |
|---|
| Rider limit | 300 lb rider and bike | 120 kg rider |
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| Ceiling | 2,000 W at 20 mph, 20% | 1,800 W, 16% |
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| Drivetrain | Your own Shimano or SRAM 8 to 12 speed cassette | Zwift Cog pre-installed, fits 8 to 12 speed bikes |
|---|
| Independent tests of this model | None found | BikeRadar, DC Rainmaker, road.cc |
|---|
Sources: Saris’s store and JetBlack’s spec page as indexed on 2 Nov 2026; flywheel figure for the Victory from the reviewers named. Full records: H3 Plus in the database.
A heavier flywheel mainly changes how the trainer coasts and how a flat road feels at low power; it does not change accuracy. Heavier riders are the clearest case for the Saris: its 300 lb (136 kg) limit includes the bike, so with a 9 kg bike it leaves about 127 kg for the rider, against the Victory’s 120 kg (our arithmetic).
Compatibility, before you order
Saris lists 142 and 148 mm thru-axles and 130 and 135 mm quick-release hubs; thru-axles with fixed levers may need Saris’s adapter. The trainer ships with a pre-installed 8 to 11 speed freehub that Saris calls 12-speed compatible, and Saris lists Shimano and SRAM 8 to 12 speed cassettes, up to 42T for mountain bikes. Per Bikerumor, that is the main hardware change from the H3: the H3 Plus took the H4’s flat driveside shell so 12-speed cassettes clear it. SRAM XD and XDR cassettes need a freehub body sold separately, per Performance Bike’s listing. Saris’s page, as indexed, does not say a cassette is in the box, and Saris sells an 11-speed trainer cassette separately, so budget for one. The cassette and freehub guide shows what each drivetrain needs.
Zwift virtual shifting is the open question. Saris calls the trainer Zwift certified over ANT+ FE-C and Bluetooth FTMS, but we found no Saris or Zwift statement that it supports Zwift Cog shifting, and one owner review on Saris’s page says it does not. If you want virtual shifting, check the Zwift Cog compatibility list first.
Warranty, per Saris’s warranty page (an older page, read through search): lifetime on the frame, two years on electronics and one year on the freehub, belt and pulley wheel, valid in the US only.
The evidence is for the H3, so here is how far it carries
Bikerumor describes the H3 Plus as the H3 with the H4’s flat driveside shell, keeping the H3’s 2,000 W resistance unit, so the 2019 H3 tests are the best guide available:
- BikeRadar (Nov 2019): power within about 1 to 2% of Garmin Vector pedals and about 61 dB at 20 mph, close to the 59 dB Saris claims for both models.
- DC Rainmaker (Aug 2019): within a few watts of his reference meters most of the time and steadier ERG than the trainers he compared, with a poor built-in cadence estimate.
- Zwift Insider’s roundup of other H3 reviews (read as a search snippet) also records over-reading of about 10% at high flywheel speeds in one test and cadence 2 to 3 rpm low.
So: good ERG, accuracy usually inside the ±2% claim, a known cadence weakness, and some reports of error at high speed. None of it has been repeated on the Plus.
Price history
Saris launched the H3 Plus at $699.99 in late 2023, cut it to $399.99 in October 2024 (DC Rainmaker), and has shown $479.99 “sale” against $699.99 since at least 29 September 2026. If it comes back into stock near $400, it undercuts the Victory’s delivered price by about $100 and the case for it gets much stronger. At $699.99 it would be $150.00 more than a KICKR CORE 2 ($549.99) and hard to justify. Every trainer near this price is side by side in cheap smart trainers under $500.
Compared with its closest rivals
Figures are manufacturer claims and store prices from the database; the last column counts independent reviewers whose findings are recorded there.
| Model | Price | Claimed accuracy | Max power | Max grade | Independent reviewers in database |
|---|
| Saris H3 Plus | $479.99 (sale; out of stock when checked) | ±2% | 2,000 W | 20% | 2 |
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| JetBlack Victory | $449 | ±2% | 1,800 W | 16% | 3 |
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| Wahoo KICKR CORE 2 | $549.99 | ±2% | 1,800 W | 16% | 3 |
|---|
| Elite Avanti | €669 (Elite store, EUR) | ±1% | 2,100 W | 18% | 1 |
|---|
| Elite Rivo | €519 (Elite store, EUR) | ±2.5% | 2,000 W | 18% | 2 |
|---|
How this page was researched
Read for this page: Saris’s H3 Plus store page and warranty page, JetBlack’s US store and spec page, Bikerumor’s H3 Plus launch report, DC Rainmaker’s price-cut report, and the H3 reviews listed above. Saris and JetBlack pages were read through a search index on 2 Nov 2026 because direct fetches were blocked; the H3 reviews were read in full on 29 Sept 2026. SmartBikeWiki runs no tests of its own; every measurement above is the named reviewer’s, paraphrased, and the price arithmetic is ours.