Anyone got Kickr, Tacx Neo etc?

I’ve got a Tacx Neo that I

I’ve got a Tacx Neo that I got on sale for £850 and it’s generally great on Zwift.  I bought to improve my climbing, as a sort of personal mountain. 🙂

Pluses:-

It’ll simulate hills up to 22% allegedly, I only run it in Zwift and I _think_ the steepest hill there is 18% on the way up to the radio tower.  Either way I need pretty low gears to get up it. 🙂

It keeps growing new features as they upgrade the firmware, which is pretty cool.

The max slope went up from 20% to 22%, power from 2000 to 2200 watts and they just added road textures as a free upgrade.  I believe that it’s currenly the only real direct drive, as in no flywheel, trainer on the market.  Other than the small wheel the cassette is attached to it’s all electronic which is how they can upgrade stuff like road feel.

The road surface thing is a bit of gimmick but adds an extra bit of realism I suppose.  I could see them adding something like gusty headwind simulation the same way which might have a training benifit.

The Neo allows some side to side movenment of the bike as you ride.  That might not sound important but I think it really is.  If the trainer/bike doesn’t allow movement then something will end up rubbing and I’m pretty sure that my old, really ridgid turbo gave me a 2 saddle sores earlier this season like that.

It’s not totally silent but it makes so little noise you wouldn’t have to turn the TV up whilst training.  Mind you it’s a bit of a moot point as I pair it with a loud floor fan anyway.

It also works with or without a power supply.  If you don’t plug it in it won’t spin the ‘wheel’ when you go down hill but other than that it seems about the same.

Other than the free util phone app I don’ t use any Tacx software so I can’t comment on that.

Downsides:-

Putting my bike on the trainer is more of a pain than I thought it would be compared to a wheel on trainer but you get used to it.

The Neo’s case bulges out at the bottom below the ‘wheel’.  Sometimes my rear mech rubs against this.  I have used like that quite a few times and nothing bad has happend but I think I’m going to stop using my lowest sprocket for safety.   I did hear they’d changed that bit on the case to fix the problem on more recently manufactured Neos but I can’t confirm that.

IMHO it’s still the best of the high end trainers available at the moment.  Shopping around you can pick them up for the same price or less than the Kickr.  Of course you could get a Bkool Pro or a Tacx Vortex for much less and if you just want to raise your FTP that might suit you better.

You’re not going to get a
You’re not going to get a silent trainer. The noise from the chain and gears cannot be eliminated. Unless you purchase a belt drive high end exercise bike, again they are not silent but are quieter than any trainer that uses your own bike. By mounting your trainer on a decent mat will reduce vibration through floors, better would be to construct a 2 or 3 layer ply board and hard foam mat sandwich construction.

I have a kickr. I use it
I have a kickr. I use it with Bkool software. It is a great smart trainer. The latest software update from Bkool has made it so realistic to road riding it it matches my power to speed very closely. The kickr is at an disadvantage against the Bkool trainer, so you will be held back in racing a little. This is because it offers increasing resistance up to higher gradients where as the Bkool can’t increase resistance above 9% inclines. Also if you’re a very powerful rider who can average above 400+ watts the Bkool again can’t provide enough resistance. The kickr can do this. I have tried both kickr and Bkool pro trainers.

Of you want head to head competition get a Bkool pro for Bkool or get a kickr to compare your road riding against online riding and accept a lower position in races, I do 🙂