Reviews

Tacx Neo

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was using a dumb turbo for my training sessions and watching a film or listening to music to try and pass the time and relieve the boredom and then along came the world of Smart Trainers & Zwift.

Initially I was happy using my dumb trainer with Zwift but the more I used the software, the more intrigued I became to improving my in game and training experience, fast forward 12 months and a Taxc Neo landed on my door step.

I spent a long time reading the reviews and comments about the Neo along with the other mainstream wheel off trainers, they all had their pro’s & cons whether it was software or hardware related, but in the end I felt the Neo was the right trainer for me.

Initially trying to get my hands on the Neo was difficult, there seemed to be a shortage in the UK and as soon as any shop had stock, they were quickly sold out again and during this time more and more users were complaining of grinding noises once the trainer was setup which didn’t help the shortage as a lot of new trainers were being sent out as a warranty replacement. The trouble with reading forums and Facebook groups is people often post about their bad experiences and not the good and this can be really off putting to any prospective buyers. I always find it’s a case of doing your research, trying to pick the good reviews from the bad and go into a potential purchase with your eyes open.

No sooner had the delivery driver left, the box was quickly opened and I began the setup process. This was relatively straight forward but I was using a bike with a 135mm back end so I swapped out the supplied axle with the T2840 quick release which I purchased separately, fitted a Shimano 11 speed cassette and mounted the bike (None of the tools were supplied with the Neo). I knew the firmware needed to be upgraded so I downloaded the Tacx app to my iPhone, plugged in the power to the trainer and downloaded the new firmware and after a couple of minutes I was ready to hop on, no issues so far. The trainer was easy to pair with Zwift and I was soon zooming around the world of Watopia. It really was that easy, there were no problems downloading the firmware, no issues with pairing it with Zwift and perfect gear changes every time.

Reviews can be difficult to write, a brand new product often works as intended straight out of the box, but how do these products work after 6 months or 12 or longer, that can be the hard part when it comes to researching any products but for me the Neo has been perfect. It has been used on a weekly basis in the last 6 months and it’s been fine, no drop outs, no grinding noises, no problems updating the firmware, it just works. Surely there must be a downside and there is, the Neo is near on silent and this highlights any issues with the drivetrain, so if the chain is a little dry or the gears aren’t perfectly aligned you really do know about it as it’s surprising how much noise the drivetrain makes but it’s not heard on the open road.

The majority of my time spent on Zwift is for training and I really like the custom workout feature. I can create my workouts and just follow the on screen prompts. When I used a dumb trainer it always took some time trying to adjust the resistance with the gears or adjusting the trainer manually and it did make life a little difficult at times trying to hit the watts or a particular cadence, it wasn’t the end of the world, but just not as easy as I would have liked and the Neo changed that. Now, the Neo is paired with Zwift as a controllable trainer and all I have to do is concentrate on pedalling, it really makes the training so much easier. I make sure I enable ERG mode and I leave the bike in the small chainring at the front and aim to keep a nice straight chain line and just pedal and the Neo takes care of the rest. As I finish one block at a particular wattage and move onto the next, the trainer automatically adjusts the resistance and within a couple of seconds I’m into the next block and off I go to suffer a little bit more. When it comes to training it’s just one less thing to worry about, no changing gears, it’s all on me and my legs.

For normal riding in Zwift having a smart trainer just makes it that little bit more interesting, now I can feel the grades of the hills and the benefits of drafting and this helps simulate real world cycling. With a dumb trainer you would have to adjust everything yourself when the gradient changes, or not bother at all, but being able to feel the rolling nature of the terrain helps simulate the outside world a little more and I believe this makes it more entertaining. If you’re looking to take your Zwift experience to the next level then I highly recommend a smart trainer.

There can often be so much negativity when researching products that it can easily put you off and I hope this article does the opposite and highlights the good points about a product and doesn’t let the Internet scare you into thinking everything is bad. My Neo experience really has been a walk in the park and my only regret is not buying one sooner.

Powertap G3 Hub Long term report

The power meter market is becoming quite a minefield with new products hitting the market each year, along with the long established companies releasing their own updates, so choosing a power meter is becoming a harder task than what it once was.
Even though the Internet is a littered with information the one review I struggled to find was a long term report on the Powertap hub and how people were getting on, queue below……..

Many hours can be lost when researching a Power meter, looking through the data, reading the reviews and then even after all of that you can still be stumped on which product to pick and that very scenario is what I went through back last year as they all had there good and bad points and after my own research I settled on a Powertap G3 hub built onto a standard alloy wheel as I felt that suited my needs.

So, a Powertap wheel was ordered from Cycle Power Meters and sure enough the next day it was delivered and fitted to my road bike. The Powertap has to be one of the easiest to fit as any capable cyclist should be able to change their own wheel, so this was a straight forward process.

To keep this review simple and along with the fact I don’t have a lot of comparable data, I’m happy to report that the numbers that the Powertap produced were in line with what I saw on other devices but to be fair that isn’t what this review is about.

As any user of a Power meter should know that to get the most accurate results they need to be calibrated before each ride, and in my case I was pairing mine with a Garmin Edge 800 so the calibration process was easy.

It’s the number that appears in the image above which is important. It will generally return 516 + / – 16, so I have been advised and anything within that range is fine, but outside of it will mean there’s a problem and the unit will need investigating.
During the calibration process my unit would start off returning 518, but never anymore but as the weeks went on the numbers started dropping and sure enough after 3 months it was outside of the required range, so it was time to return it to the manufacture.
In the 3 months it was on the bike it covered a good few thousand miles, so I was surprised to see an issue so early on and I hoped the incident would be a one off.

The UK service centre is a company called Paligap who I returned it to after filling out there online form and it was at this point things got disappointing. I was advised there was at least a 10 day turn around and not to contact them before the 10 days were up, so I waited for about 14 days and chased them up via email to which a snotty standard reply was sent to me stating the 10 day turn around period, even though it had been longer than this (did they even read my email to begin with). So, after 14 days the hub hadn’t been looked at and bearing in mind the hub was only 3 months old, I was disappointed no one seemed interested in fixing the issue. In the end, some emails were sent back and forth and after 4 weeks the wheel was returned with a new torque tube.

Once the wheel was fitted back to the bike the magic 518 number appeared and I was good to go.
After about another 3 months I got a low battery warning, which is no big deal as there easy to change and it uses a standard CR232 battery. Once the new battery was fitted I was still getting the warning, so fitted another one just to be on the safe side and then disaster struck, I tried pairing the unit with my Garmin again but it wasn’t picking up the Power meter. A little strange I thought as they were talking to each other only two minutes ago. I tried a different Garmin to see if that could find it but still no joy and I knew it would need returning again, which would mean another long period without the wheel. To cut a long story short, the wheel was returned via Cycle Power Meters to Paligap for repair. Paligap had the wheel for 6 weeks this time before it was returned with a new power cap, which is extremely poor service for an item which is still under warranty. During this time Cycle Power Meters were very helpful in sending me out a loan wheel, so it’s nice to know there are companies out there that understand ‘customer service’.

After 6 months of ownership I was starting to lose faith in my Powertap, as during this time it had been returned twice for issues carried out under warranty and Paligap had almost had the wheel for the same amount of time I had. One of the main reasons for choosing the Powertap to begin with was the amount of time the company had been around, so I assumed (rightly or wrongly) I was buying a reliable product, but it seems I was wrong on this part.

I decided not to lose faith and stick with it as I was sure I was over the worse, but as the months wore on, that magic 518 number was slowly starting to drop again and I felt it was only a matter of time before it would need sending off. On the last day of calibration it was reading 501 and then I decided it was time to remove it for good.

Summary

I had the Powertap fitted to my road bike for 9 months and in this time it covered a good few thousand miles, but after 1x torque tube failing, 1x Powercap failing and what looked like more problems it was time to try something else. I can’t help but feel disappointed with what should have been a good reliable product as the Powertap is one of the longer established power meter brands, but the poor reliability and poor service I had from Paligap means it couldn’t be relied upon for training if it was to continually spend half it’s life being repaired.

As far as installing the Powertap and general day to day use the device couldn’t be simpler to use but I feel the reliability of the unit needs to be seriously addressed along with the poor service I received from the UK service centre.

Garmin Vector

It seems like a long time ago when I first heard about the Garmin Vector power meter was coming to the market but it has finally landed.

Crank based systems have been around for some time now, but unless you have the same bottom bracket on each of your bikes you won’t always be able to swap the cranks around which is why I always liked the idea of the Vector pedals, so when Alex offered me the chance to try them out I certainly didn’t need to be asked twice.

Virtually everything you need comes in the smart box that the pedals arrive in. I say virtually as in order to install the pedals correctly you need a crowfoot adaptor and torque wrench. Whilst I wouldn’t expect Garmin to supply a torque wrench I feel it wouldn’t have hurt to supply a crowfoot adaptor as these are relatively inexpensive.

Installation of the pedals is straight forward and there are many guides on the internet as well as the YouTube tutorial that Garmin have created so I won’t go through the process again here.

One point I will add regarding the install is Garmin use the latest Edge 810 for the tutorials and the setup will differ slightly for older units as you don’t get the same prompts like when it asks you to pedal between 80-90 rpm during setup. Also, I was disappointed to find out that the older units won’t display the battery status of the pods. I feel this is somewhat of a let-down for the users of the older Garmin units as these functions could easily be built into the latest firmware for all of the Edge units but for some reason Garmin has left this out……..perhaps that’s their way of wanting you to upgrade.

 

Using the power meter out on the road was a breeze and you don’t even notice the pods are there. Not at any point whilst I was using the power meter did the pods get knocked or damaged as they are out of harm’s way as you can see from the pictures below, but if for some reason the worse was to happen the pods can be purchased separately.

Power meters certainly provide numbers……..lots of them and when coupled with Garmin Connect it paints an interesting picture of your training ride. It’s fascinating to see what’s going on when you’re out for a ride, especially the left leg / right leg balance as there will be times when you think your individual leg output is the same as the other but the vector tells a different story. The balance is a unique feature of the Garmin system as it’s not that common on other crank based power meters. What you do with these numbers is up to you and it will be interesting to see where Garmin go with the data as you could measure pedal smoothness through the stroke just like the Watt bikes. As technology and sports science moves forward I’m sure the firmware will be updated to include data capture from other areas so it will be interesting to see where this goes but I’m sure the team behind the Vector system is busy behind the scenes coming up with new ideas so just watch this space.

 

Some people have questioned the accuracy of the vector power meter but like the majority of other power meters on the market they fall between the +/-2% rule once calibrated / torqued up correctly. Whilst I wasn’t able to compare the numbers to another power meter at the same time I do believe the data they provide is accurate from other tests I’ve seen carried out.

 

Overall I was impressed with the Vector power meter and there ease of use, as for me the selling point of the Vector is being able to swap them between bikes which is relativity straight forward once you’ve gone through the process a couple of times.

I’m pleased to report the Vectors performed faultlessly and apart from a pre ride calibration it was just a case of fit and forget.

Many have questioned the price for the Vectors but the power meter market is an expensive one and I doubt that will ever change. Power meters are a tool for training and not a gimmick and there certainly not for everyone, but like any tool if you put them to good use I’m sure you will see the results.