Tacx Neo 2T ?

[ms6073]

Although we have a pair of the legacy Tacx Neo's and have had no issues, I do like the improvements offered with the 2T, especially the native thru-axle support. Anyone upgrade from Tacx Neo/Neo 2 to the new Neo 2T care to offer some comparisons or opinions?

[mcorn]

Although we have a pair of the legacy Tacx Neo's and have had no issues, I do like the improvements offered with the 2T, especially the native thru-axle support. Anyone upgrade from Tacx Neo/Neo 2 to the new Neo 2T care to offer some comparisons or opinions?

The Neo 2T was our first direct drive trainer. We have it on a Cannondale tandem. The tandem does not have a through-axle, but the additional adapters and longer skewer made it possible to use with our 145mm dropouts with only small modifications.

So far, it is by far the best Tacx trainer I have had (I've had almost all of them in the last 15 years). It is very smooth, about as smooth as a Flow, but with lots more power and other features.

The only small issue was the tendency of the trainer to wobble. I solved this with a homemade fork stand that has a base about 18" wide. This greatly stabilizes everything. We do not experience this wobble with our Flux 2 which has a very rigid bolt on base. So, my preference would be a Neo 2T brake on a Flux 2 base. This wobble is a much bigger issue for a tandem do to the much greater distance from the rear to the front. Over this longer distance, a small wobble in the rear becomes a much bigger wobble in the front.

I bought bamboo bolt-together steps on Amazon and inexpensive fork clamps. I made a smaller one for the Flux 2 and a larger one for the Neo 2T.

Fork Stands.JPG (220.26 KiB) Viewed 4409 times

[Malfukt]

You will find 2T is quieter, quicker to react (sprint) smoother feeling than original Neo... also it has inbuilt cadence sensor that monitors crank arm passing so cadence will be stable/accurate.. supposedly

[ms6073]

Thanks Mike and Malcom. The cadence sensor is my main concern as there were lots of users with smaller feet/shorter cranks that complained of no cadence issues due to the position of the cadence sensor in the Neo 2, and I have read of such with the Neo 2T as well.

[mcorn]

Thanks Mike and Malcom. The cadence sensor is my main concern as there were lots of users with smaller feet/shorter cranks that complained of no cadence issues due to the position of the cadence sensor in the Neo 2, and I have read of such with the Neo 2T as well.

So far, we have had no cadence issues with the Neo 2T. As you can see from the picture above, we have a Cannondale tandem on the Neo 2T. It has 170mm cranks in the rear. I also have a separate BT/ANT+ Wahoo speed/cadence sensor mounted, which we previously used to feed a ANT+ Garmin bike computer on my wife's handlebars. For comparison, I switched to the Wahoo cadence output in TDA for a few rides and then went back to the Neo 2T output. I did not notice any significant difference between the Wahoo and Neo 2T cadence outputs. Below is a somewhat fuzzy cropped picture showing the crank position relative to the trainer.

We now use the Neo 2T speed/cadence output for both TDA (BT) and the Garmin handlebar computer (ANT+) simultaneously.

P.S. Obviously, after mounting the bike to a direct drive trainer, the speed side of the Wahoo dual sensor can no longer output speed data.

Rear Crank on Neo2T.JPG (155.84 KiB) Viewed 4387 times

[ATENEA]

P.S. Obviously, after mounting the bike to a direct drive trainer, the speed side of the Wahoo dual sensor can no longer output speed data.

Yes, the Neo only provides a "separate" speed indication if you turn the "additional ANT+ broadcast" on. And then, you get speed and distance values (on your Edge, Fenix or equivalent) that are different from those broadcast via BT into the TDA application (see the TCX file that can be downloaded or Strava).

And the same "speed and distance discrepancies" occur when using the "on-wheel" Bushido smart with TDA.

[mcorn]

Yes, the Neo only provides a "separate" speed indication if you turn the "additional ANT+ broadcast" on. And then, you get speed and distance values (on your Edge, Fenix or equivalent) that are different from those broadcast via BT into the TDA application (see the TCX file that can be downloaded or Strava).

And the same "speed and distance discrepancies" occur when using the "on-wheel" Bushido smart with TDA.

I could be wrong, but I do not believe there is a different speed being broadcast by BT compared to ANT+ from the Neo. The different speed you see in TDA is a difference created by the TDA software itself (virtual speed calculations).

[ATENEA]

I could be wrong, but I do not believe there is a different speed being broadcast by BT compared to ANT+ from the Neo. The different speed you see in TDA is a difference created by the TDA software itself (virtual speed calculations).

I meant the ANT+ from my bike (has "wheel on" with Bushido) ; the speed broadcast by NEO (no "wheel on") or Bushido (has "wheel on) under TDA (and TTS4.23.1, I suppose) is effectively a "virtual speed", different from the one broadcast by my ANT+ sensor on wheel (in case of using Bushido, not NEO).