I’d argue the responsiveness is a massive bonus for me. I’ve been on slow trainers and hated it. Short intervals on a slow trainer are stupid. By the time you get to desired power, the interval is almost over.
As for slipping a ton, I’d take a look at your pedaling technique. Try to smooth out your cadence, especially while standing. If you’re pushing squares, this isn’t surprising. Yes, you can get a 2 to slip (at least in Zwift with hill transitions), but unless you’re a massively powerful rider, this should not be an every ride occurrence, at least in my experience.
The 2 to 2T difference for me was extremely minor. Doing ERG workouts… no difference. You should never slip doing TR Erg workouts.
My average powers on those short intervals with a “slow” trainer are still spot on, it ramps up slower (and later) and ramps down slower (and later) too. But the transitions are smooth. I just couldn’t deal with that for an entire program, maybe just me
After 6 months of usage, I don’t know of any issue, except that my MTB needs a simple crank arm extension for the cadence to work. But this is a technical limitation of the sensor nobody can fix and Tacx provided me with said extension.
No issues with mine either when I bought it back in November after it was released. There was 1 firmware fix for a slight issue if you used Zwift and were coasting, slight ghost power reported. I did see this but wasn’t an issue for me as I use TR + Zwift and you’re always pedaling. As for the reported slippage from a few, I don’t see but even if I did, it would be very minor and you’d have to be putting down some power to make it slip.
Honestly with everyone in some sort of stay-home and/or lockdown, finding a smart trainer might be tough. If you’re in California, I believe someone has posted selling theirs here on this forum just recently. I’m glad I waited for this last generation of smart trainers especially with the 2T. I do like the simulated road/gravel feel in Zwift or other supported apps. Not quite the same in real life but still another way to add to the distraction and simulation training indoors!
You’re very forgiving - I generally love my Neo 2T but the cadence sensor design is flawed … I didn’t pay that much money for a top end trainer to be told I have to bolt an extension to my crank for it to work properly. I’ve learned to accept now that cadence readings only make any sense for steady efforts at reasonable power - whereas if I’m doing shorter intervals the readings are nonsense.
FWIW, I think the cadence sensor is very bike specific. It works perfectly with my Niner RLT. I have a Wahoo crank-based cadence sensor on the bike too, and the readings almost always match. Sometimes during fast cadence changes, the Neo is a couple seconds behind, but nothing major.
My first Neo 2 early last year had an issue with inaccurate cadence when they first released it, but Tacx replaced it and it was totally solid. The 2T has been the same.
This being my first smart trainer, I think it’s been very quiet! Granted acoustics in your pain-cave aka room will have some affect including the mat, how close your trainer is set to the walls, carpet, etc will make a big difference. In my pain-cave, I have the trainer sitting on a mat which is on a carpet in the dining room, near the sliding door to circulate air.
I would suggest looking at this video from GPLama to get a reference of sound but also how to quiet the trainer for maintenance.
Mine was quiet and last time I did the greasing was back early March which helps after consistent use.
I’m having some issues with a 2-month old Neo 2T (I decided to switch to Tacx after 3 faulty Wahoo KICKRs)
Whenever I do a workout in ERG mode in the 36 in front, I feel very strong vibrations through the pedal cranks, no matter which cog in the back and no matter the cadence.
Some other clues:
The issue becomes less noticeable when moving to the 52 in front, probably because the flywheel spins faster. However, this significantly increases the vibration from the turbo which resonates badly in the wooden floor of our flat.
Both my girlfriend and I have a Cannondale SuperSix Evo with ultegra and disk brakes. The issue is much more noticeable and annoying on my bike, but we can also feel it on my girlfriend’s bike.
Indexing should be ok.
I cleaned and lubed the chain last weekend, but unfortunately nothing changed.
From the research I gathered, the issue could be explained by some of the following
Free-hub bearings
Old chain/new cassette: I did a bike service mid-January and I got a new Shimano HG-X11 chain. I bought a new ultegra 11-32 cassette for the trainer and since then I rode ~2000km on it. I checked the chain wear with a wear meter and it doesn’t look too bad.
Bearings in bottom bracket: even if this should have happened between January and now.
Bent rear derailleur: when I tighten the skewer, the frame compresses and the derailleur moves quite a bit. I’m wondering if it’s also changing its angle…
Something wrong with the turbo itself: I saw quite a few people complaining about this same issue on the Tacx Owners facebook group, so it might well be a firmware issue. This wouldn’t be too weird also considering that my Neo 2T reports 30/40W less than my previous Wahoo Kickrs (I don’t have a power meter to do a proper comparison, but my FTP dropped from 296W in December on the Kickr to 262W in February on the Neo2T after having done 8 weeks of Trainerroad half-distance triathlon base program… and FTP doesn’t go down when training consistently on Trainerroad )
Has anyone had this same issue and found a solution?
What do you mean by “strong vibrations”? Like… if you were in an apartment would it annoy your downstairs neighbour? Sometimes with Neo you can feel the steps in the resistance unit as it is basically a large stepper motor.
It feels like the road feel option of the Neo2T was on and riding on gravel. Clearly, I turned the road feel off from the Tacx utility app and I doubt that TR would use that feature anyway.
It feels like a continuous grinding in the pedal cranks. There’s no significant sounds from the trainer, therefore I don’t think my issue is related to the “sawbone” issue I saw mentioned online.
We can definitely feel the vibration/grinding in the wooden floor, even in the adjacent rooms.
As a side note, when doing a workout in ERG mode on TrainerRoad I normally use a 36-21 or 36-19.
I don’t think it’s the virtual wheel slip, as the griding/vibration is continuous throughout the pedal stroke. when doing a workout in ERG mode on TrainerRoad I normally use a 36-21 or 36-19, and I can feel the vibration during the warmup when spinning at 150W and 85/90rpm. From what I read online, these are not the conditions when the virtual wheel slip typically happens (if it even happens on a Neo 2T).
But just because this is an indoor-only setup. Once the extension was installed, everything was perfect.
