So I was into the third set of Wheel yesterday, when I started getting stuck in the erg mode death spiral. No problem, this was anticipated (Wheel was a stretch workout for me), so I switched to resistance mode. Except, that was WORSE! I went from struggling to completely stopped within a revolution of the cranks. I thought I’d missed the key and looked, but nope the mode was ‘resistance’. Then i noticed the slider was at 33% (33% of what, by the way?) so slid it back down to 15%. This did nothing. I even went all the way to 0% with no change.
Toggling back and forth between erg and resistance did not help, and erg was much easier than resistance. And by ‘easier’ I mean ‘possible.’ In resistance mode I got down into the small ring and biggest cog and it was ridiculously difficult to turn the cranks at all. Like standing up and pulling on the bars as if climbing a 25% grade in the big ring.
I finished in erg but am wondering what the heck happened? I didn’t have anything else running that would have tried to grab control of the trainer (no Zwift, etc) and I’ve never had any issues before. I’m running an OG TACX Neo, which has been nothing but reliable since I got it.
I am really hoping this was a one-off incident. Has anyone else experienced this with TR, or any other trainer controlling application?
Sorry to hear about the trouble – hopefully it was indeed just a one-off issue!
It may be worth messing around with that Resistance Mode slider (more info on smart trainer modes here) a bit more during a warmup or cooldown (or even if you just have a spare ~10 minutes at home and are looking for something to do) so you can get it dialed in. The default resistance should be 50%, which does make it sound like odd behavior that going all the way to 0% did nothing.
If it’s been a while, try leaving your trainer unplugged for a bit (ideally, we recommend keeping it unplugged between workouts). This allows the trainer to “hard reset” and clear out any bad data that may be “stuck” inside of it.
I think it would also be worth checking to see if your Tacx needs a firmware update, which can also help solve problems like this.
I think that should be a good starting point for you – hopefully it helps! Feel free to let us know if you have any other questions.
If it is an Elite trainer it will even physically reset in the sense that they have a screw that moves a cart that moves a magnet. When you turn off/on the trainer it will move the cart to both extremes relubing the screw and cart rails!
Video explaining the cart is moving from highest to lowest resistance but turning it off and on will move it all the way right to pick up new lube
So it seems to be a one-off event, as the last two workouts I tested by switching back and forth a couple of times with no issues. I didn’t check the effects of the resistance mode slider, but It’s parked at 15% where it’s been since … ago. The slider is xx % of … What? I played with it a bit a long time ago and anything above about 25% became ridiculously difficult in a hurry. I’ll have to fiddle with it again and see how it behaves.
For the record, I unplug the trainer after every ride, and Garmin hasn’t issued a firmware update for that model in a looooong time. It’s the original Neo, and is pushing 10 years old. The only thing that’s failed (so far) was a bearing in the free hub body, about 5 years ago. I was curious at the time, so disassembled the drive mechanism, and it’s a work of minimalist art. The only thing that moves is the flywheel (and free hub). Everything else is stationary electronics and electromagnets. As long as the electronics hold out, it should last another 10 years.
Last night I had Phoenix -3, and figured I’d try resistance mode again. I started in ERG and everything was fine, then switched to resistance @ 50% (per your suggestion). Bad plan. It instantly became all but impossible to pedal. Then when I did get the cranks turning the resistance dropped to almost nothing after a few successful pedal strokes. A few seconds later it was back to crazy hard. I gave up after a bit and went back to ERG. See the pic for a slice of the details.
Do you happen to use the trainer with any other training software (or do you have another app you can use to control the trainer)? If so, I think it would be worth testing out switches between ERG/resistance mode using another app to see what goes on. If the behavior continues to happen, that would likely signal that something might be up with the trainer. If it stopped, that would probably indicate that something is up with the TR app that we would need to fix.
The Tacx Training App, for example, could be a good app to use to test out your trainer using something other than TR.
It could also be worth reaching out to Garmin Support as well if you haven’t already – they may have experience with this particular issue and may already have a known fix.
I’ve often used it with Zwift with no issues. And now that TR exports workouts to Zwift, I tried an experiment. I had Echo-5 for today’s workout, which I ran in Zwift. I toggled between erg and incline modes a few times, and ran incline up and down the scale. Both behaved as expected.
I then quit Zwift and launced TR, loaded the same workout and gave it a go. Bad news - in resistance mode it did the same thing - normal-ish for a few seconds, then crazy hard, then normal-ish. Repeat on about a 5 second interval.
I had noticed that while in incline mode in Zwift, the Tacx “road feel” was doing its thing, and thought maybe that was causing TR issues. So, I quit TR, disabled the road feel using the Tacx app, and relaunched. This was actually worse, this time both erg mode and resistance mode were crazy hard. I quit TR and was planning to try again with road feel re-enabled, but TR crashed. I was done experimenting at that point. I fire up Merced+1 tomorrow, so I’ll see what’s going on again then.
I have to say, this is all new behavior. The first time I’ve ever had issues was the workout at the top of this thread. TR’s been flawless when controlling the trainer for a few years now, and I’ve had the same NEO the whole time.
I tried again with Merced, and erg mode was fine, but resistance is still borked, but not completely. If I keep it below about 25%, it seems reasonable, but above that it gets much more difficult to pedal than it should be, and above 50% is basically impossible.
