Just got mine last week, fingers crossed that the belt and everything else keeps working — right now it all seems right and wonderful. I left the fans off, though, in favor of existing cooling setup.
BUT: I’m also getting 2-3 watts below target for each interval. Below is my data for Hunter, can’t imagine why a 20 minute flat interval shouldn’t come out dead-on with relatively stable cadence. I assume most erg mode setups are spot-on?
The ERG firmware undershorts by a few watts but is significantly improved from the previous version. Just bump the intensity one or two percent if it bothers you.
Interesting review and can see why he has positives to say about it. There are advantages and disadvantages for sure having a stationary vs direct drive trainer. I am lucky to have a dedicated trainer bike that just stays on my H3. Still tempted to re-buy a N2T at some point.
Hi guys
Need help
Today the drive belt of my neo smart bike broke. I have seen this problem in the forum. Looks like the replacement spare is tacx t8008? Can not find it anywhere. Garmin is so slow right now answering. Is it easy to install?? Can I buy it by myself .
Supposedly this will fit, but installing it is a bit challenging without the tool from Garmin to release the tensioner: Amazon.com
Yeh… so my bike shop juust got the belt in. Took about about week here in Poland.
Honestly, pretty disappointing considering the cost of the part vs the cost of the bike. The bike - mind you - is awesome. Super quiet, stable, easy to move settings for the spouse, etc.
IMO, while I like the bike, it’s pretty disappointing service, especially so considering my past experiences with Garmin and Tacx. I’m not sure Wahoo or whoever are better in terms of this sort of service, but I’ve heard enough about the belt problems on the NEObike that I think they have some sort of design flaw down there.
thank you, just got it , I will try to install it by myself. hope it works
Here is what the garmin tool looks like:
It goes in the hole by the tensioner to apply pressure to the tensioner:
There are some people who have built there own tools to accomplish this same thing
THANKS for the images, will start looking for the tools
Had my Neo Bike since November and was impressed with it (I still am)… however.
I noticed that I had “belt slippage” anything over 700 watts, it felt like i was pedalling squares.
Garmin replaced the main body of the unit but to ensure I was without a bike I had to pay a $1650 deposit (which ive got back) to avoid having to send my bike back and wait for a new one to arrive.
After the new bike arrived I suddenly realized that my first one was very crappy unit compared to this, it feels like a different model.
Everything was great till last night when I snapped the belt doing the INSYNCD testing.
My seated 20 second sprint from a dead stop snapped the belt at 274watts. I realize that this is a torque issue and now so much a wattage issue but a human shouldnt be able to break a drive belt.
I got on the garmin support chat and requested two belts, they sent me a link to complete the “purchase”
I got 2 FREE belts and FREE next day shipping.
Im annoyed that I was 18/17 seconds from completing my testing protocol but I am happy with how Garmin have handled this.
I’ll keep you updated with the repair
I would avoid doing any sort of low speed sprints. If you have a good sprint and can generate high torque, I think you’ll be able to break the belt or rip it pretty much all the time.
I also get slippage and just avoid sprints on the bike. It’s unfortunate, but it works really well for every other type of training so at this point, I’m just keeping it until the offseason and I’ll try to get the exchange like you.
Don’t accept the no sprinting… I did for a while and started to annoy me that I was losing Zwift races.
Garmin swapped out the bike and its great. I’ve not hit 1600 watts on the bike with no noticeable issues.
This belt snap is a high torque issue - i’ll have to see how i can get around that issue for the INSYCD testing protocol which require a dead stop start 100seconds before the sprint
They’ve offered me this advance-replacement option for my Tacx Flux S - I think it’s great service, well worth the deposit. That’s a little-marketed advantage of the Garmin-Tacx deal.
Hey all,
I’ve been using the TacX Neo Bike for the last 2 weeks and I had a few issues for the group to see if anyone has experienced the same things.
The first and foremost is that flywheel is extremely hot after I complete a ride, almost to the point where it is too hot to touch. Is this normal or is this something I should be concerned about.
I’ve also noticed a sort of rubbing or swooshing noise (if that makes any sense) from the flywheel area when I’m riding. It’s different than the normal hum the bike produces while I ride.
The last thing is that sometimes I hear a fair amount of creaking come from the bike. I’ve tried to investigate, but have had a hard time really determining where it’s coming from or perhaps it’s coming from multiple places. A lot of the time it sounds like it’s coming from the crank area and seems consistent with my pedal stroke.
Does anyone have any insight into these comments? Are any of them something you’ve experienced or that I should be worried about or am I being overly critical?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I’ve had the Smart Bike since November. Unfortunately I’m on my third–!–with a fourth coming. The heavy discount sounded great, but that run was not ready for prime time.
Despite all of the issues I’ve had and continue to have, I have to admit I love the bike and have put several thousand k on it on Zwift. I’m just hoping they will get their act together on the quality concerns.
I can’t make any comparison to WattBike or the others–DC Rainmaker handles that just fine–but this one feels solid, responsive. I love the screen that shows data including gears when Zwift is on: I definitely would not get a bike without it, as that is so valuable, for me anyway, during programmed workouts.
My first bike had all sorts of noises, so, yes, I’m familiar with those issues. The current bike also has some random noises, but they don’t seem to interfere with anything, so I can live with them.
My second bike had the high wattage slippage that others have described.
I thought the current bike was good to go, but I’ve now realized that I didn’t understand how ERG is supposed to work. Now that I do, this bike definitely isn’t doing it correctly. It won’t hold me in the prescribed zone and I can’t use the gears I want: at higher wattage I’m spinning so hard–in the big ring/small cog!–just to keep up that I couldn’t possibly stand. I’ve had to remove ERG for workouts and just deal with hitting the numbers myself. Old school, but it works. But, of course, the reason for getting the bike was to have this feature.
Final notes – steering does not seem to be on the horizon for this bike so far as I can tell. The buttons are there but don’t function. And they make much of the fact that the motor will drive the bike downhills, but that definitely doesn’t work for me in Zwift.
I have not noticed that the flywheel gets hot, but I can’t say I’ve checked it. Wouldn’t seem like a problem unless it’s melting something!
Hey,
Thanks for the reply! I ended up reaching out to Garmin with some pics and videos and they offered to send me a new bike or told me I could try replacing the belt to see if that helped. I replaced the belt yesterday and squeaking or screeching I was hearing is gone. The bike also seems to be running smoother. I’m hoping it continues this way.
The flywheel thing still concerns me. After a 1.5 hour ride, it’s hot to the point where touching it could probably burn you. I know there are supposed to be heat sinks in the bike that dilate the heat and I’m wondering if they’re functioning properly.
Some of the other noises I’ve encountered, I’ve been able to pinpoint to certain components. Some of it was the pedals as I was originally using cheap platforms and I think the bearings were just about shot. Some of it was also the seat creaking which I think can be attributed to the cheap seat the bike comes with. I don’t think they bothered to include a higher quality seat figuring that most people were going to swap it for their own anyway.
Can someone explain a little more about the belt slippage at high wattage? I’m not sure that I’ve experienced it, but I want to make sure I’m looking out for it or will recognize it
You’ll know when it happens. It feels like your wheel slipping, Impossible to miss.
I am having the exact same belt slippage issue–even with the new belt. Does anybody have any other suggestions?
Hey, I would reach out to Garmin again as they’ll probably have to replace the bike. The issues I was having came back shortly after replacing the belt and then I started experiencing the belt slipping even at low wattages. I think it’s a design or component issue with certain production runs of the bike.
