Anybody hear anything about these actually shipping?
Or are they just playing with our hearts?
In Europe(Sweden) it says that it’ll be available Q1 2020. There’s nothing on the US store however.
The definition of ‘is shipping’ is a bit questionable, but I suspect you’ll see units arriving in peoples caves by the end of the week, both US & Europe.
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I have an email back from Clever saying that they are waiting on their shipment from Garmin and they hope to ship out very soon.
“We are still waiting to receive our shipment which we have been told should be any day now. Once we have the item it will take about 48 business hours to turn around the preorders and ship them out.”
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I am all but certain these new smart bikes will be quieter than the Neo/Kickr18 comparisons. The resistance unit on the smart bikes is similar to existing ones, but the biggest difference is that they use belt drives instead of chains/sprockets.
The removal of the standard drivetrain should make a notable decrease in overall noise from the whole assembly.
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Yeah, and that is pretty much the only noise a Neo makes as it is.
The Neo Bike will have the same internals as the 2T along with a belt drive, so it should be very quiet. I’ll post when mine arrives.
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This is the first thing I taught when I first saw it.
I could not see any of the videos about it. Is there infos about steering (since Zwift will support it and this bike could be a racing setup) ?
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? Never heard anything remotely like this
I asked today Tacx’s support if the NEO Bike would be available for the winter (for Europe), and here’s the answer I got:
We don’t have a specific date for when the NEO bike will be available.
However we have started producing this trainer.
It will not take long before it’s available for sale.
I also asked this:
Q:
The video published by Garmin shows a very large amount of flex in the cockpit area during sprints: here: https://youtu.be/mK7rwhHDBhw?t=164
Is that expected under load, or the bike had some kind of defect / wasn’t setup properly?
A:
The movement you see is expected under load and shouldn’t cause any issues.
Surprising as it is, @dcrainmaker it would mean that what we saw in the video is not a lever lacking in tightness?
I don’t remember feeling/seeing that much flex, unless one doesn’t tighten the lever. I can shoot a short video clip tomorrow. Though to be honest, I’m not sure how many people sprint like that dude (hunched low with your nose touching the display). Maybe I’m just doing it wrong.
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I’m interested in such video as such flex doesn’t affect only the handle bars but everything attached to it (phone support, display, tablet support, fans).
Maybe all the incoming smart bikes flex or have play in their own way due to their adjustments, and it’s only really visible on the NEO bike because of how much it extends vertically with the tablet installed?
This single official video highlighting a potential weak point in the construction makes me step back from planning to get the NEO bike tho.
A mature trainer seem to be a less risky bet, and available.
Looking forward to your review tho: even though the NEO bike is not available yet, it’ll definitely help with deciding between trainer now vs smart bike later.
Here’s a quick little video from my phone. I hold about 800w for a bit (3-second average power duration as shown on the display at the time), so actual power is a bit higher. I purposefully put a bit more forward lean into it than I normally would.
Either way, nothing concerning here. I then (without even mounting the bike) pressed forward and in the same motion, on the Wattbike Atom - same thing. I can’t really think of any indoor bike that doesn’t have some give in the handlebars.
Looking back at the YouTube clip again, it’s super obvious it just wasn’t tightened down. You can see they aren’t using the handles, so it was probably a bit loose and they were like ‘shrug’, it’ll do donkey. Or, as is also likely the case - there’s tons of things I don’t notice/realize while filming that you do later on from a different angle.
Finally, as for things on the handlebars, while I had nothing on there for this quick 2-second shot, I usually have an iPad up there (and have had since spring, I just had it removed in my pile of Eurobike junk still on the floor from emptying out the rental RV), plus a phone, and a few Garmin head units.
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Indeed, that “float” is no worse than we get with a bike mounted on a rigid trainer. The frame flex leads to motion at the bars that most people don’t even realize is there. This bike seems fine to me.
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Same here.
While the Wahoo bike’s Frankenstein frame shape prevents mounting of a 2nd cage in the usual place, it’s not clear why Tacx, having a more conventionally shaped “frame” on their bike, haven’t included a 2nd cage.
Using a 2nd bottle while on a trainer is hardly niche stuff - I’d have thought it’s commonplace (eg. I use 2 in nearly every session).
Seems lame (and poor design) to be asking folks to drop several grand on an all-in-one cutting edge fancy indoor trainer only for it to omit something so basic but useful as provision for a 2nd bottle.
I bet v2 includes 2 cages!
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Awesome @dcrainmaker! Thanks a bunch for the video, it’s super interesting.
It’s also a sound and gear shifting demo 
- You manage to shake the cockpit a bit here as well, in the uncut example it’s easier to understand that with your body movement and the effort intensity it’s probably not really noticeable
A lot less movement than on Garmin’s video tho, seems fine indeed. - 0:12 some element (panels?) vibrate in resonance with the flywheel.
- 0:15 0:16 gear shifting, so quick to bring the cadence down, you can hear it.
- 0:25 a bunch of gear shifting in the other direction: seems really responsive.
- Overall it sounds louder than I imagined, but it’s hard to tell with the mic’s automatic gain control. I’m sure they’ll be comparisons with trainers + drivetrains.
Buy a 1000ml ? mount a second or third on the saddle ?
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Why design something appropriately when you could duct tape a cage to the “seat post” instead?
On your $3200 cutting edge trainer 
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I think we can agree that Tacx missed a step with the single cage (same as Wahoo). I think WombleKiller was just offering up a solution to deal with it in the absence of an improvement from Tacx directly.
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Could always wear a USWE or Camelbak… 
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