I’ve just upgraded my Tacx Flow Smart to a Tacx Flux and it’s great!
I also have a 4iii Single Sided power meter, which I initially used with my dumb trainer, and continued to use with my Flow, as the Flow wasn’t that consistent.
For the first week of using my Flux, my PM was away on RMA repair as the battery cover snapped, so I did the following Ramp Test without it:
My old man has the Neo, which is amazing! Which prompted me to try wheel off vs wheel on.
I have had the flux a while, and it’s served it’s purpose, but I enjoy the Flux a lot more! It’s a baby Neo basically.
If you’re using the Flow for power, you’ll be surprised about the accuracy compared to the Flow Smart. - Using my 4iii PM for reference, some days the Flow Smart could read 20+ watts lower, sometimes higher, and it was inconsistent. I always warmed up a bit, and calibrated the Flow, along with the pressure on my Elite Trainer tyre at 120 psi.
The feel is a lot nicer on the Flux also.
I’m glad I made the change.
Regarding if it’s “worth it”… I bought the Flow for £180 just before my wife gave birth to our first, and it got me training when I couldn’t go outside.
I had a nice bonus in my pay packet, so sold the Flow for $150 along with a spare wheel, cassette and the tire.
I kept the front wheel stand, as that comes with the Flow, but not the Flux for some reason?!
I’m now looking forward to training on the Flux, so I’d say yes it’s worth it.
Long answer: I just posted this in another thread:
This is a factor of how your trainer measures power vs how your pedals measure power.
In general the power meters all give multiple readings per second and as such will fluctuate more significantly (closer to your foot the higher the fluctuation) whereas the electronic trainers are measuring resistance based on momentum and tend to be significantly smoother.
The variability you see in your second ramp test is fine - it is tracking consistently. The variability there is well within normal limits and you are staying close enough to the desired power to get the benefits
Hi, just ordered a Tacx Flux and can’t wait to get into TR proper. Question do i need a garmin ant+ to connect my garmin vector 2 pedals with my windows laptop?
My Tacx Flux arrived today super easy set up for the trainer and connecting/calibrating through TrainerRoad (5 ‘s) Garmin ant+ dongle connected Vector 2s pedals and HR from watch . Used power match and workout was hard but manageable
Great experience all round Thanks TR
On the other hand: why hassling around with power Match?
You‘d want to perform an outdoor ftp Test anyways, because your outdoor FTP is probably different (due to indoor heat, different position, different gradients, etc.)
So why not train indoors with your indoor FTP from the trainer and outdoors with your outdoor FTP from your PM?
Totally valid, first time on a smart trainer with all rides being out doors. A ramp test didn’t fit with my plan so tried the power match. Wanted to let people looking at starting training etc that have questions how easy it was to set up
A lot of people swear by it for reasons that do make sense but personally I’ve tried powermatch using a Stages and Power2Max and didn’t like it. I absolutely notice the difference in resistance swinging too much/too little as cadence/power changes whereas it’s a significantly more smoother experience when I leave it up to the KICKR. Also seems like the resistance changes are more immediate and consistent with sudden changes in the graph whereas powermatch could be a little laggy at times.
Tried erg mode controlled by the flux, definitely smoother but about a 10-15 watt difference to my vector 2s, struggled to complete the intervals at prescribed power though…
I initially used power match when I first started with TrainerRoad. I have a Cycleops Hammer. I also noticed the same where the power match just wasn’t very smooth and my first ramp test went horrible using the power match. I tried again with it turned off using the Hammer’s power. Much smoother and the test went fine. Now that being said I know the Hammer reads about 10 watts higher so I just make that adjustment outside when using my P1 pedals. I think the power match function is fine on lower wattage workouts. For me though I definitely notice the difference on threshold + work.
I used powermatch for the first time last night (Cycleops Magnus Trainer and Stages PM) as I’m trying to get into using ERG mode (having previously been a detractor!).
I did a pretty simple session last night, (Bays +1) long temp efforts with a sprint every 15 minutes or so, the trainer resistance looked to be applying as expected but I did find towards the latter part that my cadence needed to be higher, so almost like the resistance level was fading a bit. To cure this I stopped pedaling a couple of times briefly and started again.
I was actually in my 54/11 for most of the intervals but I guess gear choice shouldn’t matter too much with ERG but I’d kind of like the ability to lower my cadence sometimes.
I also noticed that there were constant differences between the wattage on my BOLT and on the TR App, (I’m running both in case of failure) but then they settled down each time.
What experiences do people have when power matching? Similar?
I’ve always just used my Stages left arm outside but used my H2 to control my indoor workouts and as the indoor power source. After some back and forth I decided to give PM a try.
I played with Powermatch for only about 2 minutes last night, jumped into a vo2 interval workout just to see how it would respond ramping up and down and holding power for 45 seconds around 380w. Having my Stages paired and PM set to Auto, I found the lines still tracked fairly smooth, not as smooth as my H2 alone but not nearly as jagged as I’ve seen. I couldn’t tell if the ramp up was any more delayed than it was using my H2 alone.
Yesterday I did mount field using just my H2, plan is to take off today, then to do Mount Field again tomorrow using Powermatch and my Stages. I’m going to compare the “felt effort” as well as HR for the 12 minute blocks to see if one power control source makes me work harder than another.
In my experience, using PM and my Stages has felt a little easier than the Flux S alone. But importantly, makes it feel more equivalent to what I’m seeing out on the road.
I do find the feedback loop a little wobbly sometimes.
I now typically use Powermatch, but my Quarq PM needed to be sent back to the manufacture for repairs. So for the past few weeks I’ve been using my Kickr Snap PM for SSB1. Over the last few weeks the Saturday O/U workouts have been impossible for me to complete. I’m able to get through the first interval but then I’m just smoked midway through the second round of O/U. It’s been very frustrating trying to figure out what’s wrong with my fitness.
Well, I have my Quarq PM back on the bike and did an O/U workout today. I used my Kickr Snap PM for the workout and had my Quarq report to my bike computer. I found out why my O/U have felt impossible to complete, my Kickr is way off.
I just started a new thread on this, because my flux s seems to read lower (relative to my Favero PM) the more power I put out. Basically tempo and sweet spot are fine, everything above is terrible.
I’ve had issues with powermatch and it would freeze the trainer after every calibration and during some workouts locking in at a random resistance and not matching anything anymore. It required me to restart trainer and TR. I would love to hear if anyone else is experiencing the same thing or else my trainer might be broken.
I had an issue with the Favero and flux s too, but it was related to connection used. Bluetooth requires that on the Favero app you select “double power” or something, then it works OK for me. Or - use ANT+ and all is rosy. This is only for the UNO by the way.
super easy set up for the trainer and connecting/calibrating through TrainerRoad (5 
‘s) Garmin ant+ dongle connected Vector 2s pedals and HR from watch 
Thanks TR
