Benefits from upgrading turbo?

totally! the Snap is awesome! i wanted to add my thoughts on this post to convince a 3-years-ago me to just buy the Snap and be happy about it :slight_smile:

i was wrestling with whether or not to upgrade now, and i think the “auto-calibration” on the Kickr2020 was the thing that finally convinced me (though i’m sure i was just looking for an excuse, too). also, i was only getting about 2000 miles per trainer tire before they “went bad”, so the next tire change was going to give me another incentive :slight_smile:

I decided not to mention it in my first reply, but yes, by “good trainer” I referred to the Snap. I used to have one. It was pretty exact. Maybe I was lucky, but I did not experience any “humbling Neo effect” when I went over to a Neo 2 regarding Watts. That’s just Neo fanboy BS. “The infallible Neo”, “You should only be allowed to race on a Neo”, yada yada.

What I did experience, though, was the artificial feel of the older Neos compared to the Snap. I’m a little curious about the Neo 2T though, which I haven’t tried. With twice the amount of magnets it should be smoother and somewhat more realistic than the earlier versions. And the Neo tilt is fantastic, I liked that a lot. Sitting on a Core + Climb these days I’m content. Watts still the same two trainers later. Very convenient setup too compared to wheel-on. And you don’t get a puncture in a race from an overheated underinflated trainer tire anymore (“realistic” as it may have been, I don’t miss it). But is the feel better than on a Snap? Nah…

I think we who upgrade from a wheel-on often do so primarily for the same reason we upgrade wheels to some ridiculously high profile ones that cost the same as the bike, upgrade from 105 to Ultegra to Dura Ace, wouldn’t want to be seen with rim brakes so we had to buy yet another bike, etc etc, and all this even though quite a few of us are just fat old losers. It’s mainly because we can and because IT FEELS SO DAMN GOOD for the first few days.

Im also using a kinetic rock and roll, which gives a good feel with Zwift
I’m using my old 1980s retro 6 speed cassette road bike, which will not fit on a direct drive.
I used to have problems with power readings ( spin down and tyre pressure) but I now use garmin V3s power pedals, which solve all those problems and give consistent power readings when I transfer between my turbo and my real road bike.
The only feature I would like is a gradient greater than 10% and quicker response in workouts, Short fast intervals are near impossible.

With a fluid trainer you are working off the curve of the trainer and the inherent lack of a “step” function to suddenly increase resistance. All you have are gear changes on your bike to change resistance. You should be able to approximate a 10% grade by shifting to a higher gear but it will not be perfect.

I rode fluid trainers for years (Cycleops and KK) until the Snap came out…way better. Over the last year it started getting a little flaky but a factory spindown seemed to solve it. Then I picked up an H3 and, while not perfect, is head and shoulders a better experience over the Snap.

sorry to confuse you, but my wheel on kinetic rock and roll is the T6000 smart control, fully controllable by swift our bluetooth.

Well I am easily confused…sorry about that. I did not realize KK had expanded the offerings that much. And I am not smart enough to look at your Avatar closely. Your post makes a bit more sense to me now. I used to control my Snap with my P1s and it is a much more repeatable experience. The 10% limit is not too bad…once I got the H3 I had to get a bigger cogset…the tower hill on Mt. Watopia is killer to me…ugggghhh.