Really like the idea of the virtual shifting, and a bike specifically for zwift. The thing is, I’m a garmin snob but it doesn’t look like they will be joining the virtual shifting scene anytime soon. Should I sell my Tacx neo 2t and get the wahoo setup with the zwift ride? Or tough it out and see if Garmin finally will update their firmware for virtual shifting? I’m really liking what I see with the zwift ride, looks fun and like a handy bike if you use zwift a lot.
I have a NEO 2T and have no issues with the power being off, it’s quite accurate with my Kickr Bike and my Quarq power meter in real life.
Only thing that might be a problem is some trainers are far more favourable and generous with their power readings which can be a great help when racing. But not so useful when you are training to improve and need accurate power.
If you care about accuracy, I have a new rabbit hole for you…
Well I would have bought in order
- Wattbike atom
- Tacx neo 2t
- kickr core
The only reason I went with 3 is because (i) It came with a year of zwift and (ii) I wasn’t sure how long I’d be cycling indoors. I guess, to some extent the fact I had a road bike sat in the garage already made me think buying the wattbike was overkill.
So the cheapest option gave me a year of trying zwift.
But I wouldn’t go from 2 to 3. It would seem like a step down. The zwift hardware is tat imo. I have the click and hub and it works but it’s poundland quality plastic stuff. I doubt the battery compartment on the click will survive more than a couple of battery changes. It’s like a cheap chinese toy. You know the rest of the parts on my bike are ultegra di2 - that’s the level of shifter I’m used to and by comparison this looks and feels cheap - but it wasn’t cheap.
I figured getting the click / hub version was ok because I have a cassette I can put on the trainer if I needed to and since I was getting a year of zwift I didn’t feel tied to zwift - but if there’s no other option by the end of that year (or the lifetime of the click - whichever is the shorter) I’ll switch it back to a cassette.
So far the virtual shifting is working well for me - but it’s clearly buggy.
If I really thought zwift had a long term future as a company and want to ride indoors long term then I’d get a wattbike atom and sell my bike.
The logic behind zwift’s hardware makes no sense to me. It’s not high quality. It’s premised on some ridiculous idea Eric Min spoke about in his DC rainmaker interview that people can’t take their back wheel off and yet it’s clearly no less complicated to use the zwift ride + kickr core anyway? People are often posting confused about how to set them up - or boxes are arriving with parts missing etc. The wattbike atom arrives assembled.
All bikes are mechanical and wear out and, in spite of having a zwift store they have nothing set up for spares. Instead they have a manual process where people have to go through support to get a replacement part. Which as people are finding out it’s a support team that clearly cannot cope with the demand because of other issues. This would be understandable if they were a company set up by 3 or 4 guys from a kickstarter, but it’s a company that’s had $400M investment? What are they doing?
I see one guy with issues with the controllers on here told that it might be sweat ingress. Oops if that’s a thing. That’s the death knell for this product if it’s not sealed against sweat - because that’s the use case. It’s a harsh environment for electronics and anything you’re sitting above or touching with your hands has to either be capable of being washed regularly or sealed against any chance of getting sweat inside it. You know those of us with di2 are waving the powerwash over the bike right? Would you do that with a zwift ride? If not then it better not have anything sweat can get in.
So I’d steer clear if I were you. I’d trade up if you want virtual gearing to one of the smart bikes.
In reality, a Zwift Ride or Kickr Bike might not significantly elevate your indoor cycling experience beyond personal preference, when compared to training on your actual bike. For me, during the critical IRL racing season, I want to train exclusively on my race bike—not even my same brand/specs backup bike feels good enough.
That said, features like Wi-Fi, multi-connectivity, Bluetooth bridging, virtual shifting, etc., actually do enhance the experience, and you can get all of that at a fraction of the cost. While I’m eyeing the Kickr v7 because of Wahoo customer support. I’m genuinely impressed by the JetBlack Victory Trainer, which offers all these advanced features for just $399. Should that “thing” prove to be reliable, it may render many companies obsolete.
They’re having problems with sweat? You’d think that would be a top issue when designing the zwift ride.
Yeah you’re probably right but I have no inclination to ride outside and I’m not sure if that will change.
My big mistake was not selling everything during the zombie apocalypse when I’d more or less stopped cycling and there were no bikes around so people were paying top money.
- Wait and see if Garmin adds and 2) check out the reviews for the Elite system when it is released. I think the Elite system will be app agnostic.
sorry, im slow. what does app agnostic mean and what exactly is elite system?
It works with all apps (app-agnostic).
https://www.elite-it.com/en/products/home-trainers/ecosystem-accessories/square
Aside from the well-documented power accuracy issues (a perk for some), my personal experience with Elite’s customer service (e-mail based) has been quite poor, especially when compared to Garmin or Wahoo. Wahoo, for instance, replaced my KICKR with a brand-new next-generation model years after purchase—an impressive gesture. Garmin has similarly replaced watches and bike computers multiple times for me. That level of customer service adds significant value to their products. Btw: all trainers outside the Zwift ride are app-agnostic.
I watched a guy on youtube racing and his virtual shifting stopped working for a few seconds at a crucial point in the race and I thought its just another thing that can go wrong.
Not Tacx neo. It doesn’t allow virtual shifting and sounds like arnt making an effort to do so.
Zwift and Wahoo have acknowledged that a firmware update is needed if you want accuracy in watts reported while using virtual shifting on Kickr Core and Kickr V6. These are the Wahoo trainers that are compatible with Zwift Ride. The problem lies with with the autocallibration method in the current firmware. Wahoo have not specified when they will release the needed firmware update. If power accuracy is important to you, you might want to hold off until they get that sorted. Right now it is reportedly 10 to 15% off at times.
That’s not important. I’m more worried about Tacx Neo updating their firmware in order to use the zwift ride.
It would be a miracle if Tacx updated any of their trainers to work with Zwift virtual shifting. The JetBlack Victory is now the best trainer to purchase!
it’s better than the wahoo kickr core? i’ll have to do my research on it. So basically if I were to sell my tacx neo 2t. I should go with the victory and the buy the zwift ride bike by itself?
But still proprietary to Zwift. Mr. @XavierC comments aside, if you 100% Zwift…no problem (other than the inherent problems of Virtual HW from Zwift) but if you ever think you might want to ride other apps (Indievelo, Rouvy, etc…) then you will be stuck with a SS unless there is some workaround I am not currently aware.
I’m %100 zwift. I have no plans to do any other virtual platforms.
Chris, to my knowledge, the Hub is compatible with 11-speed cassettes ($50 add-on), which essentially makes it similar to any other trainer. You just won’t have the Zwift virtual shifting.