Tacx Neo: Request for road feel with ERG

Feature Requests
1

I bought a Neo because I figured the road feel would add more realism to my rides and thus motivate me to ride more. I also ride primarily with ERG mode on as it’s a bit of a pain to change gears as I go up and down inclines.

I really wish Zwift allowed me to keep road feel on in ERG mode. I get that there is an increase in resistance due to road feel, but I don’t see why the app can’t compensate for that with some data from the Tacx folks. Like other users, I’m also disappointed that the road feel is 1-2 seconds out of sync and doesn’t have adjustable intensity relative to the Tacx app.

2

you say you got a neo because you wanted more realism yet you don’t ride in sim mode because you don’t like changing gears which seems a bit at odds with one another.

I also don’t think it is possible, as far as i understand it road feel works by changing the resistance of the trainer multiple times a second, erg mode would also be trying to control the resistance so they’d be working against each other.

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3

I don’t want to be a jerk but i think that the comment above nails pretty good what i’m thinking. ERG has nothing to do with realistic rides so why bother if road feel is not like IRL?

4

Ignoring the argument over realism, etc. I would also very much like ERG to have the road feel implimented, even if it is at a low setting.

this is one fo the unique selling points of this trainer, and if you do a lot of workouts instead of free-riding or races, you barely ever get to experience it.

Yes, Road Feel is acheived by manipulating the resistance, but it is in a calculated way, that i’m 100% sure can be compensated for in the code.

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5

I think of ERG as ride that just happens to have a perfect continuously variable automatic transition. :slight_smile:

I get that I’m not facing increased resistance as I’m going up the hill, but mentally that’s because my bike just switched into the perfect gear for me.

Why can’t I feel the cobblestones at this point? It’s a fun feature that adds some realism, why sacrifice it? As Justin says, there’s no reason why the resistance can’t be compensated for. This is an imminently solvable problem.

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6

Why not just set the trainer difficulty to 0 and ride in sim mode?

7

Andrew, that’s a great idea! It doesn’t allow for structured workouts, but it is another way of training.

8

maybe the request should be for road type to be added to the workout builder? for each segment you add you can select the different road type, i guess it would line up with what you re seeing on screen but would give you some “real” road feedback?

9

I tend to agree with @Chris_Holton that ERG and road feel just can’t work together, i think it is a hardware limitation.

Can the Neo do ERG and road feel in the Tacx software?

I would suggest contacting Tacx and ask them if this is a something that the trainer can do?

10

I can think of no reason why the two couldn’t work, though admit my ignorance. My logic is this: if the trainer can maintain a certain resistance with a virtual incline and road feel, why can’t it do that with ERG?

I will check and see if road feel is present in Tacx’s workout mode. Great question, that could answer the hardware support question.

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11

My reason/thinking for it not to work, is with a constant incline it would not matter if the resistance is off by a small amount due to the road feel (you wont know the difference between 7% and 7.4% for instance).

But in ERG the unit is constantly adjusting the resistance to keep it the set Wattage (W) , I would think it is adjusting multiple times per second (if it isn’t multiple times per 10th of a second) and then to introduce the constant on and off to simulate road feel will make ERG very choppy.

But it will be good to hear form Tracx what they think.