Virtual shifting for Taxc Neo 2T

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!

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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.

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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.

Which I want. So looks like I’ll be selling my Tacx Neo 2t and victory and zwift ride here I come!

I had heard that…but for some reason got it in my head it needed a new freehub (cog was some kind of direct connect) but did not see one.

Nah it’s just a cassette with one sprocket. The trainers with and without the cog are the same.

If you want a version of virtual shifting that is hardware agnostic then try IndieVelo. They’ve shown that the Zwift solution didn’t have to be so closed - but then they’d have sold less hardware. Given Zwifts current record with hardware I’d be giving any of their products a hard swerve.

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Replacing broken stuff isn’t really good customer service is it? It’s the bare minimum and legal requirement in most jurisdictions. For sure, it’s better than the product breaks and they do nothing, but it’s not good.

Good customer service would be making and selling products that worked well and didn’t break.

It’s odd that we’re at a stage where we think companies like Stages, Wahoo, Garmin are good because their stuff breaks but they send out a new one.

Remember, what they send in most cases will be the same flawed product. And sure occasionally you might get something with a fault, but if you have a long list of things that have been replaced by the same company, clearly all they do is sell poor quality products.

That’s more or less why Stages went out of business - we pretty much all had a replacement power meter (that didn’t work either) The problem is, the only way for the business model to work is for them to add the cost of all these replacements into the price for buying one. So either you’re paying for this stuff anyway, or the company goes bust and then everyone has got a product that has no support.

Ultimately if you buy a trainer or whatever you presumably just want to sit on your bike and cycle on it. You didn’t buy it to go through a process of faffing about with customer services or testing how good they are. DC rainmaker is in the position where he doesn’t want to use the products, he wants to faff about with them, contacting customer services, trying new firmware etc. But he’s not a really customer is he? He gets paid to do that - even if not directly.

I’d happily test all these products and faff about, but that would make me a consultant charging them a fee, not someone who is handing them money.

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100% Agreed! These days, many products are disposable -no one builds anything to last forever. When I had an issue with a brand-new Elite product, all I got was a 24-hour e-mail delayed BS response (no one to speak with), and after a week of wasted time I got nothing. It’s refreshing when companies like Wahoo own up to their mistakes, as they did with the Kickr 2018 years after the written warranty was expired.

Btw, I don’t really care for his marketing pitch, Shane Miller appears to be more transparent.

They are all shills.

With Garmin looking to steer away from virtual shifting will this be the end of tacx neo & garmin from zwift?

I don’t see the problem, I have a Tacx neo 2T here and have no problems with real shifting.

There are also other cycling applications out there aside from Zwift.

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Whilst virtual shifting seems to be popular there is no immediate danger of actual gears being replaced.

Many prefer the realism of actual gears.

Myself included.

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Since Garmin acquired Tacx in 2019, it seems like the once-innovative brand has stagnated. Before the acquisition, Tacx was a leader in the indoor cycling world, with products like the Neo 2 and Neo 2T, which was developed before the deal. But since then, what’s happened? The only notable product they’ve launched is the 3M, which, let’s be honest, was priced completely out of reality.

Meanwhile, new players are stepping up with competitive products, like the BlackJack Victory, which you can get for just $400 and more features than the 3M. It’s clear that Tacx’s market share is likely feeling the pressure. The problem seems more complex than just virtual shifting —there’s been a lack of innovation and value. Garmin’s influence might be holding Tacx back from delivering the kind of groundbreaking trainers we once expected from them. It’s disappointing to see a brand that was once at the forefront of the industry now playing catch-up.

What do you think? Is Garmin to blame for Tacx’s slump, or is it something else

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I feel like it could be very simple for garmin by just joining the party, and allowing zwifters to virtual shift would make them relevant again.

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Indeed, large corporations sometimes adopt a mindset that may overlook customer preferences, but hey!, Wahoo, despite being a micro company with sales well under $100 million, has likely frustrated numerous customers by not providing virtual shifting for the v5.

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I don’t even know what v5 is! Haha

lol sorry the Kickr V5 -previous version released in 2020.