Garmin announced Zwift Ready compatibility today, which brings Virtual Shifting to their popular Tacx Neo 2T, Neo 2, Neo 2SE and Neo 3M trainers. You can read Garmin’s announcement here.
Note: Zwift Ride Smart Frame is not compatible with the Tacx Neo 3M, Neo 2 or Neo 2SE
We recommend the Zwift Cog for drivetrain compatibility in multiple-bike households. Select the Zwift Cog variant with no freehub body for Elite and Garmin Tacx trainers.
Pair your trainer and controllers over Bluetooth. Virtual Shifting is not possible over ANT+. If you have an ANT+ USB dongle, we recommend unplugging it from your PC or Mac.
This is brilliant news. I’ve just managed to get the garmin firmware installed on a Neo 2SE and zwift now thinks I’ve got virtual shifting. No mention of race mode, perhaps that’s the bit you loose with the 2SE but I can deal with that… EDIT, race mode is enabled in the garmin app, the 2SE does have it…
Also - for clarity, the reason why: The Tacx 3M, Tacx 2, and Tacx 2SE flare out quite a bit wider towards its base than the Tacx 2T, and that creates a clearance issue with the Zwift Ride Smart Frame’s chainstays.
If you already own the Tacx 3M, it’s likely you use its free-movement feature. The Zwift Ride’s static fork leg would require you lock out that motion, which defeats this fun, distinguishing feature.
Fantastic and finally available after months and months and months of Garmin silence on this, but …
Unfortunately this is not available in Australia!, big sigh.
There are two ways to utilise the Zwift virtual shifting but not in Australia if you’re using a Garmin trainer:
We have never been able to purchase the Zwift Play controllers outside the US, so we can’t use the virtual shifting that way.
The Zwift Cog and Click is available in Australia but only for Wahoo (still out of stock everywhere though) and not for Garmin (apparently the cog is a different size as demonstrated by @GPLama)
Is there any way to get the Zift Cog & Click for Garmin in Australia?
You could buy the Wahoo kit and remove the cog from the freehub (once it’s in stock). If for any reason the different size is a problem you could get a third-party single speed conversion kit from anywhere or just use a cassette. The Zwift cog is entirely optional. I know the larger 18t cog is recommended for Elite trainers but I don’t know if it matters at all for the Neo.
Good point on just getting the Wahoo Zwift Cog. I thought of doing that and just using the Zwift Click (very annoying you can’t buy that separately), but I have both Shimano & Sram fitted frames so would still need to change cassettes (which I have been doing frustratingly anyway).
Now you bought up a very interesting point with the Elite/Garmin cog being 18T vs the normal 14T - there has to be a reason for the larger cog for the Garmin trainers. But I didn’t even consider about Sram flattop chains, as these have larger rollers and different pitch, hmmm.
I don’t know if @GPLama has had an opportunity to test the Neo with both the 14t and 18t cogs so that would be interesting if so. But the Elite trainers have higher minimum resistance so riders using the 14t cog have difficulty achieving low power targets and a reasonable cadence, and I don’t know if that’s true for the Neo series as well. It’s possible that the reason they recommend the Elite cog for the Neo is that it settles on a single SKU in the shop and otherwise does not matter.
I’m pretty sure that the SRAM flattop chains have exactly the same pitch as other chains. But the rollers are bigger, as you say, and that does need consideration. They’re also thinner internally.
I works but not with an ANT+ dongle. Be sure to remove that from your PC before hand. The NEO 2T did not display the ability to implement shifting until the PC was rebooted without the ANT+ dongle installed.
Can just a friend here is the USA purchase it for you and ship it to Australia ? Right now is on sale for $59. I ordered mine 2 days ago and it will be delivered on Monday.
Should I just just post a comment on a Zwift ride “Find a friend” /s
Great for you that you’ve managed a way to get the item and thanks for telling me how successful you have been! more /s
Seriously, yes I would have the item posted for me from the USA if I knew someone in the USA, they didn’t mind doing the reposting for me, and I trust them to actually do it.
I’ve tried using a few of the web based shipping companies like VPost (never again) and MyUS (happy with this company) but none will accept the order from Zwift and I eventually lose a bit of money (exchange rate loss) and time.
Hey i did the update on my Neo 2T and it works amazing. I also noticed for the road surface feeling only wooden planks and dirt/gravel are simulated in zwift . Cobble stones are not working anymore. Is this a zwift related bug or a Garmin/Neo firmware bug ? Fyi, i had also need to turn on the slider in the tacx app for race mode. So standard it was set to off. Regards
EDIT, race mode is enabled in the garmin app, the 2SE does have it…
? Right now is on sale for $59. I ordered mine 2 days ago and it will be delivered on Monday.