An update from Tacx of their flagship direct drive smart trainer the Neo 2T.

This is the second update we've seen to the original neo unit in the last 12 months with the neo 2 being announced in October-November last year.

Cutting straight to the details on this one. Here are the updates that come today with the Neo 2T. First up, native thru-axle support

So no longer, do we need a quick release adapter.

You can use your thru-axle from your bike to mount on the Neo 2t

There's a more powerful resistance unit which addresses the virtual tire slip so more

power more resistance at lower flywheel speeds

Even quieter operation with the internal

neodymium magnets (that's where the word neo comes from) being aligned a little differently to quieten things down and finally the pedaling analysis on the

Neo 2T supports open standards

So it's compatible with your head units and other software

One of the key updates mentioned there with the 2T is the ability of the unit to apply more

resistance at a lower flywheel speed so you don't get that virtual tire slip. That was one of the things in the neo 1 and 2

that really got to me. This appears to be virtually eliminated. In early, July

I had the opportunity to visit the Tacx HQ to have a look at the Neo 2T being built

Here is a 2T on the test rig

Being calibrated or certified for calibration

In the factory

Now the one difference with the 2T and the 2 is the 2T has two little black strips on the

Armband there. It still has blue pants

Speaking of blue pants here is one of my favorite robots

bolting the blue pants onto the 2T

there at the factory

and

Now over to my favorite robot on the shop floor captain glue. Now captain will take the neodymium

Magnets from the stack where they're all pretty hard pressed together

extract those

Put a little bit of glue on each one

Then take them over to the flywheel and insert them in exactly the right spot and you can see them

They're a little offset in the flywheel.

I can watch this machine all day. It's fascinating stuff

And here's a close-up of the flywheels with the magnets offset for the Neo 2T

Not straight up and down anymore a little bit offset

Onto the unit specifications and on paper not a lot different between the Neo 1 and the Neo 2, they were ahead of their time.

So we have a direct drive interactive smart trainer erg mode, sim mode and more we have

Isotonic isokinetic modes with the Neos they can do some pretty funky things by compatibility

We have quick release 130 135 and now 140 - and 148 native through axle support

That's a good thing Shimano compatible free hub. It does not come with a cassette. Wireless protocols

ANT+, ANT+ FE-C Bluetooth smart Bluetooth FTMs the data transmission speed cadence power and trainer control

Which means if you're on Apple TV you get the trifecta.

Power accuracy claims less than 1% I guess that's one percent margin of error

So it should be pretty accurate when put up against other known good power sources, no calibration required

Excellent, Grade simulation up to 25%

max wattage 2200 watts

We also had downhill drive on the Neo 1/2 and 2T

which means if you are on a virtual downhill that flywheel will tick over for you.

It doesn't really help you move forward on Zwift or something like that

You need to generate power for that

But it just adds a bit more realism if you want to coast down a hill

Road surface simulation: So you get cobbles, gravel, ice, plank bridges, whatever they want to do with the programming of that. It's pretty nifty

You can feel that through the pedals flywheel weight in size

It's claimed mass inertia of 125 kilos, but the neo 1, 2, 2T has a virtual flywheel, so it's dependent on software

It can be a pretty big flywheel if they choose to seem you like that

Noise level really quiet

Yes, really because of those magnet realignments unit weight

That's the entire box as it comes is 24.8 kilos. And yes

My FedEx guy knows how heavy this unit is works with or without power without power

You'll get no downhill Drive

But you can pack this one up and take it to a race and use it as a full smart trainer with full

Capabilities without power being plugged in and a front wheel riser block is supplied .

On to the global pricing here

It appears the price of the Neo 2t stays the same as the Neo 2 so US dollars 1399, Australia

Which I'll pick out where I am 1899 and in the UK you're looking at

1199 pounds

Okay there all the details. Let's get this unboxed and have a closer look at that thru-axle support

Superb packaging here, maximizing all the space in a small box

Okay, everything you need to know about what comes in the box obviously the Neo 2T itself, front riser block,

We have some manuals, power cables, the kits to convert it to thru axel if needed and the power brick

There's the armbands that indicate that it's a neo 2T and

The unit comes with quick release as standard

So, he's me conveying it over to 142 x 12 through axle. Drive side first before we put the cassette on

11 speed Ultegra for what I use - just fine

And non-drive side

Sorted

Ok bike on with the thru axle that we use on our bike, that's what I mean by native or no additional adapter required

Ok powering up and call this the noise check. This is a shotgun microphone directed straight at the trainer.

Noisiest part of all, that is me changing through my gears and the DI2

So here's the soundcheck

You can hear the chain and the drive-train. The unit itself is virtually silent.

That's as I said, shotgun mic directed straight at the trainer. And this does pass the sleeping baby test.

One thing to do with the Neo units is to open up the Tacx utility app and first of all check for new firmware

So there was a firmware update from 26 to 27 with this

I'm now on 28 I suspect there's going to be a few more revisions very soon. But here's the process with that

So definitely make sure you have the Tacx utility and do that update

Just takes a few minutes to get that done and now once that's done make sure you go to the settings of your Neo 2T

Which you can see just here and update the default body weight

Now this is a required for Bluetooth because bluetooth doesn't have the ability to set your body weight to deal with the inertia calculation

So if you set it in here, bluetooth will be happy ANT+ has it covered in your software

With many many hours on the 2T clocked up

It's time to talk about the ride feel, the user experience, the on bike, on pedal. What's it like to ride?

Well, first of all, it's definitely a NEO it has Neo characteristics. I guess you'd call it

It has a little wiggle side to side which is welcome little bit of flex

So it's not like riding a brick fence with a saddle on it. That's a good thing. It's virtually silent. By virtually silent

I mean you'll hear your drivetrain and you'll know when it's time to oil your chain

And that freewheel does make a noise. It's funny how they make silent trainers

but as soon as you stop pedaling

It starts ratcheting up. We'll have to do a video on how to quieten that all down

High powered Sprint's appear to be sorted. I could not trip this unit up

There's an easy way to trip up a neo 1 a neo 2. Go up a gradient, lower gear, punch the pedals and you'll slip

Out pretty easily this thing held on so good stuff there. Appears to be virtually solved with that one

Erg mode on the 2T will come at you like a freight train

Well, probably more like a mini bus after some feedback we provided Tacx

it was just punching way way too hard into those resistance changes and you really had to slug things over before it came down and stabilized.

That's been updated with a firmware update just the other day and it's more

Yeah, a little tamer on the pedals. Same goes for the steady-state Erg. It was just a little harsh on the pedals because it was just

Overcompensating with its extra power I guess or under compensating when it dropped off. A little bit jagged now, it's been smoothed out

So the user experience in steady-state Erg was pretty good. So overall in regards to the on bike on pedal

What's it like experience? This is definitely a step up from the neo 1 and the neo 2 in particular

There was Sprint's really pack a punch and those Erg resistance changes. You're going to know about it pretty quick

But hey, that's what training is all about. Now. Here's where things go a little off piste

So to speak now, I've spent a lot of time in the neo 2t in recent weeks

Typically a trainer will arrive I'll do my research. I'll schedule some time. I'll unbox it

Get it set up, do a llama lab test, maybe a few rides, have a look at the data

Job done, make a video, happy days!

Wasn't quite the case with this unit.

Look, my trusty Neo 1 still takes pride of place in the llama lab for power meter testing and I really wanted to put the Neo 2T

to the test to see if it could replace the Neo 1

Well...

The inverse was true. The Neo 2T tested me, the Lama lab, and I think every power meter I had access to.

It's been quite the journey! What I try and do is have the true user experience in the llama lab.

So if you're watching these videos, you know exactly what to expect when you unbox something, jump on, ride your bike,

Look at the numbers... and it's happy days

Hopefully you even have a better experience than I, because you watch me make the mistakes first

You have a bit of a giggle - away you go. You do it better!

So look

Let's move gently into this by first acknowledging that a few things are yet to be implemented namely cycling dynamics and a pedaling dynamics

It's not there. Not there. It's in the spec sheet, but it's not implemented at this point in time

It may be a firmware update away, but it's currently not there. So we know this is a work in progress

Next, the original Neo.

It's a pretty trusted source of truth for power and there's a few edge cases that we can you can fool it.

But, there's a reason why I use it for the llama lab test for steady-state stuff. It's reliable, dependable,

Go-to it any time of the day, in almost any temperature, with any other power meter and if the power meter is good the Neo 1 will agree

It's happy days! The Neo 2T has that potential but that potential still yet to be realized after 10 Lama lab tests

(It's been a lot of training rides the last few weeks), I'm still seeking that potential in the 2T.

That search has involved being sent a new firmware just this week, so that potential again still being realized and it's still a work in progress.

Look, I won't spend an hour going through the 10 Lama lab test data sets,

They're all over with Tacx for review.

But what I'm going to do now is go through the Neo 2T versus the Vector 3 pedals. Vector 3's are owned

By Garmin. Garmin own Tacx, that that's what they've been using internally.

So I thought to give it the best chance of working and replicating their tests internally. I'll have a look at the Vector 3 data.

So as always my favorite website on the internet the DCRainmaker analysis tool where we can compare multiple power meters

and their .fit files as an overlay and see how things stack up.

So Neo 2T vs the Vector 3's. Now the first ten minutes I will throw away

Because we're recently installed angles and getting everything calibrated, a few stomp sprints. It's all good!

As I said, this is one data set of ten

But it represents pretty much the experience that I've had so far to date with the current firmware.

Ok, diving into the steady-state stuff, there's a few dropouts.

So I will stop the drag (about there).

Okay, 224 versus 228

with a few interesting spikes there from the Vector 3's

Not too bad for what's off pedals. For what's higher? Look that's not too bad. Not too bad.

The Neo 1 and Neo 2 [Vector 3] are within 2 watts ... 4 watts.

Again, I'm nitpicking but this isn't the next level this is going the other way. So

That was something that was a bit of a concern. Diving in a little closer here. We had some drop outs

So, now I blame this on the [Garmin] Edge 1030 that I've been using with beta firmware

(I shouldn't be testing this with beta firmware), but what we can see here is the peak power. It gets up to within

40 watts at eleven hundred. Forget the drop out there, that was not...

Not very handy. I have done a tonne of other sprints though. It's been okay. I just wanted to use this data set,

So I just excuse the sprint dropout there. That's looking okay now

Into the just riding along, just riding along.

And we have a separation of 10 watts there. Now, this is 125 on the Neo 2T and 135 on the Vector 3's

That's not within 1%

that's a little bit too far out for my liking, just riding along.

Diving in here to the "overs and unders" and

look close but you can see that there is an offset there by it's about 10 watts the whole way across so

Typically a power meter if it's off

It'll be off at a higher range and not the lower range

This is just consistently off both at the 350, 150, 350, 150, 350, 450. Sorry! 150

So, it's just a little bit off comparing this to the Neo 2 similar, but you can see here

This is with the Neo 2 - with the Vector 3 275 vs 273. They're within 2 watts for that test.

Here at 266 vs 273. It's just a little bit farther out than I would like. You can also see the purple spikes there the little devil horns

That's the Neo [2T]

Kicking in really hard and that's better than what it was last week. So it's still a work in progress there.

And then more just riding along I suspect there's going to be about 10 watts off, just here at easy [pace].

89w vs 99w. There you go at 10 watts difference and then

More riding on Swift in sim mode away from Erg, just in case Erg was a problem

256 vs 263, again not within 1% of each other there and