![]() Sound Levels: It’s audible compared to the virtually silent NEO. But understand the NEO is really in a league by itself. Tacx says the unit can actually peak north of 2,000w for a few seconds before the flywheel catches back up.įlywheel: It has a virtual flywheel at 22.8kg, compared to the 125kg of the NEO. And the 10% is pretty solid unless you’re doing lots of alps mountain simulation. Those wattages are quite frankly more than sufficient for 98.6% of cyclists. Max Resistance: It tops out at 1,500w and 10% slope simulation. But there’s also a handful of other ways the unit is different than Tacx NEO:Īccuracy: It’s claimed at +/- 5%, versus the 1-2% of the Neo (more on that in a second)Ĭalibration: Like most trainers, you will want to do a calibration/roll-down each ride to get better accuracy (which isn’t done on the NEO) Of course many wonder if this is a mini-NEO, and in some ways it is. The unit actually ships with the leg piece detached, so it fits better in the box. Two bolts on the bottom hold it in place. You can detach the legs though via a standard hex tool. So it’s not quite something you can slide under a bed or such. Note that the Flux does not fold-up like the NEO or most other trainers. So this is a bit different than the higher end NEO, but then again. Now the Flux does require being plugged in to power to provide resistance, which is done with a belt system inside (as seen in the prototype unit photo above). This is similar in concept to what Elite is doing as well with a secondary flywheel inertia ‘rating’. Now interestingly the company states that the flywheel has an effective inertia of a 22.8KG flywheel, due to the belt design. For me there’s still the mental roadblock of looking at a wall and being inside, no matter how realistic the trainer inertia may feel. Long-time readers will know that I’m not a huge person on ‘how much does it feel exactly like the road’ when it comes to trainer inertia. Not quite as good as the NEO, but still more than sufficient for my needs. In my trial this summer of the unit, the road/inertia feeling felt pretty good. In the below photo you can see the 6.7kg flywheel, which is that silver piece that rotates as you ride to provide inertia. And you can use the FE-C control from various head units as well. This means you can pair your head unit/watch directly to the trainer to record stats. Alongside the same metrics on Bluetooth Smart. Further, it’ll broadcast out your ANT+ Speed, Cadence, and Power. ![]() Plus on the Bluetooth Smart side, apps that work with the Tacx Smart trainers already, will work with Flux. ![]() Like virtually all high end trainers these days, the unit supports ANT+ FE-C for trainer control. These apps can be anything from Zwift to TrainerRoad to Kinomap and many more. The Flux is a fully electronic trainer, in that your resistance can be controlled electronically from various apps on desktop or mobile devices. Whereas Wahoo is providing that cassette on their KICKR included in the trainer cost, but if your needs don’t match their 11-speed cassette you’re basically replacing it anyway. As with the Tacx NEO, and Elite and CycleOps direct drive units, you’ll have to provide your own cassette (a $50-$70 cost), plus installing said cassette. That means that you’ll remove your rear wheel and affix your bike directly to the trainer. To begin, as is likely obvious from the above, the Flux is a direct drive trainer. Here is one of those almost-production units: This state is important to note because it helps to set the stage for timelines later on in terms of release/shipping dates. The company currently has a handful of not-quite-production units to show, though they look the part of a production unit. As you can see below, things take interesting paths from prototype to production (or, near production as it is today). At the time, the trainer was very much still a prototype externally, even if internally it was pretty much locked. Way back in early June I got to spend some time riding on a Flux while visiting the Tacx headquarters. Still, the Flux is a demonstration of Tacx for the third year in a row pushing the boundaries of prices and feature alignment in the trainer space. However, they did roll out a substantial firmware update to their high end NEO lineup earlier in the summer, plus that model received a very minor external shell modification to make it compatible with more bikes. The Flux would be the only new cycling trainer they’d release this season (aside from the Magnum treadmill, but I’ll cover that separately). This new trainer sits at the upper edge of the mid-range electronic trainer pricing range at $899USD/€799, but pulls in features historically only seen at higher levels, notably being direct drive and ANT+ FE-C for electronic trainer control. This week at Eurobike, Tacx has announced their latest smart trainer, the Tacx Flux.
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