I just saw read the write up on DC Rainmaker of the long overdue update to the Tacx Neo.
It seems that the most substantive difference over the original Neo is the addition of pedalstroke analysis. They’ve added more adapters as standard which I know will make some people happy. I can’t believe they didn’t add a handle! Price is still $1,399, same as the old one.
I don’t think there’s anything in here that would make existing Neo owners want to upgrade, or anyone thinking about one of the cheaper Kickrs (18 or Core) change their mind. I think the only market is for those that were going to buy a Neo anyway (probably for Zwift road feel and lateral movement) that would just buy the new one instead of the old one.
Anyone see something in this new announcement that excited them?
I’d be confident of getting a sale price for old stock over the next couple of months until it runs out. The price may still not be as low at the Kickr Core though.
I currently have a Neo and don’t really feel like I’m missing out on anything here with the upgrade. Would have been nice to have the thru-axle adapter included standard. The adapter is ridiculously priced, IMO.
Skimming thru the review, it doesn’t seem like there is any detail on what pedaling metrics actually means? It’s mostly facanating as I can’t get my head around how the Neo 2 detects that. Changes in power throughout each pedal stroke? It’s about the only thing I can think of, but I’d imagine that would require really accurate measurements. Which certainly is possible.
Hats off to Tacx for some fine engineering, despite the lack of usefulness
Thoughts yet on the pedal stroke analysis? I assume any strain gauges must be in the body of the trainer… so there is no way that they can be true L-R is there?
In essence are we looking at a form of reverse engineering, so single figure + position in pedal stroke + clever algorithm = some kind of disaggregated read out.
Don’t know much about these things, but can that really be any more that an approximation, and poor cousin to strain gauges in the cranks?
They’re using a blend of known position plus speed (and power of course).
I haven’t ridden that piece yet, nor had a chance to compare it. I’m interested in perhaps comparing it against a duo of the Pioneer power pedaling metrics with either Garmin or PowerTap atop it. I suspect all those pieces will come together later this month.
Yes, that’s how I imagine it would work. Won’t be true L/R balance. Kind of like how some PMs estimate L/R by looking att total power vs. where you are in the pedal stroke. I bet that the Neo 2 would still think that you were using both legs during single leg drills.
Maybe, but it’s possibly that they can tell when there is power only during half the typical cycle, and “switch” into a mode recognizing single leg info at that time, until double power at each 180* phase returns.
According to Rainmaker, the internals of the NEO 2 have changed which sets it up for future features. I saw the NEO 1 for $1100 off the Tacx site. I contacted Clevertraining and they said that they were not expecting NEO2 to land until mid-Jan. Tacx said US, mid-Dec. It’s early as it does not ship until next week in Europe.
I will probably wait and see how the shipping goes.
I’m sure working out the ballance is fairly straight forward based on power through the first 180 and the second 180. Accelerometers could be used to monitor the roll of the machine to determine which leg is pressing down
Yep, it’s a Neo with new pants. The pedal stroke additions are interesting… but… non essential. How they figure out L/R is interesting, has it been mentioned anywhere yet? I’m on walking eggshells at the moment, so I’ll leave it there.
I guarantee that there is enough change in the pulse strength (power fluctuation after the bottom of the stroke is inevitable), and can likely be sensed by the power measurement system.
It’s the same concept as how CycleOps uses to measure cadence in the Hammer/H2 trainers. They sense the pulse and power delivery fluctuations.
I am all but certain it can be measured and sensed in a way to calculate the power difference. And if they are using optical, magnetic, hall-effect or some method to sense when each pedal/crank arm swings by the trainer, they have a timing and therefore a crank position to use for setting left-right.
I see it all as very possible (for smart engineers and software guys) to make work and be pretty reliable.
Yes, it can probably be done using a smart algorithm to recognize the different typical characteristics of pedaling with one or two legs. However, that was not my point. I used the single leg drill as an example to say that I don’t believe that the Neo 2 will truly measure L/R balance. Now, the only downside that I see with this is that some riders may apply force for a greater part of the pedal stroke, to the point where there’s an overlap where the rider is applying force to both pedals simultaneously.
This is probably completely irrelevant, and I have no doubt that the assumptions used in calculating L/R is completely reasonable, and the margin of error is small enough not to matter.
As for my original post, it’ll be interesting so see what kind of metrics are included in pedaling metrics. That should include more than just L/R balance.
