Direct Drive Turbo Trainer

cjonesy1

I'm buying a Direct Drive TT and I have it narrowed down to the Wahoo Kickr and the Tacx Neo.

I'm wondering could anyone with experience of these help me make my mind up?

thanks

Buzwaldo

I have almost zero knowledge of direct drive turbos. The sum total of that knowledge is as follows.
On a trip to cycle superstore recently, they had two set up side by side - a wahoo kickr and a whisper? model. The wahoo was at least three times as loud (and a fair bit dearer) than the other when I had both up to similar speeds.

alanjgalbraith

The Product Comparison section on DCRainmaker review of the CycleOps Hammer may be a good starting point ..... I'd rate the Neo over the Kickr as noise levels would be a important factor.... (Tried the Kickr and very noisy at higher speeds) http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/05/cycleops-hammer-smart-trainer.html

cjonesy1

thanks @Buzwaldo - I'll have a look at the kickr in cyclesuperstore.

Yeah noise would be a big factor for me too. That's why, from reviews, I'm leaning towards the Neo.

Does anyone know is there a shop in Dublin where I could have a go on the Neo?

thanks

doozerie

I have experience of neither but if I were buying one I'd put a lot of weight on whether it tied in with the way that I train. In my case that means I'd want the trainer to work well with TrainerRoad. I know that the Wahoo Kickr is supported by TrainerRoad but I don't know whether the Tacx Neo is - even if the Neo isn't supported today I'd imagine it will be at some point in the future but a lack of support today would count against it for me.

stecleary

cjonesy1 wrote: »

thanks @Buzwaldo - I'll have a look at the kickr in cyclesuperstore.

Yeah noise would be a big factor for me too. That's why, from reviews, I'm leaning towards the Neo.

Does anyone know is there a shop in Dublin where I could have a go on the Neo?

thanks

Humphries in Finglas sell them, they might have one in store
http://humphriescycles.ie/

tunney

cjonesy1 wrote: »

I'm buying a Direct Drive TT and I have it narrowed down to the Wahoo Kickr and the Tacx Neo.

I'm wondering could anyone with experience of these help me make my mind up?

thanks

I have owned both.
I have also had a Computrainer for 6 years.
My primary power meter is a set of DA SRMs that I keep calibrated.

Accuracy is important to me.
Consistency is important to me.
Repeatability is important to me.
Confidence is important to me.

I had confidence in the Computrainer, it was accurate, consistent and results were consistent. I unfortunately had to sell it as my wife figured out I had three turbos (Elite hydrogel, Computrainer and Neo).

I had zero confidence in the Kickr, it was not accurate, it was not consistent and the results were never repeatable. Wahoo's solution to the above is "use your PM with the software and use that for power values". So what value does the Kickr add then???

When the Kickr started smelling of melting plastic I returned it.

I have confidence in the Neo, it is accurate and correlates closely to the SRMs, it is consistent, it's results are repeatable. It can work without being plugged it. It is quiet.

If my Neo was stolen I would replace it.
If someone gave me a Kickr, I would not take it from them.

tunney

cjonesy1 wrote: »

thanks @Buzwaldo - I'll have a look at the kickr in cyclesuperstore.

Yeah noise would be a big factor for me too. That's why, from reviews, I'm leaning towards the Neo.

Does anyone know is there a shop in Dublin where I could have a go on the Neo?

thanks

The kickr is a toy.

If you are Dublin based you can try my neo.

cjonesy1

Thanks for that Tunney, you've made my mind up. Going to go for the Neo.

Lusk_Doyle

stecleary wrote: »

Humphries in Finglas sell them, they might have one in store
http://humphriescycles.ie/

Nope. I took it last week.