Garmin /Tacx Neo Bike Plus Customer Review

I wanted to review this bike since Garmin has been so incredible in supporting me since I purchased the bike in November of 2020. While it was frustrating to ship bikes back and forth for all these years, the sixth time's the charm and, with the Neo Bike Plus, Garmin/Tacx got it right.

I bought the bike for Zwift racing and riding, and I have put a ton of k's on these various bikes. Video is inaccurate, though: my total k's on all six bikes is about 40,000. Still, enough to know the bike pretty well.

Pros
--Rock Solid Construction. This thing is a tank. It might as well be bolted to the floor, which is what you want
--Headset. Major improvement over the earlier version, with 'real' shifters and Zwift Play compatibility. I love having a data screen separate from Zwift
--Gearing. Maximal flexibility with the gearing. Not sure why I can't go beyond a 53 since it's virtual, but the range I have is terrific for climbing and sprinting alike
--No side-to-side or up-and-down movement. Some will see this as a 'con'. But I'm reasonably certain that either side-to-side or up-and-down movement is a drag on power, so, for me, this is an advantage
--Super comfortable. I've spent thousands of hours in the saddles of these bikes. While it will never be as sweet as riding my Domane outside--lack of movement side-to-side does have a cost--I find it comfortable
Cons
---Setting up shifters to match SRAM caused an issue for me: it is very easy to mistakenly shift off of the big ring. Easy fix is to set the shifters up to Shimano or Campy.
--When a super quick down shift (as above) happens, the bike takes several seconds to re-engage, which would be a killer in a race. But I've never seen it happen except in that one circumstance
--Some slight movement in the headset that I can't seem to get rid of, but it is VERY slight
--No holes for a second water bottle cage
--cost. Like the Wahoo, this thing is just expensive. I got the old one at a sale price, and I'd find it hard to justify 4k to my wife!

For a pro review with all the bells and whistles, head over to DCR:

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2022/11/tacx-n...