Garmin has released the Garmin Tacx Neo Bike Plus and it is an upgrade to their Tacx Neo Bike. The new version adds more adjustable features, realistic road feel, a free Zwift trial, and 150+ follow-up exercise videos than its predecessor. However, the price is incredibly high, making this a bike for dedicated cycling fanatics rather than spin class aficionados.
The Garmin Tacx range is Garmin’s indoor cycling label, offering turbo trainers and some of the best cycling technology indoor bikes to compete with the likes of Wahoo, along with indoor stationary bikes to take the fight to competitors like Peloton.
Although people complain about the price of a Peloton, the ultra-premium Tacx Neo Bike Plus is even more expensive than the Bicycle Peloton either Peloton Plus Bike (opens in a new tab), coming in at a whopping $3,999.99 in the US, £3,499.99 in the UK, and AU$6,499.00 in Australia. It’s possibly one of the most expensive indoor bikes we’ve seen.
However, Garmin has made sure to pack this bike with features to make up for the high price. The feel of the road is very realistic, right down to changing gears and driving on different surfaces like gravel or cobblestones. Simulates the feeling of going down and going with ‘dynamic inertia’. The bike can be connected to your TV or iPad with the Tacx training app enabled for simulated rides, which are connected to two fans to simulate wind resistance. The surface, elevation, gear change and course are all simulated at the same time, which really gives you the feeling of a realistic ride.
Maybe you’re training for a specific race and the Tacx training app has your course on file, or maybe you just have a lot of money and always wondered how you’d fare against Team Sky. But if you’re a regular cyclist, Garmin’s efforts to bring the outdoors indoors are impressive. It’s an experience you can’t get with a conventional bike encased in a turbo trainer, which is why the turbo trainer vs stationary bike the argument is moot at this price. You are paying for simulation features as much as anything else.
Even if you don’t use your usual bike, you can log your workouts in the same way with a Garmin Edge bike computer. The Edge works with the Tacx to calculate effort, distance traveled and other metrics in the same way it does when you’re out and about. It’s also adjustable for five different rider heights, while your bike is sure to be set up just the way you like it.
Garmin’s promotional material claims that the bike is designed “for use by multiple athletes in the home,” and the use of the word “athletes” is quite revealing here. This is, to all intents and purposes, a Serious Bike for elite riders.
Perhaps the best-known maker of expensive exercise bikes, Peloton, doesn’t want you to go outdoors. Because I would do? It means you spend less time on your bike. Using the dopamine trick of social media, Peloton’s content subscription service provides access to hundreds of live classes and thousands of pre-recorded classes on demand, some packaged into shows.
Offers points for miles biked (or run or rowed) on the machine of your choice, displays the number of classes you’ve attended, and lets your favorite instructors yell your username as they ride with you—all to make sure you’re getting it. get. recognition hit.
What Peloton replicates is the feeling of a sweaty spin class set to pulsing music, not a trip from Mont de Marsan to Bordeaux, but okay. As we found out during a deep dive into the company, Peloton has a lot of value for its users, thanks to its addictive nature, despite the high price of its subscription service. The Garmin Tacx Neo Bike Plus is an incredibly expensive unit, but it offers a much cheaper smart training subscription at $99.99 for a year.
Serious riders looking to train indoors should avoid the Peloton frivolities and go for the Neo Bike Plus, or save a few hundred bucks and go for the standard Neo Bike, or even a turbo trainer. Those looking for a fun exercise machine, however, should steer clear of this oversized beast and look at some cheaper options, or even stick outdoors with the best cheap e-bikes.
