Rca and the tacx neo smart
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liketoride
- Posts: 408
- Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:05 am
I loved the trainer until the magnets stopped putting out force when going down hill. The unit is not as stable once this happens and once the bike started to rock side to side my none drive side crank arm would hit the side of the machine. After one ride it had chipped the clear coat of my thm crankset. My question is for anyone else that has the neo has this happened to you too? I don't think I would have this problem if my bike was set up with bsa or I had a bb30 frame. I liked the trainer but only have bbright bikes that would go on it and it does not work for me at 89kgs
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I would not be putting an RCA on a turbo for a start! Just too fragile, and turbos put stresses on frames that are not replicated on the road. This was fine in the days of round tubed metal frames which had roughly equal strength in any direction.
But carbon frames (and particularly finely tuned versions like the RCA) are not as robust in unexpected directions. Carbon fibre strands are essentially only strong in one direction, and the RCA in particular achieves its fantastic weight and ride quality due to a very careful application of this characteristic through using different grades in different layups, weaves, grades and orientations, with no excess material to cope with stresses coming from anything other than directions caused by normal riding.
Since weight, ride quality and a number of other attractions of a high end road bike are not applicable to a turbo training environment, I would personally buy a very cheap bike to use on the turbo. Vs the cost of replacing damaged high end parts, it will be inconsequential. The value knocked off your chainset alone would probably pay for itself!
Unfortunately, you might also find that your RCA warranty is nullified by turbo use.
In specific response to your question, despite the asymmetry of the bbright system, the pedals and crank ends are equidistant from the centre line of the bike. They are not offset. So, your experience is unlikely to be as a result of bbright. As attractive as the Neo Smart is, from an engineering perspective I think it just can't be as stiff as a more traditional triangulated support design. That is more likely to be the route of your problem than the asymmetry of the frame.
But carbon frames (and particularly finely tuned versions like the RCA) are not as robust in unexpected directions. Carbon fibre strands are essentially only strong in one direction, and the RCA in particular achieves its fantastic weight and ride quality due to a very careful application of this characteristic through using different grades in different layups, weaves, grades and orientations, with no excess material to cope with stresses coming from anything other than directions caused by normal riding.
Since weight, ride quality and a number of other attractions of a high end road bike are not applicable to a turbo training environment, I would personally buy a very cheap bike to use on the turbo. Vs the cost of replacing damaged high end parts, it will be inconsequential. The value knocked off your chainset alone would probably pay for itself!
Unfortunately, you might also find that your RCA warranty is nullified by turbo use.
In specific response to your question, despite the asymmetry of the bbright system, the pedals and crank ends are equidistant from the centre line of the bike. They are not offset. So, your experience is unlikely to be as a result of bbright. As attractive as the Neo Smart is, from an engineering perspective I think it just can't be as stiff as a more traditional triangulated support design. That is more likely to be the route of your problem than the asymmetry of the frame.
