How are these indoor bikes doing in late 2021?

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Llanberis
Posts: 296
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:10 am

by Llanberis

Hi all, been looking for an indoor bike for winter training, and have narrowed it down to:

- Tacx Neo
- Stages SB20
- Wattbike Atom Next Gen.


Throughout my research, they each have their own great features, as well as problems. Most comments / reviews I found are published quite some time ago, and I wonder if anyone who owns the latest model of any of them can share your experience?

A quick summary from what I found:

Tacx Neo
  • Good:

    - Good mounting solutions.
    - Built-in display for basic info.
    - Can work without power supply (but no "smart" features).
    - Currently discounted to around £1,800.
  • Concerns:

    - Garmin customer support.
    - Weak drive belt of the bike (broken belt seems to be a common issue in 2020).
    - General build quality (early production issues?).

Stages SB20
  • Good:

    - Rock solid build (I like things well-built so a huge bonus for me).
    - Super heavy commercial-grade flywheel (offers the most realistic ride feedback on the market).
    - Real power-measuring
    - Great mounting solutions.
    - Currently discounted to around £2,250.
  • Concerns:

    - Stages customer support if there's an issue (I've seen lots of comments about problems not getting responded / solved for weeks)
    - Inaccurately-aligned flywheel upon delivery (seemd to happen quite often in 2020 deliveries).
    - Shifting button issue (not working properly for some).

Wattbike Atom Next Gen.
  • Good:

    - Cheapest.
    - Second gen. with some upgraded hardwares (to keep up with others).
    - Comes with TT extension.
    - Rather solid build (only behind Stages SB20).
  • Concerns:

    - Quality control (this is a bit tricky as most comments I found complainning about things not working all sent them back immediately so no idea how customer service deals with the problems)
    - Sluggish virtual gear changes and app support issues.
    - Common issue with ERG mode.
    - Seems like quite a few former owners ended up selling them and switched to competitor's offering - why?

Note: Whoo Kickr Bike is out of equation due to 1) Price. 2) I'm not too bothered with its grade simulation feature and feel it's just one more thing that could fail to worry about (though Wahoo customer service seems to be awesome from what I heard).

Would appreciate any feedback; cheers chaps.

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ms6073
Posts: 4288
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:24 pm
Location: Houston, Texas

by ms6073

Llanberis wrote:
Mon Nov 15, 2021 12:01 pm
A quick summary from what I found:

Tacx Neo
  • Concerns:

    - Weak drive belt of the bike (broken belt seems to be a common issue in 2020).
Curious where you derived that concern as the Tacx Smart Bike, like the Tacx Neo, uses electro magnets.
- Michael
"People should stop expecting normal from me... seriously, we all know it's never going to happen"

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Llanberis
Posts: 296
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:10 am

by Llanberis

(I might be wrong) The electro magnet you mentioned is an alternative to traditional flywheel, but you still need something linked to your crank to drive it (a belt in this case):

Some comments I found:

https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/tac ... /20470/211 (This is very detailed)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Onsh78CZKtw

https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitnes ... /belt-torn

https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/tac ... 131?page=7

https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments ... endations/

I seem to read somewhere that Garmin is aware of the issue and have released an updated model with improved internals. Any thoughts everyone?

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ms6073
Posts: 4288
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:24 pm
Location: Houston, Texas

by ms6073

Llanberis wrote:
Mon Nov 15, 2021 8:51 pm
(I might be wrong) The electro magnet you mentioned is an alternative to traditional flywheel, but you still need something linked to your crank to drive it (a belt in this case)
:doh: Sorry, obviously did not give that last reply much thought since I was thinking of the Neo/Neo 2/Neo 2T Smart Trainers which are driven by the bikes chain and the cassette. :beerchug:
- Michael
"People should stop expecting normal from me... seriously, we all know it's never going to happen"

TobinHatesYou
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Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2017 12:02 pm

by TobinHatesYou

Stages support has been great in the past for American customers. Not sure about the rest of the world though. I will also give companies a longer leash during the ongoing pandemic.

pmprego
Posts: 2508
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:16 pm

by pmprego

Llanberis wrote:
Mon Nov 15, 2021 8:51 pm
(I might be wrong) The electro magnet you mentioned is an alternative to traditional flywheel, but you still need something linked to your crank to drive it (a belt in this case):

Some comments I found:

https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/tac ... /20470/211 (This is very detailed)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Onsh78CZKtw

https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitnes ... /belt-torn

https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/t/tac ... 131?page=7

https://www.reddit.com/r/Zwift/comments ... endations/

I seem to read somewhere that Garmin is aware of the issue and have released an updated model with improved internals. Any thoughts everyone?
Garmin support will be strongly dependent on where you're located. Support is US seems to be way superior to the one in mediterranean europe.

Llanberis
Posts: 296
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:10 am

by Llanberis

TobinHatesYou wrote:
Wed Nov 17, 2021 3:52 am
Stages support has been great in the past for American customers. Not sure about the rest of the world though. I will also give companies a longer leash during the ongoing pandemic.
pmprego wrote:
Wed Nov 17, 2021 10:54 am
Garmin support will be strongly dependent on where you're located. Support is US seems to be way superior to the one in mediterranean europe.
Thanks Tobin & pmprego, I subsequently found out Stages service in UK is supported by the distributor Saddleback, with whom I have had some great experience dealing in the past. This is reassuring as I'm leaning towards getting the SB20. Will update here if I do pull the trigger.

As for Garmin / Tacx, I feel they are kind of a hit-and-miss here; I've decided to avoid Neo Bike this time. While it has the most radical internal design out of the three, it also seems to be the most "Gen. 1 product-like" one. Would be interesting to see how they would polish it for the next update.

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