Tacx Flux

[tallliman]

I'd assume something that talks to the trainer like zwift or the tacx app must be able to aggregate that?

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Zwift will populate all the data for you and exports to strava as a virtual ride

 

[Nebulous]

Now at £399 - for Black Friday. Thanks to a post from si_c in the fitness forum I've now bought one. Hoping to get another 10% from BC membership.

 

[Nebulous]

Is this going to be quite straightforward to set up, or are there some gotchas I need to be aware of?

At the moment I use my Garmin 1000 with speed, cadence, heart rate and a dumb trainer. It uploads to Gamin connect and from there to Strava.

If I setup my flux, I won't have speed for the Garmin as there isn't a hub and I understand it comes with its own cadence sensor. I have an i5 latop, with Bluetooth. Am I right in thinking if I get a zwift account the tacx will provide cadence, speed and power figures to the laptop via Bluetooth?

What about heart rate? Do I need to get an ant + dongle for my laptop? Or can the flux maintain two connections at once? Using the Garmin as a head unit, and the laptop for Zwift via Bluetooth?

I'd then need to make sure only one of connect / zwift was uploading to Strava.

Thanks for any advice- picking it up later today and want to get going as soon as possible.

 

[si_c]

Mine was incredibly simple to set up, I had it ready to go in under 5 minutes. Take it out of the box, and you need to put the feet on (2 bolts, allen key included in box) and then it's free standing. I then put the cassette on - there isn't one already fitted, but I put a spare 12-25 on that I would normally use for commuting - this needs both a cassette lockring tool and a chain whip - the freewheel doesn't stay in place like it does on a bike so you need both.

Once I'd done that I realised that my steel road bike won't fit on the trainer - the stays narrow too quickly unfortunately, so I'm using my old 26er MTB instead - not really much difference for a trainer I don't think.

The Flux is setup with Zwift and provides cadence and power (Zwift sorts out the speed part) and I use an Ant+ dongle that I got from amazon for around a tenner for the HR strap. So I just use ant+ to connect to my PC instead of bluetooth.

I'd use Zwift over Garmin connect to upload to strava personally, as you'll get the GPX trace as well, you can always delete the garmin activity if needed. That being said I don't use the garmin at all when on the trainer as the information from Zwift on screen is plenty for me.

Quite happy with the Flux so far, although I've only really done one session. I need to check out the power output against my power meter, as it felt really hard last night for the power it said I was producing - could just be my legs yesterday though!

 

[Fauj270]

Is there any alternatives to Zwift that people could recommend? I'm just looking for other options to compare it against

 

[Aleman]

BigRingVR, Rouvy, If you are into dedicated Training, Trainer Road, Sufferfest

As a last resort Bkool Especially as you don't have a Bkool Trainer

 

[theboxers]

For video rides it's gonna be hard to beat BigRingVR. They are getting a great list of flat to excrutiatingly hard rides together with very good HD video. The videos can be dl'd to run in their software offline. You can also import your own rides to run in the software from you own computer (see @Aleman's rides as evidence). No training currently, but they do support erg mode very well.

Bkool is great for variety of routes (2D, 3D, Map and Video) but the quality can be, erm, questionable. They are good for leagues and individual workouts, but the training plans suck IMO.

I'm just starting to play with Zwift. Just riding would get boring fairly quickly due to the minimal number of routes. So far the training plans are 100 times better than Bkool's, better variety within the sessions. I do hear though that it is in the racing and group rides where Zwift excells, I've not done any of either yet.

 

[Nebulous]

Collected it, signed up to Zwift and loaded it on my work iPad. Speed, power and cadence picked up, but not HR. Did the first workout. Very straightforward, not tremendously taxing.

Will need to order a dongle for my laptop.

 

[nickAKA]

Collected it, signed up to Zwift and loaded it on my work iPad. Speed, power and cadence picked up, but not HR. Did the first workout. Very straightforward, not tremendously taxing.

Will need to order a dongle for my laptop.

Is your HRM bluetooth? My ipad works fine with power/speed/cadence bluetooth trainer output plus bluetooth HRM, you're only allowed so may connections (three I think) but it treats the trainer output as one connection if your trainer comes up as controllable. All from memory this (Elite trainer) but it was pretty trivial to set up, never had any issues. Check the battery in your HRM, I find that it needs changing quite often...

Oh, and do an FTP test - you'll get the correct level of difficulty in workout mode thereafter.

 

[Nebulous]

Is your HRM bluetooth? My ipad works fine with power/speed/cadence bluetooth trainer output plus bluetooth HRM, you're only allowed so may connections (three I think) but it treats the trainer output as one connection if your trainer comes up as controllable. All from memory this (Elite trainer) but it was pretty trivial to set up, never had any issues. Check the battery in your HRM, I find that it needs changing quite often...

Oh, and do an FTP test - you'll get the correct level of difficulty in workout mode thereafter.

Thanks - no it isn't bluetooth. It's a Garmin one, which is Ant + I've bought an Ant+ dongle for my laptop now, and it has picked it up. Zwift also seems to control the flux better using Ant+ Erg mode is available, where it wasn't with bluetooth on my ipad.

I'm away from home again today, but I do need to do an ftp test. My first impression is that I'm cranking out more power than I expected I would be, but that doesn't translate into a great deal in the real world, as I'm carrying a bit of weight which impacts, whilst climbing in particular.

 

[nickAKA]

Thanks - no it isn't bluetooth. It's a Garmin one, which is Ant + I've bought an Ant+ dongle for my laptop now, and it has picked it up. Zwift also seems to control the flux better using Ant+ Erg mode is available, where it wasn't with bluetooth on my ipad.

I'm away from home again today, but I do need to do an ftp test. My first impression is that I'm cranking out more power than I expected I would be, but that doesn't translate into a great deal in the real world, as I'm carrying a bit of weight which impacts, whilst climbing in particular.

Aye, the key thing IRL is watts/KG so shedding some unnecessary timber is a real boost, especially on climbs.
Personal experience on my setup is the Bluetooth has always worked fine, I've got a dual ant/Bluetooth HRM so it's just a question of whether it's cheaper to buy an ant dongle or a new HRM. I've got both because I'm an idiot... but glad it's working for you.

 

[theboxers]

I'm away from home again today, but I do need to do an ftp test. My first impression is that I'm cranking out more power than I expected I would be, but that doesn't translate into a great deal in the real world, as I'm carrying a bit of weight which impacts, whilst climbing in particular.

I know I'm going to regret it but the HPtek / GPLama step test is scheduled for me on Sunday after a day of rest from my training plan. It'll hopefully give me a guide as where I am fitness wise for when I do attempt a proper FTP test.

https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/gp-lama/step-test-pb-hptek/

Watch the video for info on how to work out the FTP

 

[Nebulous]

Well that was short-lived. Horrible scraping, squealing sound from the turbo. Emailed Tacx, but they're on reduced hours over the holiday season. Took it back to Halfords who swapped it out very readily. I got the impression I wasn't the only one.