Garmin Tacx Flow Smart Trainer

The Garmin Tacx offers a ton of bolt adaptors to fit almost all road/commuter bikes that I've found. Due to my bike having a 3/8 bolt-in axle, none of the smart trainers I have tried so far have actually fit/been verified to fit. Garmin's website offers a 3/8 bolt axle adapter that I was able to easily screw onto my bike, and it's been a dream ever since. As some have mentioned, I've noticed that the ERG mode occasionally goes wonky, but I feel the smoothness in transition when riding Zwift and the overall ease of use makes this product amazing. Highly recommend it and have started to fall in love with cycling because of it. The only gripe is that it is quite loud - it can be heard throughout the whole house, even in the garage. I don't mind it when I put my headphones in, but I'm sure other people in the house will find it annoying if they're not getting any workout out of it.

Been using the Tacx Flow Smart Trainer for a month now and I`m very surprised. It can be used with Zwift or Rouvy. It comes with a Tacx and Zwift 30 day license, The resistance when climbing a hill is amazing you really feel it. When going down a hill sometimes it makes a big buzz but it's not permament. Also It can be used without any App but you won't be able to use the resistance. Price is also great compare to similar Trainers in the market. I used to have a normal bike trainer so for Me it's definitely an upgrade and feel very happy with it,

Long term review: Buy a different trainer Final update. After my reports of problems, I received several messages from Zwift users. In sum, they said the Bluetooth connection does not work reliably on Garmin machines. At their suggestion I bought an ANT+ receiver for $20. It worked, for three sessions. I have now asked for a refund from the seller. In the weeks I have used this trainer I have discovered that Garmin trainers have a known issue with connectivity. There are dozens of message strings discussing connectivity. My final review is this: buy a different trainer. I really wanted to like this trainer but the signal won’t hold and if it won’t work, I can’t support it. ————————————————————— I have had this trainer about 6 weeks. The trainer operates fine. But I got it solely to work with Zwift. Garmin advertises Zwift compatibility. In the last six weeks I have had nothing but trouble connecting to Zwift. Right now, Zwift won’t connect at all. I have spent hours troubleshooting to no avail. Reading Zwift forums, Zwift has trouble connecting to Garmin trainers. My lesson is this: if you are buying this trainer to be controlled by Zwift app, look elsewhere. ————————————————— Assembly is easy EXCEPT the tire size issue. You have to select slot 1 or 2 depending on tire size. However the slots are connected so getting the right one is a little tricky. That’s why I deducted one star. There has to be a better way. My rear wheel skewer would not fit so very glad they provided one. Once bike installed and Tacx powered up, pairing with Zwift was effortless. Once on Zwift ride, trainer provided a good feel. Resistance on hills not overpowering but realistic. Downhill was even better. Some people have reported excessive noise but I did not find that at all. I replaced a magnetic resistance trainer and this one is much quieter. Overall, I am really happy with this purchase. Good trainer for good price. And now I actually enjoy Zwift.

I'm not a cyclist so I previously owned a dumb trainer, the Elite Qubo Fluid+, using it with Zwift by attaching a speed and cadence sensor to my Trek 7.5 fx. I really did not care for the "virtual" effect of going up hills which only made my avatar move slower as I peddled faster. FTP with the speed and cadence sensors simply did not register what I knew I was capable of. Finally found something within my budget that gives me the "feel" of the hills in Zwift and I'm absolutely loving it. I know there is a 5 to 10% variance on Power but as a novice I'm okay with that. My legs feel so very different due to the "real" effort I am putting in climbing up hills since Zwift is capable of adding resistance to my Smart Trainer to make it harder. I'm a newbie to cycling and will probably never be able to afford some of these higher end trainers so if you are looking for something that matches your budget then I highly recommend this trainer.

Where to start? Out of the box getting the "desktop app" to connect to the trainer involves figuring out how to convince win11 to communicate with it because the outdated win10 instructions are wrong for win11. Once that works, it turns out to be impossible to calibrate from windows, instead requiring a phone. Then after all that don't expect the battery on your tablet/laptop to be able to last an entire training session as the application consumes 100% of a couple cores just painting the power/cadence graphs (not video). And that is the tip of the bugfest Garmin has. I had to return it. Even as a poor cyclist, pedaling far under it's rated wattage, I managed to overheat the trainer riding the free/demo route in the tacx application. It then dropped offline until it cooled down. This is a well known problem, and one that really makes it unfit for the purpose of training. Also, expect to buy a trainer tire if using a mountain bike. It won't work otherwise, defeating the purpose of a tire on trainer.

We bought one of these trainers about a year ago to use for our road bikes and just bought a second one. We are not avid bike riders. If you want a smart trainer but don’t ride enough to justify buying an expensive model this one is a great solution. For the price, this trainer is amazing. We got tired of switching our bikes back and forth on the trainer and are super excited to now have 2 at home.

Works great overall. Love the TacX App. Can be a little noisy but nothing extreme. Resistance seems to turn on and off randomly rather than in sync with the routes on the app. I would recommend using a training mat to reduce noise if you are on a hard floor and especially in an apartment.

The trainer works great when it works - smooth transitions and adjustments. But similar to many other reviews - connectivity is constantly an issue. And if you switch between using different riding apps, it's terrible.

So far the Tacx Flow trainer has been great. Easy set up and calibration. Take note that you should warm up the trainer before doing a calibration. I tried doing it when it was cold and it would not complete. I then rode for 30 minutes and tried it again and it completed. I am using the trainer with Zwift and have found the cadence in Zwift is off. It seems to be very low and then at times is correct. I have now unpaired the cadence sensor in Zwift (which I assume is running off the trainer info) and instead paired the cadence in Zwift with my Garmin cadence sensor on the bike. This works much better now, providing accurate cadence data.

Primer compra de este tipo de producto y estoy contento con la tecnologia de entrenamiento que tiene, súper completo y fácil de usar.

Easy to set up. Super easy to get biking and not be fussing with tech stuff. Super fun to be on Zwift. Sometimes the hills seem too easy so would recommend setting hill difficulty/resistance to max or at least 80%

Excelente, funciona muy bien hasta ahorita y es bastante exigente

Sturdy trainer with good app support and Garmin integration.