Faulty Tacx Vortex Smart or design flaw?

sigcima

Evening all. I am posting here really disappointed as my Tacx Vortex Smart seems to be broken and I wondered whether anyone else has experienced the same issue. I only bought it in November and as it was wrapped under the tree for me over Xmas I only unboxed it last week!

Basically I had it running fine last week but ordered a spare back wheel (Shimano RS010) along with the tacx trainer tyre in order to better preserve tyre life on my standard tyre. At standard road size the wheel and tyre are the correct size for the bike and unit. When I switched to the new wheel / tyre combo I fitted it to the trainer, closed the rear tension clamp onto the tyre and proceeded to warm up the tyre. I saw this advised on a youtube vid that a 5 minute warm up for the tyre is a good way to ensure consistent accurate calibration via the tacx app. Anyway the app said the roller fit was too loose, so I unscrewed the tension adjuster a little which is how the unit is adjusted closer to the tyre, and then low and behold the adjuster went completely loose and the roller unit swiveled to the floor. It transpires that in unwinding the adjuster wheel to it's apparent fullest extent the bolt had reached the end of it's thread with the nut inside the rear of the unit and come completely detached. I managed to get the bolt attached to the nut again but on a second attempt at calibration the same thing happened. It seems to me the bolt just isn't long enough! I say this as on inspection looking at how the tightening/loosening mechanism works I can't see how there is any other cause for this malfunction.

I have relayed all this to wiggle and I guess I am willing to try a replacement unit. I will report back the outcome as if this really is a design flaw I would warn anyone else off buying this product. In the meantime my well intentioned new year winter training is up the swanny!

bobbydazzla

I had exactly the same experience, it's a design flaw I think as it happened to me with both a Vortex and a Flow, they both use the same clamp mechanism.

Managed to stop it happening and get the correct calibration by changing to one of the other position settings, the one in the manual that was recommended for road bikes didn't work for my wheel & tyre combination. Might be because I had wide rims and 25mm tyre.

sigcima

Thanks Bobby. That's an interesting point regarding the smaller wheel setting which I suppose puts the starting point of the unit closer to the wheel before adjustment. As this is just a notch to tilt the unit closer I presume that has no adverse effect on the calibration and speed readings etc? ie. running a road wheel on a 26 inch MTB setting?

Certainly this fault is something for potential buyers to be aware of. Also I wonder whether it could be fixed by the manufacturer shipping units with a longer bolt.
Cheers

markhewitt1978

It's a very common issue with Tacx wheel on trainers - not being able to cablibrate, and it's generally solved by moving the brake unit to another notch. As long as it works and calibrates there's no issue with having it in the different position.

slowbike

As much as I rate the Tacx turbos, I'm pleased I went for the BKool trainer - no calibration required as the wheel just pivots onto the fixed roller and uses your weight to keep it under pressure.

sigcima

Thanks all for the replies. Wiggle came back to me and asked me to take photo's, but having got the bolt back on and applied the workaround of moving to the 26 inch wheel notch I did not want to detach the bolt again.

I've informed them that I have applied the workaround highlighted on here and that I will keep a eye on it.

Whilst the workaround seems to work I would note that I can now only just get the back wheel onto the skewer holders when attaching it to the frame. ie the wheel only just fits on in the 26 inch setting as the roller is already touching the tyre with little further tightening required to calibrate. Well at least the bolt cannot come loose in that position!

Something to be mindful of potential Tacx Vortex buyers!

bobbydazzla

I've had no issues since I put my Vortex in the other setting, brake is decent enough, it calibrates and power numbers are consistent.

However I had to return 2x Flow's because when the screw popped out it threaded. Fortunately it was from a local Halfords so it was easy to return and when the 2nd one broke they gave me my money back.

The Vortex is good but with hindsight I should have just gone all in for a Neo.

markhewitt1978

bobbydazzla wrote:

The Vortex is good but with hindsight I should have just gone all in for a Neo. At the time it seemed crazy to spend a grand on a turbo but given that I'm riding Zwift most days it would have been worth the extra cash and I'll probably end up upgrading anyway....

It's a helluva lot to be spending, but on the other hand it's a damn fine unit and if you compare it to how much you spend on a bike...

bobbydazzla

I had a grand put aside for a new winter bike but never bought one as thanks to Zwift I've only ridden indoors this winter !

So the money's there, but I just need to convince myself to spend it and also that it's worth stepping up from the Vortex, which actually does a decent enough job.

markhewitt1978

bobbydazzla wrote:

I had a grand put aside for a new winter bike but never bought one as thanks to Zwift I've only ridden indoors this winter !

So the money's there, but I just need to convince myself to spend it and also that it's worth stepping up from the Vortex.

Well you don't need my permission, but it is awesome, so

bobbydazzla

markhewitt1978 wrote:

bobbydazzla wrote:

I had a grand put aside for a new winter bike but never bought one as thanks to Zwift I've only ridden indoors this winter !

So the money's there, but I just need to convince myself to spend it and also that it's worth stepping up from the Vortex.

Well you don't need my permission, but it is awesome, so

Am keeping an eye out for discount codes or price drops. The shortage of stock seems to be keeping the prices at a steady level, but a lot of retailers show end of Jan for re-stocks which might trigger some downwards movement on price

markhewitt1978

Well if you can wait until the height of summer then you're most likely to get a good deal then.

bobbydazzla

Yeah, there's no rush so I can hold out and see if I spot a deal I'm happy with. The Vortex is fine, but there's always that little voice saying "wouldn't this be even better on a Neo"