Tacx Flow Smart Turbo Trainer Review

Turbo training has become a popular part of cycling training and working up a sweat from indoors. Tacx is one of the turbo training market leaders, offering a range of smart devices for all price budgets.

The Dutch company prides itself on its involvement in cycling and, when riders needed to train effectively during the winter months, they started making indoor bike trainers. Equally, when greater efficiencies were required in training, they started making smart bike trainers.

In 2019, Garmin Ltd. acquired Tacx Onroerend en Roerend Goed B.V (“Tacx”), and today the company continues to design and create leading cycling products, as well as partner with a number of World Tour, Pro-continental, Continental, and Women cycling teams, as well as the UCI.

The Tacx Flow Smart Turbo Trainer

The Tacx Flow Smart is at the cheaper end of the Tacx Smart trainer range. In fact, it’s one of the least expensive truly smart trainers available on the market.

At €299,00, it comes with full smart trainer connectivity, meaning it can control inclines and resistance and connect with popular virtual cycling apps such as Zwift. With far more expensive models in the Tacx range, and other manufacturer range’s, it might not get the credit it deserves.

Clearly, you won’t get the same level of accuracy and functionality as a turbo trainer four times its price. But, for most people, it’s a really good starter option.

It’s very light for a smart trainer, at 20lbs. And it also comes pretty much ready to ride, which is unusual for top-end smart trainers.

The Tacx Flow Smart comes with the turbo trainer and a handy front wheel riser block. The package includes a frame, the resistance unit, a front-wheel riser block, a rear-wheel trainer skewer, a power cord and manual.

One of the best things about this turbo trainer is the setup is very simple – which isn’t the case for some of the top-end options. Once you’ve set it up and locked your bike into place, get the Tacx Utility app.

This is what you need to do the calibrations (literally press the calibration and then pedal to the speed it says). Doing this gets the setup right. The trainer is nice and compact and folds up pretty neatly – some turbo trainers are incredibly clunky.

The Flow Smart sends data on ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart, as well as enabling interactive resistance control across ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart.

Once you are paired to an app, it’s as simple as starting pedaling. As it’s a smart trainer, it will automatically adjust the resistance (based on simulation mode which mirrors an outdoor incline or ERG mode which is based on a set power level).

The max incline for the Flow Smart is 6% gradient, max power is 800 watt, and accuracy is <5%. For context, more expensive trainers can go up to around 15%-25% gradient, so it’s low, but it’s enough for most cyclists.

The trainer might not be the best fit for serious cyclists looking for premium performance, but it performs admirably for its price point. I think it suits first time turbo trainers or beginner cyclists best, but has enough functionality for keen cyclists too. Especially for the price.

The biggest stumbling block is the sound. It’s not quiet. Some of the more expensive turbo trainers, the Tacx NEO, for example, are silent when in use.

The Flow Smart is pretty loud with the wheel against the roller.

The rest of the Tacx range

Tacx has a wide range of smart trainers, for all budgets. While the Flow Smart sits at the lower end, there are a number of more expensive and truly immerse indoor trainers. All of them connect to popular training apps like Zwift, TrainerRoad and the Tacx software.

And with automatically controlled resistance, they’ll adjust resistance according to the specific workout, GPS course, or virtual world (Zwift). Every model tracks speed, power and cadence.

At the very top end is the NEO 2T Smart, which comes with a hefty price tag but unrivaled performance. It can go up to 25% gradient, 2200 watts of power and has a <1% accuracy.

It’s also not ‘wheel-on’ so is pretty silent and with improved stillness and a more realistic road feel. The Flux 2 Smart then goes up to 16% gradient, 2000 watts of power and <2.5% accuracy.

At the bottom end of the range, below the Flow Smart, is the Satori Smart turbo trainer. The main difference being the Satori Smart isn’t fully interactive and doesn’t have the same level of automatic adjustments. You can see the full smart range here.

If you are new to cycling and simply want a budget turbo trainer for indoor training, without the hefty cost, then Tacx does also have a well-respected basic trainer range.

They do the job for an effective and efficient workout, and are controlled by a resistance lever (rather than automatically) with 10 available resistance positions.

The biggest benefit is the ease of set up; once your bike is attached, you can simply start riding! See the basic turbo trainer range here.

Conclusion

For its price, Tacx Flow is a very good turbo trainer option. It offers all the features for fully interactive indoor cycling and connects simply to most training apps.

Chris Smith

Founder of Vivi Nation, the cycling, running and active living brand. Chris is a sports enthusiast, occasional triathlete and experienced cyclist, having led multiple cycle tours across Europe.