When my Minoura Kagura turbo trainer stopped working I was pretty annoyed as it was expensive and I believe out of warranty. Six weeks later I was taking delivery of a brand new Tacx Flux 2 from Sigma Sports after their customer care team stepped in. All I had to do was pay the extra £150.00 from the original Minoura purchase price and the Tacx was mine.

It was the best £150 I have ever spent. Let’s get this straight from the start, I am not DC RainMaker and I am therefore not going to start undergoing deep scientific tests on power accuracy and decibel output. Instead, I am simply going to tell you how I get on with it and more importantly, what I think of it as a bike trainer.

My set-up is pretty basic and hardly a pain cave. I am though quite pleased with it and especially since I have added the benefit of a 40″ TV that I bought new from E-Bay for £160 and an Apple TV device. I opted for the 4K option as I wanted the faster processor and also the benefit of knowing it would run Zwift if ever it upgraded to 4K. Both of those devices work faultlessly and have significantly enhanced the whole Zwift experience. As has the large format fan that has is now earning its money after haggling with Maplins last summer over a display model.

The trainer is much more solid. I didn’t think the Minoura was that bad but the fact it is wheel off makes a difference as the connection of the bike with the trainer is precise and firm. I really do feel that it’s rooted to the ground and it provides a lot of confidence. In addition, it’s quieter. That doesn’t really bother me to be honest as it’s in its own room. However, by being quieter it is smoother and it therefore feels much more road like. I’ve even had the confidence to put my Canyon carbon frame on the trainer and once I have got going I can honestly say I get in a zone and forget I am indoors.

As simple as it is, that is all that there is to say. It just does its job and regardless of what route I am doing on Zwift, I am never thinking about the trainer but instead how I am going to keep my speed up, get up the hill or even hold my watts. It just does everything that the manufacturer says it does and it does it well. It responds quickly to changes in the gradient and feels especially sweet over rolling undulations as I push through the inclines as I would on the road.

Is it accurate? I don’t have a clue but it feels consistent and on the basis I am not racing anyone but myself it works a treat.

If I had one criticism of it that would be the cadence sensor. I can’t use my own as there is insufficient space on my crank, but what I notice when I stop pedalling is that the cadence is not picked up for around 20 seconds and it looks slightly odd with my avatar not pedalling on the screen. The reality is that it doesn’t change my wattage or my movement in Zwift, but it is clearly not meant to be like that and despite upgrading the firmware I honestly don’t know what causes it.

The outcome of all the above is that I am spending more time on the trainer, I have started to enjoy and appreciate the routes of Zwift more and I now don’t see it as a chore to jump on to do some training. Given that’s the primary reason I bought it that makes it a winner for me.