your one stop shop for all things turbo trainer related.
specialising in tacx neo repair and servicing, but experienced in all turbo trainers, as well as anything cycle electronic related
02/07/2026
And a favour for a friend to finish the evening. A mercedes Vito automatic gearbox shift thingy. Uses hall effect sensors and transistors to tell the ECU what gear you've selected. Wasn't picking up gear change into reverse and sending the ECU crazy. Turns out a 2p transistor really can kill a £15000 car!
30/06/2026
While I'm here, PSA. If you do ever adjust your direto belt to achieve the offset you need, you'll need to release the lower pinch bolt (sticking out of the side of the frame in this photo). When you retighten it, only nip it up loosely! If you crank on it, you'll break the frame of the direto. I've seen the aftermath.
A quick tip which will save a load of headaches!
30/06/2026
A few on the bench today. Most interesting was a direto. Came in for resistance issues. All sorted, however on reassembly the main bearing was a bit grumbly. Not part of the job, and I haven't touched them, but I can't give it back like that. So, whip it all apart, replace the noisy bearing and now it's silky smooth for the customer.
28/06/2026
You asked for it....
A tricky one again! I power neo. Usually these are a straightforward job, but sometimes they can bite you. This was one. I've seen it before and know it spells pain!
48v shorted to 3.3v rail and ground. Causes a charred PCB. Only one thing for it. Grind out all the charring, as carbon is conductive. Then rebuild the board.
This one took,
3.3v reg
Bluetooth chip
Main processor
Buffer chip
Zeners
And a super cap.
This work takes hours to identify and replace components. That's why I offer fixed price repair. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but the customer knows what they're paying ahead of time, with the added knowledge that if I can't fix it, they pay nothing.
Now the summer is here it's a great time to book in for servicing, before the autumn rush
New resolution. Post more! I try not to spam your feeds with the same repairs, but life in the workshop continues! Anyway, today, something genuinely interesting (for me, but I am a bit of a geek, so.....)
Zwifthub in for an age old problem. I connected my neo power supply to my (insert other trainer brand here) and now it doesn't work.
The connector on the neo adaptor is the most popular DC barrel jack. It'll fit loads of things. Doesn't mean it should!
Luckily I have had a zwifthub in for a while just in case. Today was it's day to shine.
I've built a standard workflow with neos and kickrs of working back from the Bluetooth chip and replacing power components which have released the magic smoke. Often the Bluetooth chip will also have given up it's electrical pixies to the cause. I can replace them. It's a bit fiddly, but doable. The issue is they're filled with firmware to make the chip run. On neos and kickrs I hold databases of firmware dumps I can use. No problem. On the zwifthub it's a bit trickier. The Bluetooth chip itself has copy protection built in. Wahoo and tacx decided not to implement it (kudos). Zwift, well they did. It means I cannot read the firmware from the chip, so I can't burn a new one, so game over.....or is it?
So much cleverer people than me identified that when the chip "boots" it tells itself that copy protection is on, and from that point onwards it refuses to talk to firmware dumpers. These clever people have worked out that one can interrupt the power to the chip just long enough for it to not read that one instruction. This allows us to read the flash and repair our blown chip.
Here's the kit in action... 15 seconds from locked, to unlocked. Each flash of the led is another attempt to get the chip to miss that one instruction. There are some very clever people out there!!
08/12/2025
Prior repair attempt. It's not usually hard to spot. Between this, and incorrect components used, this board was never going to work.
I've seen a few of these recently, some from professional electronics repair companies. Choose your repair person carefully.