It’s Eurobike this week, which means big names from across the bike industry have descended on Germany to display new and exciting tech, the latest release to catch our eye this gradient simulator for home training by Garmin and Tacx.
The Tacx Alpine is now available to buy from Garmin’s website, priced at £929.99, the brand saying it will be ready to ship in five to eight weeks and certainly in time for the end of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere when thoughts start turning towards the turbo trainer for many.
2025 Eurobike: Garmin Tacx Alpine (credit: Rebecca Bland)
It works via a “dynamic fork mount” that attaches to the front of your bike and then replicates gradients up to 25 per cent and down to -10 per cent as you train, to give your indoor sessions a more realistic feel and “bring your climb inside”, as the Garmin marketing folks put it.
Garmin says it works exclusively with its £1,745 Tacx NEO 3M and £1,200 2T smart trainers so, with the additional £929.99 spend on the Alpine add-on, you’re looking at an indoor-training set-up that jumps above the £2,000 mark.
2025 Eurobike: Garmin Tacx Alpine (credit: Rebecca Bland)
Does the idea of an indoor gradient simulator sound rather familiar? That’s because Wahoo and Elite to name but two have had similar products out for a number of years now, Wahoo’s Kickr Climb arguably stealing the show at Eurobike way back in 2018. We graded that a 6/10 in December of the same year, and it’s almost half the price of Garmin’s creation at £529.99. Elite’s Rizer has an RRP of £824.99, so it goes without saying, the Alpine will have to seriously impress in its road.cc review to justify the price tag.
It does go beyond the Kickr Climb and Elite Rizer’s 20 per cent limit, allowing you to savage your legs on 25 per cent gradients if you so please, while Garmin is also keen to highlight the “interactive steering” and “more natural riding position” which come from its products’ dynamic fork mount and built-in motion base.
> Indoor cycling — a complete guide
If you want to turn off automatic gradients, or would rather set the device to a specific incline for a training session, then you can do that too, via the buttons seen being pressed here by a Garmin employee at Eurobike.
The Alpine automatically responds to virtual grade changes and users can integrate it to their Tacx training app too, as well as Zwift and other popular apps such as Rouvy and MyWhoosh. That automatic gradient is apparently accurate to within 0.1 per cent. Garmin also says users will currently get a Tacx Training app Premium HD subscription voucher with their purchase.
“We are excited to add the Tacx Alpine to our lineup of premium training tools to create an ultimate indoor cycling experience unlike any other,” Susan Lyman, Garmin’s vice president of consumer sales and marketing said.
2025 Tacx Alpine (credit: Garmin)
“This new gradient simulator helps bring real elevation changes to life and complements the motion of our powerful NEO 2T and 3M smart trainers to add a whole new level of immersion and realism to any ride. And when riding life-like videos from some of the most beautiful routes and locations in the world through the Tacx Training™ App, the full Tacx suite makes cyclists feel like they’re actually there.”
We’ll have a round-up of more of the most eye-catching tech we’ve spotted at Eurobike up on the website over the weekend, but it’s already been a bumper week. Yesterday, we heard how the inventors of a £600 reusable battery-powered airbag for cyclists want to see the safety systems used by WorldTour professionals.
Elsewhere, Giant and Liv launched a new Seek road bikes for kids — and leaked a potential unreleased Microshift electronic groupset in the process, while Bosch has launched a new Performance Line PX mid motor.