Tacx Fortius/I-Magic experience?

[Bob De Jonge]

Has anyone had experience using the Tacx Fortius or I-Magic?
good winter training?
useful?
durable?
realistic?
is the video aspect useful(where you ride actual recorded courses
relative to the speed/power you're riding)?
Do you find yourself riding longer than you would normally ride on
rollers/trainer?
Does the novelty wear off?

Any comments very welcome.
Thanks,
Bob

 

[[email protected]]

I've got one- the Fortius software and an I-magic trainer. The Fortius
software is very immature- I wouldn't recommend it at the moment
although both the Imagic and fitcentric (netathlon) software which runs
on the Imagic hardware both are quite good. Don't expect any level of
support from Tacx but fitcentric provides pretty good support and hosts
an on-line forum for riding with others. There's also the Real Life
Video which is problematic and difficult to configure but excellent if
you can get it going. It is much more enjoyable than just spinning on a
trainer and with netathlon in particular you can go on line and ride
with others. I don't find the novelty wearing off- it really takes the
edge off training. As far as training, the software makes it easy to do
specific workouts and time trials in a 100% repeatable environment.

 

[[email protected]]

I've got one- the Fortius software and an I-magic trainer. The Fortius
software is very immature- I wouldn't recommend it at the moment
although both the Imagic and fitcentric (netathlon) software which runs
on the Imagic hardware both are quite good. Don't expect any level of
support from Tacx but fitcentric provides pretty good support and hosts
an on-line forum for riding with others. There's also the Real Life
Video which is problematic and difficult to configure but excellent if
you can get it going. It is much more enjoyable than just spinning on a
trainer and with netathlon in particular you can go on line and ride
with others. I don't find the novelty wearing off- it really takes the
edge off training. As far as training, the software makes it easy to do
specific workouts and time trials in a 100% repeatable environment.

 

[[email protected]]

I've got one- the Fortius software and an I-magic trainer. The Fortius
software is very immature- I wouldn't recommend it at the moment
although both the Imagic and fitcentric (netathlon) software which runs
on the Imagic hardware both are quite good. Don't expect any level of
support from Tacx but fitcentric provides pretty good support and hosts
an on-line forum for riding with others. There's also the Real Life
Video which is problematic and difficult to configure but excellent if
you can get it going. It is much more enjoyable than just spinning on a
trainer and with netathlon in particular you can go on line and ride
with others. I don't find the novelty wearing off- it really takes the
edge off training. As far as training, the software makes it easy to do
specific workouts and time trials in a 100% repeatable environment.