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?
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.
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.
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.