Tacx or Cycleops Indoor Trainer

[Riamich]

Any reviews on mentioned IDT's

Are rollers better then fixed idt

Need an IDT for those seriously cold days. So what to buy, tacx or Cycleops

[petatodd]

I know nothing about Cycleops. I bought a Tacx Fortius years ago and it has given me great service. The Fortius is 2 or 3 generations back, the current Genesis looks fantastic (not brought in by CoolHeat yet) and the software is now brilliant. I'm on v3.10 of Tacx Trainer Software, version 4 has just been released in Europe but is not here yet. Genesis is wireless, except for the power cord, and uses ANT+ so all the Garmin belts and sensors work.

 

The software includes:

Virtual Reality, you ride tracks against virtual partners needing to use gearing and steering.

Real Life video, purchase all the best cycling routes/races/climbs and ride seeing the scenery and feeling the slope.

Real Life Training, ride any route that you have the GPS routing and see it on Google Earth or street view.

Catalyst, spinning programmes incl watts and slope.

Analyst

Web based racing (extra fee) where you can race any route against anyone world wide, live.

 

Every workout/session gives you watts, heart rate, cadence, speed, calories and includes some nice graphics.

 

The software described above requires a pretty smart PC to run properly, it doesn't work consistently on anything less than a dual core 2.6ghz processor with 512MB of graphics card. Budget PC won't work. I have found it works best to have a dedicated PC.

 

I find the system works incredibly well but to get the best out of it you will have to fiddle with it occasionally. I've had to repair a noisy roller with epoxy which is a common repair on the Fortius. Also the heart rate signal does suffer from electrical interference which can be annoying.

 

But overall, the Tacx has done more for my fitness and strength than any other training I have tried.

 

Final tip: buy in Europe, there are deals and prices are significantly cheaper than in SA.

[singletrek]

We use the Tacx i-Magic. Great product and the support from Coolheat is also ok.