Tacx i-Magic

Price Paid:  $720.00 at cbike.com

Favorite Ride:
33 mile loop afret work

Bike Setup:
'08 Trek Madone 5.1, Easton EA90 SLX wheels, Easton EC90 SL 44 handlebars, Fizik Arione carbon/ti saddle, Garmin Edge 705

Summary:
This has been a love hate relationship. My wife bought this for my b-day and when it arrived it was missing the USB interface. I waited over a week for the part and started installing the software on my primary PC at home. (I have 6 in the house between the kids, mine and my wife's laptop.)

Anyway, I soon found out that the software is very fragile and it requires your PC to be nearly perfect operationally. I spent over 10 hours trying to get it running on my PC. I kept getting an error when launching the app.

Finally I had enough and sent an email to cbike.com stating that this was a complete piece of garbage and that I wanted to exchange it for any other brand trainer. As I was boxing it up and to ship it back my 7 year old daughter begged me to try installing the software on her PC. In less than 30 minutes I had the thing up and running as advertised.

I've used it for 3 or 4 rides since and it's pretty cool. There aren't a lot of big hills where I live so I wanted it mainly to simulate a little climbing. While it doesn't appear to be like the real quite like the real thing it is a very good workout for when I cannot get home in time for my outside ride or when weather prevents me from riding outside.

Strengths:
It provides a good workout and appears to be made well. The real life training CDs are very nice.

Weaknesses:
The software can be a nightmare to load if you 1) don't know what you're doing and 2) if your PC has any issues.

Similar Products Used:
older fan trainers

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