Tacx Fortius Multiplayer

Price Paid:  $1000.00

Bike Setup:
Cervelo Soloist carbon, DurAce groupset.

Summary:
This is a great tool to train with. Takes a boring basement workout to a completely new level. You still cannot ride it forever for obvious reasons (you are still in the basement, don't forget that) but the power based workouts make you a definitely better cyclist. Software has some flaws, but what software is perfect. My system seems to be immune to the problems other people talk about. It probably boils down to hardware installed on a particular computer. My computer is practically dedicated to Tacx program only, so that might be the key here.

Strengths:
Entertaining, makes your training much more structured and measurable.

Weaknesses:
Sometimes software glitches prevent from enjoying the program to the fullest. Especially new release Trainer software is not as great as previously thought.

Price Paid:  $900.00 at Gearlink

Favorite Ride:
Tropical Trail, FL

Bike Setup:
Litespeed Arenburg with Campy Chorus

Summary:
I was one of the early adopters for the Fortius. Initially the software was quite buggy for the virtual reality part(would crash frequently causing a reboot). The Real life video software was more robust. Seems like they've got it running pretty well at this point after multiple revisions. I bought it with the steering and I would highly recommend that to anyone. It keeps you very engaged when you are racing with other riders and need to avoid them and stay on the road (or risk crashing). It is actually fairly easy for me to get my heart rate into up to typical real riding levels when I am racing against other real or virtual riders. With a standard trainer I need to kill myself to get a comparable heart rate. The graphics are decent, though my computer sometimes has trouble maintaining a good frame rate when there is a lot of activity on the screen. That causes the video to get jerky. The software tracks power, heart rate, speed, so you can compare your results on the same course. The documentation is pretty sparse. I used the real life videos in a small screen for months before I realized you could blow it up to full screen (d'oh). The trainer adjusts the motor brake to match the grade of the road or trail, it even spins the wheel a little as you start down hill, to make things more realistic.

Strengths:
Makes using your trainer a lot more interesting. Can save all your training data to track your progress. Can also race on line against other cyclists (though this costs extra). There is a good variety of courses available to keep from getting bored.

Weaknesses:
Having to hook my laptop up and load the program to train is an additional disincentive to getting on the trainer. Loading in a new course is slow. Need a pretty fast PC or the frame rate can drop to 9 FPS which makes the animation very jerky. Kind of expensive but considering I drop $150 every time I change my cassette...

Similar Products Used:
Minoura Mag trainer

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
This trainer will entertain you to point you actually forget you are on a trainer. The Real life videos are awesome and so is the online racing.