Tacx Fortius

notanotherhill

Any opinioins on the fortius welcome....moreso the effectiveness of it rather than the argument of whether to train indoors or not....

Its quite an expensive piece of kit so im wondering if its worth the money. Posted this on the back of someone on another thread saying they had TT'ed Ventoux on it and it got me thinking...

Im considering purchasing one so please let me know what you think

scapaslow

It would be helpful if you could define more clearly what your objectives would be in purchasing such a trainer. It's more down to how effectively you use it to match your goals rather than the effectiveness of the machine per se.

There are many users of the Fortius that will say that the times recorded on the Fortius on a famous climb like Ventoux are close to reality. I've never climbed Ventoux myself (virtually or in reality!). I'm sure you can use non VR trainers just as effectively to train for such a climb if that is your primary purpose.

I bought a Fortius last autumn and think that it is a great piece of kit for me. It makes riding the turbo enjoyable for me. I'd really hate to be without it now. It can replicate climbs up to around 12% pretty effectively which the I-magic can't. You can coast briefly on it should you want to. I use it exclusively so far for the Real Life Videos but you can use it as an ergotrainer or in virtual reality courses.

Note that it is not always plain sailing installing it on a PC as PC specs vary so much. It also works better if you have a wheel that is radially true and a turbo specific tyre otherwise slippage can be a problem. You need also pay attention to the amount of tension between roller and tyre. There is a good forum on the Tacx website to help with such issues.

inseine

Like scapaslow says it's hard to define if it's good vfm or not. If you hate using a turbo you're not going to suddenly love this and likewise, if you have the commitment you can get everything you need from a regular trainer. Saying that I really like my i-magic and I can train harder on the days when I don't feel up to it compared to a regular trainer, ie I find it good for my motivation.
BTW mines an i-magic with fortius software and I found it easy to install, reliable (the odd freeze in video mode) and fine for 10% hills with no slipage.
Happy to answer any specific questions.

DaSy

I would not be without my Fortius.

As said above, what is it you specifically want out of it above what a standard turbo of £150 can give you?

For me it means I can train on a turbo in a way that previously I could only acheive outdoors, namely I can do long endurance rides as well as short high intensity intervals. On a standard turbo anything above an hour is starting to stretch the bounds of human endurance to monotony. On the Fortius I can pedal for hours on either the Real Life Video or Virtual Reality programs without getting bored. There is also the ability to test your self on some major continental climbs to see how you will stack up when doing the real thing.

The Fortius' increased ability to replicate a steep climb above the I-Magic means that you can actually climb the likes of Ventoux in the gears you plan to ride in real life and see if you can get up it; if you do, the chances are you will do much the same in real life (weather permitting of course). My times up Ventoux were within 5 minutes of my real life times.

The Catalyst program is excellent for structured power or HR based training, and particularly good for intervals, once you have programmed the interval set, it takes care of providing the resistance needed to keep you at your target zone.

You do need a good PC, the better it is, the more you get out of the RLV and VR aspects of the trainer. The new HD RLV's require even more power, so a dual core processor, 2Gb RAM and a fast PCI-e 256mb graphics card (512Mb is better) outputting to a descent size monitor (I use a 32" TFT) makes the whole experience more enjoyable.

doyler78

There are plenty that can get along with longer sessions on turbos without the virtual reality elements. The most important thing is the quality of the ride provided by the machine, the cooling you have in place and the focus you bring to the session. I would love one of those machines however that doesn't mean I can't work effectively with what I have got

There are lots of things you can do to distract yourself. I watched a movie Sat whilst doing a Level 2 / lower Level 3 2 hour ride. That's all I had planned to do so. I would agree that just sitting there with no music, video, tv other stimulation will quickly bore the ar$e of you.

I don't agree either that you need to evaluate the cost against your objectives either. If you have the funds available and you are planning do many hours on these machines regardless of how much effort you intend to put in then I would say get the machine that appeals the most to you and which gets good reviews.

Looks like you'll be on to a winner with this one.

DaSy

Doyler78 - I agree, as I said above this was a purely subjective statement - for me.

I've known people that can sit on a standard turbo for 5 hours. I cannot do that, and if I do go over a couple of hours I am just focusing on the time to go and not on quality of training.

The Fortius encourages me to ride hard for the full duration of a ride, and I can pick a course that provides the type of workout I want; Tour of Majorca gives some nice rolling hills and a resonable climb at the end for a nice tempo ride of a couple of hours, whereas the full trip of 2 climbs and a descent of Ventoux will keep you working very hard for 3.5 hours. All the while I'm focusing on the ride and not the time.

VFM is always subjective, if the above motivational aspects of Fortius are unnecessary to the OP then there isn't much of a benefit to the Fortius, but if like me it enables you to train more effectively then there is a much better VFM.

notanotherhill

Many thanks to all on this....5 positive responses cant be bad