Tacx VR Turbo Trainer

Tjgoodhew

Anyone got one ?

Are they any good?

I love the concept of them but i have a feeling that the reality is not actually as straightforward as the idea.

And at three time the price of a standard trainer is it worth the extra money ?

diamonddog

IMO the biggest part of the price difference is for the electronics, for me it is just something else to go wrong but some people will love em'.

greasedscotsman

Yes, I got one at the beginning of the year. I hate using a regular trainer, found them incredibly boring to use. But the VR trainer is actually quite good fun. Is it a gimmick? Maybe, but it I use it whereas with a regular trainer, I hardly ever did.

StillGoing

Yes I have the Tacx i-Flow VR trainer with the advanced software. It really is an excellent bit of kit limited only by the power of your PC. If your graphics card isn't up to much, it will affect the running of the device on screen. It's important that you download all the software upgrades as each one has something to improve the running. With the advanced software you can create routes anywhere in the world using Google earth or download your own rides to do them on the turbo and create your own training sessions. The device recognises the changes in gradient applying the electric brake to simulate climbing. The best parts for me are the various catalyst programs that give you things like pyramid intervals etc. There's similar kit out there that do the same thing and if you do consider buying a Tacx, remember they don't work with Apple operating systems but will work with parallels whatever that means? Other systems will work with Apple products.