If you want shitty service, sotware with license fees that crashes, a company that makes and continues to market faulty products, then by all means spend your money on a tacx.

  
Good reply. What do you recommend in the $700 price range?




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Once, I was fast. But I got over it.

used computrainer

This

  
Been there done that. Looking for something else.

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Once, I was fast. But I got over it.

If you're looking for a trainer that is not going to let you down, perform great, and is quiet, buy yourself a Kurt Kinetic (+ Trainerroad if you want). Saves you $350 too.

Are the tacx trainers really that bad or is this just one biased opinion? Looking to find a trainer that reads power and the Tacx Flow T2200 seems like a good idea.

no, they're that bad.

they sound good on paper, enabled by the fact that the Computrainer never ever updated, but now that we have a ton of other options it's not worth putting up with crap hardware supported by crap software supported by crap customer service.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

What would you advise then for a trainer that reads power?

there's a lot of options now.

1. Kurt Kinetic w/ ANT+ speed/cadence and Virtual Power thru Trainer Road.
2. KK or Cyclops trainers that have native power.
3. Cheap-ass trainer or rollers and a used Powertap or SRM
4. KICKR
5. etc.

I think the virtual power KK (or any fluid trainer) option is the cheapest. KICKR will set you back $1000.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Many friends with Kickrs absolutely LOVE them. Of course, shelling out a grand for a trainer is kind of crazy, but if it's in your budget ...

Unfortunately still a college student so a grand on a trainer is probably out of the question. Even the tacx were probably going to be too expensive I just wanted to learn more about the options.

From what I have seen(haven't looked that in-depth into it) a trainer that reads power is generally cheaper than a power meter and having winter for 6-7 months out of the year I figured it would be the smarter buy.

I have been wrong once or twice before though.

The tacx fortius was sold for at least 5 years in the US and Canada with TACX knowing full well that there were issues in the power unit that made it choppy and not function properly in several ways. This was not fixed or advertised to potential buyers, the only way you found out was AFTER you bought it and got around to riding some hills on it. Then when you went online and checked the user forum, you see that OH yeah, everybody has this problem, they just didn't tell you.

When the fix was developed, it cost $225 to get it and you had 4 months to call them ans ask for it no matter when you bought it.

The tacx VR upgrade was a controller that you could use to make your flow trainer compatible with the virtual reality software. It was sold for years and years. That VR upgrade reported power values that were 40%! over the actual power output. This was also well known, no fix was EVER produced. Calls or emails to tacx asking about the problem were not answered, the only way to get information was the user forum. And that information was from other users.

Tacx Trainer Software 1.0 and 2.0 included the ability to ride along a gps course in google earth. A kinda nice feature. If you upgraded to version 2.5 I think it was, you LOST that ability. The upgrade actually took a feature OUT of the software.

This isn't a company you want to give your money to.

As for what to use, having owned many different kinds, I'd go with the cheapest magnetic trainer from performance bike and perfpro or trainerroad virtual power.

i have been very happy with both a Wahoo Kickr for a stationary trainer and a set of the e-motion rollers. You could use the latter and do "virtual power" using trainer road, which is close enough for government work in the winter, it's a great setup

A good Wahoo Kickr is worth the $1k it costs. I know, it's steep for a college student, but it is a worthy investment.

Honestly, if you can't fork up for a Kickr, I'd just get the Kurt Kinectic and a Garmin Speed/cadence sensor and use virtualpower for indoor training. It's just as good qualitywise as the Kickr or CT, just takes more mental effort to keep up the target power.

I own a Kickr, and while I love it and now use it exclusively, there are times where I put it on non-erg mode where it mimics a fluid trainer, so I can have an open-ended effort. I do sufferfest revolver in this mode, so I can really blast myself and exceed the power targets if I'm having a good day.

The iVortex would probably be considered Tacx's entry level, ANT+, wireless VR trainer which has an ~1.8kg flywheel to simulate inertia and can be used in 'stand-alone' mode with the battery powered handlebar controller or connected with Tacx Trainer Software via an ANT+ USB2 Antenna. The newer Vortex Smart adds Bluetooth capability so it can be used with the free Tacx Cycling App for Android or iOS devices and the flywheel in the trainers motorbrake has been replaced by magnets to simulate inertia. Owners either love or hate the magnets, which depending on what your used to might be a radical change as when you stop pedaling, the rear wheel stops much more quickly than with flywheel based trainers. The advantage of the SMART based trainers, well they are ANT+ and can be paired like a poewrmeter and combined speed/cadence sensor with Garmin and simular ANT+ compatible cycling/gps computers. The SMART based trainers are also the way forward as Tacx has committed to opening the platform so that the trainers can be used with/controlled by something other than the Tacx Trainer Software. Of course those of us who have remained in the 'Tacx' community for a long enough time will readily admit that Tacx (a very small, family owned business) has a long history of making new product announcements at Eurobike/Interbike which often times is does not become available outside the BETA test group for as much as 6-8 months later.

Wife and I have several Tacx Trainers to include a 2006 vintage Fortius that was subject to the 'powerback' recall previously mentioned as well as a 'legacy' Bushido T1980 which has a 2.2Kg flywheel. In Dember I was wanting to update and was considering Kickrs until I started reading about the issues with power discrepancies when training with an external powermeter so I opted to stay with Tacx and acquired both an iGenius and Bushido SMART to replace the Fortius and Bushido. Unfortunately I am pretty sure the motorbrake of our 2-hour old iGenius was knackered out of the box and needs to be warrantied as it does all kinds of crazy stuff and ride feel is nothing like our original Fortius or Bushido. As for the Bushido Smart, well I am used to the flywheel effect of our original Bushido, so I am not liking the ebb and flow effect of the SMART version which when pedaling under load does not feel fluid the way the original Bushido does. An issue that is exacerbated when cadence drops below 85-90 rpm and was the tipping point that le me to search the net to find/order another of the original Bushido (T1981) which is no longer manufactured and the US distributor has long since sold out. So at this point, I will probably return the 2-week old Bushido SMART and call the distributor to see if I we get a warranty replacement for the motorbrake of the iGenius.

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¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Kickr is the best purchase I've made... I love it!

100% agree^^^^^^

You would do much better with simpler thing like Kurt Kinetic or if you can afford it and depending on your preferences get KICKR or Computrainer. All 3 are supported by virtually any cycling software in existence (ours included) very sturdy and are built to last.

I was look at Tacx as well but have read so much bad stuff that I've decided against them. Going to stick with my fluid trainer/Powertap combo for now.

Also - a used Powertap would be a great purchase even if you're inside for as long as you say.

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I ride:
Cervelo - P-Series/R3
GT - Sensor Carbon Expert

Supporters - Flo Cycling, Mount Bikes

Hmm. As the owner of a Tacx iGenius, I say they are great. When they work. Which they do. Mostly. But when they don't they are a giant pita.

Where to start?

Hardware: the iGenius simulates climbing and descending. It supposedly pushes power back into the national grid. When it works it is very good. It is probably a bit easier riding a 10% Tacx gradient than a 10% real life gradient, but for both you will be in the small ring and the blunt end of the cassette. Downhill tops out at about 55-56 kmh no matter how steep or how hard you pedal. If you stop pedalling on a downhill, you will eventually come to a simulated halt, but as long as you turn the pedals over you get quite a bit of help.

I've had the brake unit fail. Returned to Holland and then back to me, fixed in 5-6 days. Postage paid by Tacx both ways. I was quite impressed.

Software. The software is generally speaking shit. Beta testing via the public, stupid licensing, crashing, it's all true. But in fits and starts. Mine was running perfectly, then I fell for the "update" button. It went to shit. Now it's been updated again and it is running very solidly.

It produces power numbers which I guess are back calculated/estimated. They are usually with 5-10w of my Quarqs - close enough to tell me that one of the Quarqs needed a recalibration recently.

The Tacx real life videos (RLV) are pretty cool, except for the stupid licensing codes you need to enter (only once, but even so). But this morning for example I rode up the col du Galibier, and in the week I was doing the Madeleine and Ventoux (going over the top and feeling the brake unit start to work for you on the downhill is pretty cool, tbh).

Riding a route on google earth needs a GE licence (spotting a theme?) for �30 pa. You get a helicopter shot or a rider's eye/street view (don't bother - it's street view stills rather than an animation). This is pretty useful for riding a specific course - eg I trained for IMC on a google earth version of the route which predicted my time on the day within 6%. GE routes do show some odd spikes - for example I have a route in Mallorca along the back of the beach. Pancake flat in real life and on the .gpx file. Except the .gpx file thinks that a small roundabout has a 12% up and down ramp in the space of 20 metres.

Setup. Fussy. Better than it used to be, and the best tip I have had is to use a USB extension lead to get the dongle as close as possible to the brake unit. No more dropouts (which had been a problem - quite a big one).

Overall: a bit love/hate, but in balance it gets a thumbs up. It's the third turbo I've had and the only one I've kept because it doesn't bore the living shit out of me. Being able to use it to train for a specific event is useful, and I think without that facility I would have binned it long ago (as much because then it would have been like every other shitty turbo in the world *and* have it's special brand of flakiness).

Amen!

-Robert

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"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank

I've been riding a tacx flow for 8 years now. Seems bullet-proof. Absolutely no problems.

You mad bro?

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