Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Training on your own is boring- winter training on your own is excruciating. The pretty pictures and distracting training information the Imagic software presents helps alleviate the boredom making keeping those extra pounds off just a little easier.
The Imagic is a mag trainer with an optional steering frame which your fork rests in. A small control interface mounts to your handlebar and a cadence magnet goes on your rear stays. There's a long USB cable and a Microsoft Windows based program. Tacx offers two versions of software- the original Imagic and Fortius.
The hardware seems reliable and trouble free. There are a lot of plastic components but so far (two years) nothing has broken. The mag trainer is small and quiet; the trainer frame is relatively rugged and adjusts to mountain and road frames of various sizes. It uses a friction drive and will wear out your tires in short order. I use cheap slicks to train on. A special QR holds your bike on so you can't mount a department store special bike. The steering frame is the most fragile bit of hardware. Make SURE to tighten both of the fixing bolts as there have been several reports of the steering frame breaking if they are loose.
The original Imagic software is relatively decent. You get to ride through computer generated terrain with roads, cows, spectators, buildings and of course windmills. (Tacx is in the Netherlands). The graphics are of mid-90s video game quality, the routes useful and of good variety. The steering frame allows you to navigate in real time and really reduces the boredom threshold; making your own path helps the time fly. Any modern graphics card with 128MB or more should be able to display the program well. The Imagic's only reported trouble spot is the Windows XP USB driver. I use Microsoft Windows 2000 without problems.
The newer Fortius software provides better graphics and more features, such as easier calibration, more real-time data, better avatars, and a real-life video (RLV) option. That said, for road riders at least the Fortius software is inferior to the Imagic. The three offered courses are short (just a few km) and limited, the terrains are dominated by dirt and rock. There's no terrain, for instance, conducive to simulating a timetrial. Fortius also offers fitness tests like the Conconi but these are "ride against the data" offerings without an on-screen route presented. You can download routes others have ridden but can't ride together on-line. The courses provided are buggy and poorly implemented you cannot reasonably use the steering frame with Fortius. The software is slow, crashes frequently and presents inconsistent real-time data (progress, power, etc). Tacx hosts a forum on their website (www.tacx.nl) but seem uninterested in providing support themselves. Since the software has been out for a while now with no real improvement, I don't see Fortius as a product road riders will want to use.
The Real Life Video option allows you to ride to films of famous races and routes. The display and effort are keyed to the on-screen terrain so you really feel the pain going uphill. After some difficulty getting the software to work using the provided video decoders, I greatly enjoy riding these routes- the video quality has improved and several hundred km of course are available. You can't use the steering frame within the RLV.
I-Magic hardware also works with at least one 3rd party software vendor- Netathlon. Netathlon allows on-line riding and plenty of courses, some based on real-life race routes. Since I like the social aspect of cycling, I find myself using Netathlon more than the other options. It's fun to ride and talk smack with other riders on line.
All the software options record HRM, power, speed and distance data and provide limited data analysis. Coded HRMs won't work with the Imagic. Unfortunately, none of the offerings have seen fit to offer even a minimal level of interoperability so your data is trapped inside whatever riding software you train in. There's no between Netathlon and Imagic or Fortius or import/export to PC-Coach, Polar or any of the on-line training systems. It's just as well because while all the systems can be calibrated I wouldn't suggest your performance should be compared to real-world data. I just hand jam duration and HR zone data into PC-coach using data from a regular HRM.
In summary, the I-magic is a good, if slightly expensive alternative to traditional mag trainers. The software makes winter fitness easier to maintain. Work is needed on the software- both to improve the rides and allow the import/export of training data. The hardware works well but use one of the Fortius software alternatives if you're a road cyclist.
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