Turbo time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd rather go out in the rain. Actually even without the perverse spreadsheet action riding in the rain, cold, wind etc.,  holds more attraction than the turbo… 

...that fluid 2 has been in the same place under your desk ever since i've known you then?

 Yup!

Fluid 2. Old, but in mint condition

I would be tempted by a Tacx i-Magic (the idea of riding up the Ventoux in your front room is pretty cool, but I wouldn't want to risk the outlay for something that I 'might' use regularly. Plus it would have to be really quiet.

is what you need - bosh a bit of that and some guns n roses on, and you'll keep going. Works for me anyway.

I bought the Tacx Fortius a couple of years ago, only use it once/twice a week, but I can do a couple of hours on it. I love the mountains in the real life videos, and have Milan to St Remo for when I want something a bit flatter.

I hate standard trainers, but being able to link it up to the PC is great.

Again, thorough recommend, it is an obscene amount of money for a cycle trainer, but less that the years gym membership which I gave up.

I too have a Fortius, and love it. I have it permanently rigged up to a dedicated PC and 32" TFT which gives great realism in the RLV and VR applications.

I've traded a few RLV's with others and have a good selection,I particularly like the Alpine Classic and Ventoux vid's, and the Tour of Majorca is great for an easier mixed ride.

Last week I rode the full Ventoux vid, 4 hours of climbing and descending, no way I could tolerate that length of time on a standad turbo.

DaSy wrote:

Last week I rode the full Ventoux vid, 4 hours of climbing and descending, no way I could tolerate that length of time on a standad turbo.

<joke>That doesn't count as a metric century, you know.</joke>

I've tested the fortius (twice) and it's a pretty astonishing piece of kit, i agree. not sure i could do 4 hours on it though...

dave_atkinson wrote:

not sure i could do 4 hours on it though...

My wife was pretty puzzled by it too, it was only after 2.5 hrs that I thought that I should maybe eat something, I'd only had a bowl of soup all day up 'til that evening! I staggered upstairs sweating and moaning, raided the cupboards and disappeared back down for another 1.5 hours!

Total distance was only about 60km, 2 climbs and one descent of Ventoux was enough for any mid week turbo session!

do you just lean forward and freewheel for a bit? And do you have to make the whooshy wind sounds yourself?

The first bit is a genuine question - I can't quite see how it works...

They're a right bugger going in to corners

The Fortius has a motor unit that provides the resistance braking, but this also allows it to drive the back wheel. It can therefore actually simulate downhill, although for safety reasons it only does it for about 20 seconds before it pauses, so as not to leave it spinning the back wheel at 30mph and decapitating the cat if you passed out or something.

In reality, it is a trainer, so freewheeling for the descent is a tad pointless, so you do as you would in the real world and pedal as fast as you can to go down hill. The Fortius only really simulates around 20-25mph on a steep downhill without pedalling, so you can easily still push about 200watts on the descent. In that respect it's harder than the real thing, as you can't rest on the downhills too much.

Having just, er, made the error or paying for my entry to the Étape, I feel one of these beauties may be just the ticket. Best place to get one?