Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Tacx Bushido review

Indoor training seems to become increasingly popular as our Northern winters get more severe.
We've once again had a challenging winter with plenty of snow and I've had plantar fasciitis for four months now (since the first snow fell in November), so I've also resorted to Taxc Bushido cycling ergometer.



Pluses:
+ 100% wireless.
+ Relatively quiet compared to other trainers, doesn't disturb too much.
+ Clever cadence calculator that works without a sensor by measuring the variation of power.

Minuses:
- Expensive, you can get fairly good (but with noise and wires) trainers probably for half the price.
- Badly designed, buggy software that crashes often. (I write down my training data whenever I take a pause, because chances are the data is gone when I resume training.)
- Advanced VR functions as well as firmware updates would require a T1990 Upgrade package with Tacx Trainer 3.0 Software and USB ANT Stick (which I don't have) as well as a PC running Windows (which I don't have either, and I am also reluctant to install Windows on my Mac).
- The manual leaves room for improvement (you should check out Tacx forum for more information).



I must admit Bushido gets the job done effectively. It's easy to move around and use anywhere you like without worrying about the power supply and stuff like that.

I really don't see many alternatives out there that would suit me as well as Bushido. I think Bushido is a good choice for an amateur triathletes and recreational cyclists who for some reason don't want to to train outside all the time.

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