Rollers never tried

I have a Cycleops Fluid trainer I like a lot. Good company had a wind trainer go bad they sent me a new unit. The Fluid is even better. My question is rollers? I have never tried them and basically looking for workout when cycling indoors. Miles inside never count but actually I find the trainer can benefit your road riding if done correctly. I generally can get a higher heart rate and more intense work out in less time.

So what about rollers. They seem cheap enough but what I hear is basically you are going full out spinning like a madman. Any real benefit to them and would they be less intense than a regular trainer.
Deacon mark

On 1/1/2021 1:42 PM, Mark Cleary wrote:
I have a Cycleops Fluid trainer I like a lot. Good company had a wind trainer go bad they sent me a new unit. The Fluid is even better. My question is rollers? I have never tried them and basically looking for workout when cycling indoors. Miles inside never count but actually I find the trainer can benefit your road riding if done correctly. I generally can get a higher heart rate and more intense work out in less time.

So what about rollers. They seem cheap enough but what I hear is basically you are going full out spinning like a madman. Any real benefit to them and would they be less intense than a regular trainer.
Deacon mark

You're going to push lower wattage on rollers and mostly get a spinning
exercise unless they have some sort of resistance unit. Not that
spinning's a bad thing. Smooth cadence and good balance are valuable,
but the latter doesn't seem to be a thing one forgets.

I've owned three sets of rollers, the middle one was a Kreitler w/ their
"headwind" unit - rollers power a blower. That gave good resistance.
I've also had at least three stationary trainers before breaking down
and getting a smart trainer.

The problem for me with all trainers is boredom. After 30 min, all I
could focus on was how much my butt hurt. To be clear, it was lack of
distraction, not that my butt was really hurting much. Bike races on a
TV in front of me really didn't make a difference, except when the
peloton turned a corner and I reflexively steered off the rollers.

Then I got a prehistoric semi-smart (wired) trainer on Ebay and saw what
a difference it made that resistance varied with the visual terrain (and
pedaling harder made me top a hill sooner). This was revelatory.

After a year or two with that I bit the bullet and got a top-end smart
trainer (and later a rocker plate) and have used it for 4 years with
Zwift. Whereas 30 minutes used to be my limit, now 2 hour rides are
enjoyable. And the trainer definitely helps maintain form over the winter.

Mark J.

On Friday, January 1, 2021 at 4:42:35 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I have a Cycleops Fluid trainer I like a lot. Good company had a wind trainer go bad they sent me a new unit. The Fluid is even better. My question is rollers? I have never tried them and basically looking for workout when cycling indoors. Miles inside never count but actually I find the trainer can benefit your road riding if done correctly. I generally can get a higher heart rate and more intense work out in less time.

So what about rollers. They seem cheap enough but what I hear is basically you are going full out spinning like a madman. Any real benefit to them and would they be less intense than a regular trainer.
Deacon mark

Maybe it depends how fast you spin. We have a set of rollers (I built ours) and there's
no doubt we got tired and sweaty riding them. There's some resistance due to the
greater flexing of the tires at the contact points compared to a flat road (the cylindrical
roller digs in more) and some resistance from the spokes churning the air. It doesn't
sound like much, but it's there. When you put it in a high gear, you do have to put in
considerable force, at least compared to riding a level road.

A supposed advantage of rollers is that they train you to ride smoothly and straight.
When you just begin, you'll probably scare yourself silly due to fear of falling off and
crashing at speed. Of course, you don't crash, you just step down; but it does motivate
you to ride straight. But starting off can be tricky. (It helps to ride in a doorway so there
are walls to lean on to each side.)

For me, the big killer was boredom. It's even worse than a wind trainer, because you do
have to watch to stay centered on the rollers. My wife could put up with roller boredom
much better than I ever could. So Mark's tip about Zwift, etc. is interesting.

I should probably sell the set I have. I don't plan on ever using them again.

- Frank Krygowski

On Friday, January 1, 2021 at 2:42:25 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Friday, January 1, 2021 at 4:42:35 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I have a Cycleops Fluid trainer I like a lot. Good company had a wind trainer go bad they sent me a new unit. The Fluid is even better. My question is rollers? I have never tried them and basically looking for workout when cycling indoors. Miles inside never count but actually I find the trainer can benefit your road riding if done correctly. I generally can get a higher heart rate and more intense work out in less time.

So what about rollers. They seem cheap enough but what I hear is basically you are going full out spinning like a madman. Any real benefit to them and would they be less intense than a regular trainer.
Deacon mark
Maybe it depends how fast you spin. We have a set of rollers (I built ours) and there's
no doubt we got tired and sweaty riding them. There's some resistance due to the
greater flexing of the tires at the contact points compared to a flat road (the cylindrical
roller digs in more) and some resistance from the spokes churning the air.. It doesn't
sound like much, but it's there. When you put it in a high gear, you do have to put in
considerable force, at least compared to riding a level road.

A supposed advantage of rollers is that they train you to ride smoothly and straight.
When you just begin, you'll probably scare yourself silly due to fear of falling off and
crashing at speed. Of course, you don't crash, you just step down; but it does motivate
you to ride straight. But starting off can be tricky. (It helps to ride in a doorway so there
are walls to lean on to each side.)

For me, the big killer was boredom. It's even worse than a wind trainer, because you do
have to watch to stay centered on the rollers. My wife could put up with roller boredom
much better than I ever could. So Mark's tip about Zwift, etc. is interesting.

I should probably sell the set I have. I don't plan on ever using them again.

- Frank Krygowski

I have my 36 year old Tacx rollers with dual squirrel cage fans and shrouds.. The fans produce a significant load. It is boring, and when I used to watch race videos for entertainment, I had a tendency to turn with the pack and ride off my rollers, which was an eye-opener. So now I just listen to music and imagine I'm winning grand tours. Riding out of the saddle is hard, and I can't do a serious sprint without riding off the rollers. I like rollers way better than the old mag stands of yore (which I own and used when I was riding one-legged after breaking my legs), but the new smart trainers with Zwift are certainly the way to go for serious indoor training. You can sprint and climb and beat avatars. My friend and I were thinking of creating a software program where you dodge giant trucks and pedestrians with dogs. Make it lifelike.

-- Jay Beattie.

Am Fri, 1 Jan 2021 14:42:23 -0800 (PST) schrieb Frank Krygowski:

Maybe it depends how fast you spin. We have a set of rollers (I built ours) and there's
no doubt we got tired and sweaty riding them. There's some resistance due to the
greater flexing of the tires at the contact points compared to a flat road (the cylindrical
roller digs in more) and some resistance from the spokes churning the air.

250 W for 50 km/h. Just one data point for a cheap, foldable set of
rollers. How fast to spin for that depends on the gear.

--
Thank you for observing all safety precautions

On Fri, 1 Jan 2021 13:42:33 -0800 (PST),
Mark Cleary wrote:
I have a Cycleops Fluid trainer I like a lot. Good company had
a wind trainer go bad they sent me a new unit. The Fluid is
even better. My question is rollers? I have never tried them
and basically looking for workout when cycling indoors. Miles
inside never count but actually I find the trainer can benefit
your road riding if done correctly. I generally can get a
higher heart rate and more intense work out in less time.

So what about rollers. They seem cheap enough but what I hear
is basically you are going full out spinning like a madman. Any
real benefit to them and would they be less intense than a
regular trainer.

I don't have a great deal to add, other than to reinforce much of
what's already been said. I currently have the classic Kreitler
rollers (bought new ~20 years ago), with a resistance unit from an
older cheap set of rollers cobbled onto it.

For me the rollers are less boring than the clamp on wind trainer
I had before, but still boring. For a long time I watched tapes
of old TdFs, but have now gone to podcasts while on the rollers.
They seem to be a better distraction. FWIW, I too had the "ride
off the edge when following the pack down mountain descents" while
watching old tapes.

As far as effort goes, sometimes I just go steady moderate, and
others I'll do an interval type approach--ramping it up as high as
I can manage for the duration of commercials.

Like Jay, it's a challenge for me to stand, though I can do it.
It seems to work very different core muscles than normal outdoor
standing.

I too get saddle weary before an hour is up, so will have to think
about getting an advanced system like Jay suggests. Looking over
my logged rides from 2020, I see I was only on the rollers a
handful of times in Jan/Feb.

--
Ted Heise West Lafayette, IN, USA

I have a set of Kreitler rollers and the headwind unit. At least 30 years old. Brother bought them used back in the 1990s I think and I got them from him sometime in the early 2000s. They can provide a world of hurt and pain from resistance if you want. As others mentioned you can add extra effort by shifting to a harder gear and riding a bit faster for intervals. But mostly rollers are for steady resistance. Constant effort. And improving your form and smooth spinning. Whether that spinning is fast or slow, it will be much smoother and steady after using rollers for awhile. You can spin real slow if you ride your hardest gear with the headwind unit attached.. As for recommending rollers to anyone, I'm not sure I would. I'd probably just advise to go walking or jogging instead. Get outside and enjoy being in nature.

On Fri, 1 Jan 2021 14:10:05 -0800, "Mark J."
wrote:

The problem for me with all trainers is boredom.

I tried putting a book in the map holder while riding rollers. Worked
great until I needed to turn a page.


When we had rollers in the dining room, whenever I got cold I'd take
my jeans off and ride until I got warm, then dress and go back to
work.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

On Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 11:26:46 PM UTC-5, Joy Beeson wrote:
On Fri, 1 Jan 2021 14:10:05 -0800, "Mark J."
wrote:
The problem for me with all trainers is boredom.
I tried putting a book in the map holder while riding rollers. Worked
great until I needed to turn a page.

I bought a book holder that hooks on my handlebars for reading while indoor training,
but books never worked for me, either on rollers or a wind trainer. I found myself
reading the same paragraphs over and over. :-(

- Frank Krygowski