Track Cycling: Velodrome Racing and Training Area - Why rollers?

This is a sort of silly question, but here it goes.

Most, if not all, trackies (as evident at the cup) train with rollers. Why is this? Is there something a trainer can't offer?

Is it sponsorship? Culture? Am I totally wrong, and only the guys at the cup were using rollers?

Better balance and spin...

Build the leg strengh in the gym and climbing hills, build leg speed on rollers. At the same time your building your leg speed you can perfect a spin. Once you think youve got it, use some white tape and mark the center of the front roller. work your cadence and stick on it!

Rollers help you to ride a straight line, which is very handy when trying to stay in someone's draft. They also teach you to pedal in smooth circles; I tend to mash on my fluid trainer so the rollers balance that out.

A trainer can be ridden by almost anybody but you have to learn how to ride rollers. With a trainer you can read a book, watch TV, eat lunch. I have a trainer and an old set of rollers and I use both. I take the trainer to MTB races to warm up and I have even seen riders haul them up the chair lift. Some rollers fold up (my don't) and most trainers fold up and are easier to take with you. My trainer has to be adjusted with different bikes and is hard on skewers. I find for me the intensity of the workout is much higher on the rollers. When starting out on rollers I would suggest an easy gear to keep the thing spinning. Pushing a big gear for me is hard on my knees without a warmup. Rollers are old school and lack any bells and whistles to measure your performance other that the sweat dropping off your nose.

Are you the same 244dewayne that got blown away in that last Zipp 404 track wheelset auction on eBay?
It looked like they were going to be a good deal until that dude came in blazing with his snipe bid...
It was fun to watch you and alpharunner keep outbidding each other.

Once you get alot of time on rollers you can do alot of **** on them. I find it quite easy to sprint standing, or ride no handed on mine. But then again, mine have been in use for 5 or 6 years now.

Yea that was me. Those wheels would have looked real nice on my bike but some other bidder had a lot more money to spend that I would have spent. I got a Zipp disk a few weeks ago for under $200.00 and I rode it at ADT Saturday.

You can do lots of things while riding rollers. I was at a roller race once and this young woman took off her warm-ups while riding the rollers. Yea, she had her riding kit on underneath the warm-ups.

Today, here you didn't need rollers or warm-ups: It was 82 degrees plus

How was the disk at ADT? Is that one of those wafer disks? Really thin, has styrofoam inside?
I picked one up late last year for 230..just finished shimming it up to work at 120..it was spaced at 127.

I hope to get it on Hellyer one of these days.

Yea that was me. Those wheels would have looked real nice on my bike but some other bidder had a lot more money to spend that I would have spent. I got a Zipp disk a few weeks ago for under $200.00 and I rode it at ADT Saturday.

I was there on Saturday too with Roger's Race School. Are you on the white alum frame starts with a C iirc and hung out with the two from San Diego? I was on the Fuji Track Pro. I'm Mark :)

Rollers teach you to ride from the hips, if you start reefing and loading the bars on the Track your anybodies.

I think his disk is yellow...should be pretty recognizable.:D

It is zipp 750 and it is thin. I am not sure what it is actually made of. I assembled the bike on Friday before riding it at the track on Saturday. On Friday I was riding it around the block where I live and the disc was really noisy but on the track it was quiet. It the first disc I have ever had on a push bike. I have a disc cover on one side of my rear wheel on my speedway motorcycle and I ran a disc wheel on the front of a motorcycle at Bonneville but the safety committee made me drill holes into the disc to prevent wind push. The Zipp might not make me any faster but my old school brain thinks it is cool.

The picture on eBay says it is a Zipp 950....???

You are correct I just can't type.

rollers or not rollers... thats the question...!