Track Stand. Rollers. Neither.
 

There are two things I cannot do on a bike. Well, there are many things, but two that I am thinking about.

1. Track stand.

2. Ride rollers.

Do you think there is a good reason to learn either, and if so which?

7 times National Sprint Champion & twice World Champion Sue Novara Reber.
Eric Heiden is one of the commentators.
Just so y'all know what a track stand is at just after 4:20:


And I believe that's going to be easier on a fixie. But I've seen roadies do it at stoplights back when we wore cleats in toestraps. I couldn't begin to do it.

Both worth doing. Rollers is a lot easier. I haven't been able to track stand, but I haven't worked on it either. On a road bike, you need a crowned road, the more the better, or crosswise on a hill.

How you do it. (I haven't done it.)


Eddy Merckx on the rollers.

(I think) An amusing novice trackstanding story that happened just yesterday morning:

On my daily rides, I've been working on trackstanding at all the stop signs along the route. I'm about two months into the process, and not always immobile....creeping forward if I start to lose balance.

A police car pulled out behind me from an intersection, and I made the decision to trackstand my complete stop at the next intersection to complete my obligation to the stop sign. I would have been fine for the 5-10 seconds, but a car pulled out from a driveway on the intersected road, forcing me to wait for another 15-30 seconds. After creeping around to keep my balance for the additional time, I found myself facing the wrong direction from my intended turn. Just happened to be facing the police car to see the expression of amusement on the officer's face before accelerating onto the other road. He let me go (after all, I had made about four complete stops during the wait), but I was a little red faced! Just saying: if you do it, get good enough before doing it in front of an audience!

Rollers have always sounded like being hurtled into a wall with the bike soon to follow. Not sure I'll spend the money for a roller as it'll also mean emergency room co-pays for me.

Trackstanding is fun and seems to improve my handling skills. I can even spend ten minutes in the driveway and feel like I've worked on something to improve without big mileage.

That was awesome. FWIW a childhood friend of mine was a track cyclist back in HS. He was actually a Junior National Champion and made the '64 US Olympic Team that competed in Tokyo.

When I first got into cycling I remember someone saying if you couldn't afford a coach you should get rollers 'cause you can't ride rollers without being smooth. I got some rollers from Nashbar back around 1988 and still use that set to this day. I have never used anything else. As a result I am decently smooth on the bike.

Rode rollers in the late 70's and early 80's, enjoyed it and got good at the necessary balance. Track stands came when I first started riding, in 1972, a Navy flight student taught several of us how and it stuck, makes stop signs easier now and lets me unclip safely sometimes. After this winter rollers would be great to have again, the track stand is something that just stuck with me. Both help me develop good balance and weight distribution, with all my health issues the balance is important to me so I ride safely.

Bill

I think both are worth doing. Balance doesn't get better as we age. So, anything that can help focus on that is good. I do track stands periodically, but haven't been on the rollers in about 2 years. It may be time to set them up again.

On the track, you point downhill and then backpedal for nudging - on the road you point uphill and forward pedal for nudging. I can do it much better on my road bike than my fixie on the road - it's exactly the same thing except backwards.

So - rollers and trackstand both is my vote.

Riding a fixed gear on rollers is the sure-fire old-school method to develop a smooth, fluid high cadence pedaling style w/o L/R leg bias. Good technique trumps fancy hardware.

Track stands on the road are style points, optional but I do 'em.

-Bandera

IMO, no necessity to do either, except for the fun or challenge.

+1 ^

Sue was my favorite of the women roadies back then too although I never actually saw her race. She's a 4 time winner of the women's Tour of Somerville and won 3 stages in the Coors classic featured in this video at 10:00, 13:30 and 14:00

Women of the Coors Bicycle Classic 1977-84 - YouTube

And trackstands ? Shoot I cut my stint as an ironworker short for lack of good balance, lol.

Track stands get swag points. For real.

Sue Novara Reber is the one that taught me how to ride rollers. The T-Town Velodrome had a display in a local mall and I volunteered.
A long time ago I deided to watch the second half of a fotball game while riding rollers. Turned out it ended up being a very long game. It was Dolphins/Chargers 1982 play off game. Went into overtime. I was riding in my cellar and could hardly walk up the stairs.

Rollers for sure! I'm not sure what riding a fixed gear has to do with it, but I agree that training on roller will help you develop a smooth and efficient (less energy-wasting) pedal stroke! I first rode on borrowed rollers in my dorm at Ohio State back in '76. I trained on the rollers for a couple hundred miles that Winter, and between developing that smooth pedal stroke and my new (at the time) lightweight Fuji, come Springtime I was ready! I probably had more than two thousand road miles in before Mother's Day weekend and my first TOSRV.

Trackstands are neat and all (for showing off) , but I've never felt the need to actually practice them.

Track stands make stop lights and signs more enjoyable, plus it's always amusing to catch the puzzled looks on people..
" Why isn't he falling over ? "

Rollers... I don't have any now but they are fun and.... NO .. if you ride off them you don't do a Wile E Coyote impression into a wall.. Not enough inertia....

I forgot to mention that I still have a set of rollers and a belt-driven air resistance unit for it. I also bought a fork mount so the Wife can use them, but she has yet to do so...

I would vote for both as well. Riding rollers is really easy for me; track stands . . . not so much. But I do practice and I am (slowly) getting a bit better at them.

Rick / OCRR

I had a set of RollTrack rollers for a year or two in the 70's. Great for when the snow fell.
Trackstands suck on recumbent bikes. Sue Novara Reber could probably trackstand on anything, though.

Sure there is a good reason. For the satisfaction of being able to do it. Or not.

LBS got in a Tacx roller the NL company has a roller with a shaped drum to gently tend to keep your wheel

towards the center of the smaller in the center cylinder ...

Unless it's a recumbent trike. I can do a track stand on a trike!

There you go! Infinite trackstand on a trike.

What, you never watched Laugh-In and the guy in the yellow raincoat on a tricycle falling over? Dang! Where can I find a vid of that....

Type in Arte Johnson at YouTube and take your pick.

Bill

Verrrry interesting.

The tricycle rider in the raincoat was not only Arte Johnson - just about every cast member did that schtick at least once.

TV Guide article about the tricycle rider: Could you please tell me and ... - Today's News: Our Take | TVGuide.com

You can choose which cast member you like to watch fall over, including guests that did the bit, on You Tube, I was amazed at the number of clips and entire shows that are cataloged there for Laugh In. I'm not a big You Tube user or watcher, but I did subscribe to a few cycling channels they offer and their various how-to clips for cycling are handy if you aren't sure how to do something mechanical, too. Maybe some of our trike and bent riders can put their own versions out here. My falling over on a conventional DF bicycle are boring, just bangs, bumps and bruises with some road rash thrown in for gore factor.

Bill