TimothyH

woodcraft

I got the new roller set a few days ago, & fared better than TimothyH in shipping- the nuts holding front feet had vibrated off and were lost,

but the replacements cost $.50 so NBD.

First real ride today- GCN 1 hr workout running through the gears.

The report: quieter, espec. at high rpms, larger, heavy drums spin smoothly, & extra width (18") makes for more relaxed riding

while watching the TV, compared to the Performance/Travel Track set.

UnfilteredDregs

That works..

I'm upgrading to the TruTrainers Rollers shortly. I tried them and the eMotion.

I don't see the point of the eMotion, it allows for slop via the moving frame... yeah, you can play the "game" of not allowing the frame to move but the coasting is far superior on the TT's. You can easily stand on the TruTrainers, and they still demand that you hold a really tight line. I don't want forgiveness in the rollers, that's what the eMotions do, and it defeats the purpose of rollers IMO.

Good luck, and enjoy.

TimothyH

Thanks.

Where are you able to try rollers? Is there a showroom or LBS with them on display near you?

Third time on last night - 3 by 15 minutes alternating between fixed gear (48-16), road bike and then fixed again. Concentrated on smooth pedaling but pushed the cadence as high as I could for the last two minutes of each session. Got a little bouncy at high RPM.

Progressive resistance seems to work well as I was only able to push as fast on the rollers as I am on the road.


-Tim-

VNA

Very amusing:

Marcus_Ti

Sidenote tire pressure greatly effects resistance. The higher your pressure, the lower the effort required for a given wheel speed. Want more resistance, lower the tire pressure. Since rollers are as smooth as glass, you can run your tires at rated max pressure without too much filling-removal.

Carbonfiberboy 

C'mon, drop your heels, roll your pelvis forward, flatten your back, and get rid of all that upper body movement! Nice dismount though. I kept the sound turned off.

cycledogg

Yeah, she definitely needs more time on rollers. Her pedal form was very choppy.

TimothyH

Thanks for this.

VNA

Critical are we?

The sound was the best part with her Australien accent and explaining her sensations!

Carbonfiberboy 

I'll certainly admit to being serious about cycling. I realize that she didn't ask for my criticism and so it's totally uncalled for but I thought maybe someone could get some value from it. Plus I almost never watch videos with the sound on because it bothers others.

TimothyH

I appreciated the advice, even if it wasn't meant for me, and would welcome critique.

1. Slow cadence trying to keep the heart rate low
2. faster cadence on the road bike after about 30 minutes riding.
3. Fast on the fixed gear after close to an hour of riding. Pretty wiped out at this point.

UnfilteredDregs

Yup...She's bouncing everywhere.

UnfilteredDregs

A friend owns both the TT and the eMotion. I really like the TT, high fidelity rollers is the best way I can describe them.

You're definitely going to get bouncy at high RPM. Holding a good, still form at high RPM is a good place to be...

I do the slow game as well...I'll mess around for say...10-20 minutes below 10mph, trying to go as slow as possible.

It's nice not to have a cadence drum to swap out with the resistance drum. If you want to just work on form, it's great because it makes the rollers less forgiving. That's why I bought the inertia drum, besides the coasting I use the drum that was swapped out to accommodate it as a swap for the resistance and I just drop it in depending on what I feel like doing.

f4rrest

And drop those bars a bit.

Doge

I'd go higher bars to the point you feel the same on drops or tops. If you are riding on the tops all the time, the bars are too low.

Carbonfiberboy 

Looks good, though I'd make one comment: you have a lot of hip rock which translates into a lot of back and forth lower back movement. The hip rock can cause friction sores on long rides, and the lower back movement can cause pain/exhaustion there. I hunted around and found this amateur group ride video: Watch the butt and lower back of the woman in the blue and green jersey from about 0:1:00 to 0:6:00. That's what it's supposed to look like. Interestingly, on group rides I see more women than men with really nice technique. I have no idea why. There aren't all that many videos of cyclists' asses, especially on rollers. I'm pretty sure I know why. On this ride, folks do a lot of stupid stuff IMO but it's interesting to see different pedaling styles. On our group rides, the #1 concern is safety. One injury ruins your whole season.

My guess on the movement is that you need to work more on moving the pedals with your legs only and very possibly saddle height might play into this. Another exercise: put your geared bike into a really big gear, so that you're out of zone 2 at a 50-55 cadence. Probably will take your 53 X 11 or thereabouts or maybe you can't even get that low a cadence - depends on the resistance. Anywhere under 70 is good. Big reason for having the resistance. Try to pedal only with your legs and without prying on the bars. No more than 10 minute intervals doing this.

I never get tired of watching this video: She does the rocking, hammering thing at very high resistance but I think that's more resistance than your set even has. You're doing really well on the rollers. You could try doing some one-legged pedaling with one foot wedged in the frame triangle. I do some at 50-55 cadence, big gear, and some at 80-85, little gear.

Carbonfiberboy 

I should have also mentioned the foundation roller workout - high cadence or FastPedal. Start with 15' of zone 1. Then put the bike in a low gear, I think 39 X 23-27 should work for you and your set. Attempt to pedal continuously at a cadence of 115-120, while staying in zone 2. That last is the reason for the low gear. If you bounce at high cadence, back it off until just below bouncing and work at figuring out how to stop the bounce. The usual advice is to keep the feeling of a cushion of air between the bottoms of your feet and your insoles. I allow myself to feel the insole only at the bottom of the stroke. Focus on feeling the shoe uppers and heel cup.

Maintain your maximum zone 2 cadence for between 15 and 45 minutes, no break. The no break is very important. Then finish with another 15' of zone 1 to let your legs go down.

Or maintain that high cadence until your legs start really hurting or you see your HR ramping up even though your cadence is steady. When one is in good condition, this is an excellent recovery ride, as it stresses and energizes the legs without stressing the aerobic system. Training stress score will be fairly low, maybe 50 or less.

I do this workout once a week for most of the year. Sometimes in the spring, I'll substitute the one-legged pedaling.

Brian Ratliff

So... her first mistake is her front roller is way too far forward. Should be as close to being directly below the front axle as possible without being behind it. Much easier to balance if you do that.

TimothyH

@Carbonfiberboy, I can't tell you how much I appreciate that you took the time to type that up. You have a lot of insight.

I'm very stiff and have to work at flexibility. I've not done that recently and it is to my shame. That is part of what you are seeing.

Going to reread what you typed several times...

superdex

lower your saddle.

Carbonfiberboy 

Thank you, appreciated. I've been stretching pretty much every day since I had some knee bursitis issues in my mid-60's. These stretches: https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...l#post15372967
Only takes a few minutes and seems to be enough.

woodcraft

I thought that as well. Especially if spinning high rpms on a fixed gear.

OLDYELLR

I'm dismayed that this thread ended over 3 years ago. But I may as well throw in my 2 cents.

I got a set of rollers over 30 years ago ($120 at the LBS). I spent time on them, but never really seriously. They're some no-name brand made in Japan (back then that was like Made in China). They have 4.5" diameter rollers as opposed to what came later and are still sold now, with tiny 2.5" rollers, for more resistance and to cut cost. When I wanted to add resistance I fabricated something from a double ended electric motor with a fan on each end I picked up at a surplus store. It was clamped to and hinged from the seat post and the armature ran on the rear tire, held down with a bungee cord. I had to tape off half the area of the fan rotors to lower the resistance.

Most people who try rollers give up because they're too twitchy and they can't stay on long enough. But I've seen people who can ride no hands and change their jersey while doing it. I did a couple of things to make it easier for me. First, I taped a row of toothpicks to each end of the front roller as rumble strips to warn me if I was watching TV. Second, and this is my own invention and I should have patented it, I fabricated a smaller diameter pulley that bolts on to the drive roller so that the front roller turned at half speed. This makes the steering a lot less twitchy and easier to control.

But the most amazing advance I've seen over the years is crowned rollers. These work on the same principle as crowned pulleys that keep flat belts centered. The cost twice as much as regular rollers, but look like an amazing solution for people who have trouble staying on.

Fox Farm

EXACTLY. I am still riding on my Kreitler rollers, bought new in 1990. Really. Have replaced belts three times over the years. Just put on some new rubber feet and I wonder why I waited so long to do this. I also have the Kreitler Killer Head Wind unit for resistance and it also cools you down nicely as i blows a lot of air and you can position it just as you like it.