Adrianinkc

How about some roller fun ?

datlas 

I liked the part with the BMX'er riding on the treadmill...

jwill87ta

Well done. Something light in lieu of the e-bay scams and Speedplay bullies.

halfspeed

A helmet and a backpack?

urbanknight

Nice, and one of them was on those "elliptical" rollers that are supposed to keep you centered.

rkelley23

I was enjoying some Johnny cash and then I had to let out a big OOOHHH when that kid on the treadmill ate it

runningDoc

let me repost from the bike fit thread:

the thing I hate about the rollers is that there is still a real chance you can crash from the weirdest things:

- someone patting you on the back thinking its a normal bike trainer and nudging you off,
- dog almost looses its snout trying to sniff the fork while riding
- watching a comedy show/listening to stand up comedy while rolling and laughing too hard and falling off
- just plain normal absent mindedness

i fell off my rollers and ate it hard last night. i noticed that the step stool i had next to the rollers was way too close and i could possible clip my pedal on it. but I was listening to a Louis CK stand up and started laughing swerved to the side and clipped the step stool - thankfully the resulting X-rays were negative.

I thought I was really getting good on the rollers too: I can do the no handed, out of saddle riding, drink easily, even talk on a cell phone, but still I had my 2nd big crash on rollers .

Andy Somnifac 

Bought some rollers last week, and still can't get the hang of them... It's put a real dent in my plans to ride every night...

urbanknight

runningDoc: I have had many crashes on the rollers. Despite some of them looking pretty spectacular, I have never injured myself or damaged my bike. My pride was a total loss, however.

runningDoc

You'll get it! Just roll right beside a wall so you have a safety net. you can just swerve towards the wall and lean into a stop. also use a sturdy stool to mount the bike from the other side.

but you're going to fall/fail/... eventually.

the weird thing, for me, is its the same feeling of crashing when riding outside: the realization of the inevitability of the crash (in the milliseconds before and as its happening).

I ended up breaking the medical step stool that I stole from the hospital. I got caught trying to steal another one so i have to buy one on eBay.

urbanknight

I was thinking of riding in a door frame with bungees hung from the top corners.

runningDoc

^ the door frame is "safe" in the sense that you can fall to either side, but in reality you might wedge your own body/limbs with the bike frame and make a fall worse, or the horror, wedge the frame and damage the bike!

jwill87ta

I have been on the rollers for about two weeks now. I have mine setup in a hallway so that I can extend my elbow to either wall if I drift too far. I have ridden off the rollers but have been able to avoid any major crashes.

calamarichris

Downshift and keep your cadence nice & high. Relax your arms & shoulders, and concentrate on smoothness and pedaling in fluid, balanced circles.
Don't worry about your speed, heart rate, or anything else. It'll come.

The BMX kid was the star of the vid, btw.

urbanknight

You sure worry a lot. I'd love to see what you say to patients

jfmckenna

LMAO funny

Yeah a door jam is the place to get the hang of it.

datlas 

If you are a 100% total klutz like me, have your spouse or friend hold your body upright for a few minutes on the rollers (so you have both hands on the bars).

Then graduate to doorway.....then to alongside wall....then to anywhere.

Now I can ride no handed, it just takes practice.

It's fun and better for your form than stupid trainers.

urbanknight

I knew a guy who could ride the rollers no handed, come to a stop and start riding in reverse, stop and start riding forward again, and juggle 3 tennis balls. We wanted to knock him down after the last stunt.

Brian Ratliff

Don't give up! First, make certain that your front roller is as close to directly below your front axle as possible without being behind it. This is super important! Second, set up your rollers next to a sturdy table (one that you would have no qualms about just jumping up on with your full body weight) about 3 feet high (a standard garage workbench is perfect). That way you can ride with a hand on the table for balance if you need it. Third, don't listen to the person who says to gear down. The bike gains a huge amount of stability as the wheels roll faster; shift up and get going fairly fast before letting go of the table. This is because the bike is stabilized by adding inertia. On the road, you have the inertia of your whole body mass in motion to help stabilize your bike. On the rollers, you only have the rotational inertia of the two wheels, so you've gotta make those wheels spin fast.

Riding the rollers is one of those things that just clicks after a while. Start riding with the hand on the table, then start letting go by very gently pushing off from the table top. Hold the handlebars on the tops as close to the stem as possible and look up and straight ahead. This is the most stable from a steering point of view. The hoods are less stable. The drops are way less stable. Both of these positions offer your arms too much leverage on your steering. If you have aerobars, forget about them for the moment; riding aerobars on rollers is an advanced skill. When you hold onto something, your weight isn't centered on your wheels. The trick to letting go of the table is transitioning from having part of your weight on your hand to having your weight centered on your bike. Once you feel what it feels like to center your weight and balance solely by steering, then everything clicks and you'll be able to do it indefinitely. It's actually kind of like re-learning to ride a bike.

For me, it took about a week of persistent trying before I was able to ride the rollers. It didn't help at all that my front roller was too far forward at the time making the steering much twitchier than it needed to be. I moved my front roller back a notch and the steering smoothed out to being almost like riding on the road.

RacerOne

Another trick is to let some air out of your tires, when I'm standing (for saddle relief) every 15 minutes or so I've found having somewhat squishy tire reduces the oscillations and helps me stay put.

save10

I was warming up for a road race last year..can't remember which one...but a guy was warming up on rollers that he had in the bed of his pickup. He was racing for one of the Cat 1/2/3 masters teams and he seemed to know his stuff, but that had disaster written all over it.

Brian Ratliff

Also, the actual cadence you use is less important than being smooth. It is key that you never stop pedaling. Whatever you do, don't stop pedaling. You stop pedaling and you'll lose your balance almost immediately. If you brake, you will crash. Keep your hands away from your brakes.

Brian Ratliff

Why? Once you figure it out, it's pretty uncommon to fall off the rollers. Even when you come off them, most of the time you just clip out and put a foot on the ground.

Brian Ratliff

1+

I usually ride with about 5-10psi less than normal in both tires when I'm on the rollers (95fr/100re). Slows the steering down a bit and keeps a higher resistance.

lunacycle

What works well for me is having my rollers set up right alongside a wall, so that I can easily rest my shoulder or elbow up against it without tipping over. Then, while leaning my shoulder up against the wall, it's an easy matter to clip-in with both hands on the bars, start pedaling, and then nudge myself away from the wall.

Along the other side of the rollers I built a 4' long by 16" wide by 4 3/4" tall plywood platform (about the same height as my rollers). The long platform allows my to put a foot down anywhere I want without worry.

This set-up has proven to be mostly crash-proof.