Just started on rollers a couple of days ago. First 2 minutes, I thought this is going to be the death of me, but as everyone notes, it gets considerably easier. 10 min on day 1, 15 min on day 2, and by day 3 I was bored of staring at the wall, so I set it up by the tv (can't operate the remote yet!). Still not comfortable enough to ride without chairs on either side. Hopefully I can ditch the props soon.

It seems to be easier and smoother when I use my hips to steer rather than my arms. Also, I put a few layers of tape (short strips, maybe 4" long) near the edges of the front roller; it lets me know when I'm about to roll off - kind of like highway shoulders that are intentionally rough to alert you that you're off the road.

That's absolutely brilliant! I'll have to do the same! Do you lay the tape parallel or perpendicular to the axis of the drum?

I was always tempted to see if I could rig up a set of bungees to hold me up if I fell off the rollers. Would be fun... or painful.

Perpendicular to the axis of the drum. You'll need as many layers as it takes to make the "bumps" noticeable. For watching tv, I needed 4 layers; less than that wasn't obvious enough when part of my attention was on the tele. Depending on how wide a "shoulder" you want, you can lay tape on the last 1" of each side of the front roller up to maybe 3" on each side (more than that, and your "road" is too narrow). The tape shouldn't go all the way around the circumference of the roller because you want the bump-bump-bump sensation when you're riding on and off the tape. I used strips ~4" long.

wear a helmet

completely unnecessary for all but the densest riders.

Poking at this old thread. It is full of very useful advice. I have had a Minoura roller for over a year now, and I am still not very comfortable on it. I admit, I do not ride it too often. Sometimes I do not ride it for a whole month. I am still not able to ride even one handed. I do not know whether the reason behind this is my own lack of stability or whether something is the matter with the roller.

The only issue I have actually felt with the roller is the complete inability to coast. If I stop pedalling from a cadence of 90 rpm on say 52 X 18, the wheels stop within 1 second. The rollers are pretty light, but the bearings are smooth.

On the road, I can ride no hands. I can ride 70- 100 km flat to rolling, at 30 kmph ( just to give an idea of my cycling skills). Here in Bombay, cycling is not a very popular sport and I have 1 or 2 ride partners at a time. So, I am not very sure how unwavering my line is in terms of being a good wheel to draft.

I can't figure out what it is that makes life so difficult on rollers. Can anybody help? Do I just need to ride for hours on rollers and get my balance perfected? Or do I need to check something on the rollers too?

I wish I could tell you. I'm on 3in Kreitlers for about 2 weeks now. I still ride in a doorway and my shoulder sometimes touches the door frame, generally after I do something like take a drink, or stand and sprint (not every time I do, in fact, very seldom), but that's it. I can ride 1 handed, but not handed, but I haven't tried yet. I pedal cadences from the 80s to the 140s on them with no issues.

I fell off the first day, and after some advice on a rollers thread I started, realigned the roller spindle to directly under my front axle (minus a mm maybe) and that made all the difference.

Thanks island rider. On Saturday, I did an extended session on the rollers. I did one leg drills and high cadence drills and even some grinding on 53 12. I am beginning to conclude that I need to work on my core. It could be just that I waver too much on the saddle. On Sunday, I did a 50 km ride only focussing on keeping my line steady. Then I got on the rollers and put in all my concentration on keeping the bike straight, and I was able to ride one handed for about 4 rotations of the pedals.

I shall do more of these full concentration roller riding sessions and see.

By the way, my roller spindle is about 1.5 cm in front of the front wheel axle.