I am going through my photos from NYC and thought I'd share the two below. Those wooden rollers are from the early 20th century. (The 21st Century label that you see in the green is for the bikes behind on the raised platform). I hadn't realized that rollers go back that far. The sign describing these said that early cyclists would have "races" in bars in which these rollers would be connected to dials showing speed and distance. Interesting! Isn't it?

"Roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun
Roll out the barrel, we've got the blues on the run
Zing boom tararrel, ring out a song of good cheer
Now's the time to roll the barrel, for the gang's all here"

Don't forget the Moots rollers on display at an Interbike show circa 1990. They had a mountain bike installed and the drums were a log section, one was covered with rocks, and the third was similar. Could not find a pic and did not take one at the time.

We used to stage roller races at the Ski Rack in Burlington VT during the winter months.

Wow. I love rollers. On another note...I have a set of Kreitler rollers in perfect condition. Since I have two sets of rollers I posted the Kreitlers FS on my club FB page for less than 1/2 price of new. This is a club of 125 riders. Not one response. Recreational riders have no idea what they even are, I think.

And thus, Zwift group rides were born. But with better graphics.

Roller racing is still popular.

Now it is called Goldsprints.

Rollers are wired to timing equipment for competition. There is a world championship.

The equipment can be rented for parties.

This is a random example of Goldsprints at some brewery in San Francisco.



-Tim-

That's not roller racing, that's trainer racing.

I remember that as well. They even let me ride on it; quite a hoot!

Pictured in the video are rollers with fork stands.

Kreitler makes them specifically for Goldsprints. https://www.kreitler.com/gold-sprints

Goldsprints can be done either way - with front drums or with fork stands.

In the old days they were done without fork stands.



Fork stand rollers are a more modern version but they are still done both ways.




-Tim-

Tim, Interesting! Love the photos that you posted. And now I can see from this product ...

https://www.kreitler.com/challenger

... that the rear roller connects to the front. That makes perfect sense now that I see it like that.

Is there a safety aspect to this sort of racing? Do riders ever come off the rollers whilst pedaling all out?

And ... I notice different drum sizes:

https://mrpbike.com/collections/krei...14374491783210

Why would one choose, say, a 2.25" drum over a 4.5"?

Coming off the rollers is more embarrassing than anything else. The bike hits the ground and you jerk forward about a foot then fall on the the ground. There is little momentum to shoot you off anywhere.

Standard rollers are in the 4-4.5" range. Smaller rollers deflect the tires more and create more resistance for a harder workout or race.

I think it has more to with:

1. For whatever reason, most cyclist think rollers are incredibly hard to learn.
2. Nashbar and Amazon, among others, have people believing that quality rollers should cost no more than $100-125, new.

I can tell you if I needed rollers at the moment, I would've been stalking your front door at the same time I was messaging you for them.

Helpful hint: Set them up in a doorway to start and brace with your elbows as necessary.

I was one of the rare birds who took to them right away. However, I agree, the doorway approach is very helpful for most.

Fork stand rollers are more stable for obvious reasons.

I have standard rollers and fell off once when I first tried - bashed my knee pretty good. After that I used a wall to get started and put some sofa cushions on the floor just in case. Using a doorway is good advice.

Not really sure about drum size in and of itself.

Sportcrafter rollers "Resistance" drum is smaller and has magnets inside. Resistance is very realistic and it is difficult to push them past 26 or 27 MPH, just like on the road. Sportcrafter also makes a larger, free spinning "High inertia" drum which has no resistance and is heavy, like a flywheel. Some say they can actually coast on this drum.

Fixed gear is a perfect use case for rollers IMO. This is my setup.

Here's a roller story ... an LBS owner is totally into fitting. He got a whole bunch of high tech equipment from Trek. He offered to do a complete fit on me for free because he was trying to learn the equipment. Of course, I said yes. So, I get on the bike and do whatever he tells me. After awhile he says that his equipment allows him to measure the efficiency of my spin. He says that a recreational cyclist is really good if they hit 60% efficiency. Then he says, "You did 85% with no imbalance in your legs. How are you doing that?" And, I say, "Well when I first got into cycling I learned to train on rollers." He responds, "Of course!" I was 69 at the time. I think that's what really threw him.