bianchi10

I wish I could get out and ride my bike every day, every weekend and every sunny afternoon. But, its just not feasible for me. I have 2 kids that are heavily involved in sports, which takes most of my weekends. Weekday practices 3 or 4 days a week between the two and of course a job that doesn’t always end when I “Punch out” for the day. Living in the Northwest, we get a fair amount of rain. With my luck, it seems like most often, the free time that becomes available happens to land square in the middle of a rain storm. I get out as often as I can, but it’s still not as much as I like. If I only rode on days I were able to get out on the road, my endurance and physical abilities would be pretty sub-par.

My History:
5 or 6 years ago, I got a stationary trainer (Some blackburn model). I rode it for 2 or 3 months just out of excitement, but that quickly wore off. There are certain benefits and purposes to being on a stationary frame mount trainer, but I hated the lack of movement. I tried some interval training with it, but I got to point where I would have rather stuck my finger in my chain while it was moving than sit on the trainer and spin for another second. Sold that thing and never looked back.
I decided to try some rollers, but I didn’t want to spend a lot on something I didn’t know if I’d like or not. Found some REALLY cheap rollers on CL and built myself a DIY “E-Motion” roller. Some of you might remember or have seen it:
I loved the feeling of rollers compared to the trainer, but the set I had purchased were so cheap and the drums were off balanced so it was a rough ride. It really influenced my experience and I lost interest. I sold the set up and went back to riding when I could.
2 years ago a friend of mine told me to borrow their rollers since they weren’t using them. They were a nice set and once I got on I thought…”Dang, so that’s how it’s supposed to feel!”. So I used those for several months until I decided to make the investment to some pretty decent rollers. Got some Tacx Galaxia and rocked those for almost 2 years. They were great and I ended up using them multiple times a week. Throw on a movie and spin or follow along to some intervals. Felt like it made a bit of difference to just keep the legs spinning between rides. The interest in Zwift was there, but I didn’t want to do it unless I had a smart system like a wahoo Kickr or something alike. Plus, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to invest $1000+.
A friend of mine influenced me to look into a company called “InsideRide”, which happens to be a local company about 30 minutes away. I had been saving up for some other bike things, but after I had saved the money up I no longer had interest in those parts. So I had this pile I was sitting on for several months. Several months later, I got bit by this interest in the E-motion rollers to partner with zwift. Did a fair amount of research and ended up making the move.

The Review:
So here it is along with a DIY build that a buddy and I built up. The build was influenced by my other friend who lead me to the E-motion rollers.
Build quality - Superb! No corners were cut. Heay. Only downfall is that they are not meant to travel with or move around. Not much of an issue for me since I have a dedicated space for my set up.
Ride – Very smooth. Drums are heavy and the bearings are high quality.
Noise – The quiestest rollers I have seen or heard.
Smart resistance - (Can be purchased without) Works very well with Zwift. Was smoother than I was expecting. I was assuming I would be able to feel the motor engagement when I approached a hill, but its not the case and feels more realistic that I could have imagined.
Bumpers – Could take them or leave them. I have heard stories from others that they saved them from falling off. While others have said that it caused them to fall. Not sure, but I have enough experience on rollers that I have not come close to needing them (Knock on wood).
Adjustments – They make it super easy to adjust the length of rollers to accommodate your bike size. Pull on the knobs and move. No screws or pins to worry about.
Used with Zwift – Amazing, plain and simple. 30 miles on Zwift and elevation climbing is legit. The riding experience on Zwift has changed my entire attitude and direction toward training indoors.
E-motion – This set up has the rollers set up on an internal spring which absorbs all the inertia, which allows you to sprint, stand out of the saddle, and give a smooth ride throughout your ride.

bianchi10

Parts list:
• 2-3/4 plywood (sanded on both sides)
• 5-2x4’s
• Caulking
• Box of 2 ˝ screws
• Router to cut out the center from the top sheet
• Used a Roundover router bit to round off the edge of inner and outer edges

My buddy built most of it for me. If I attempted to build it myself, it most likely would have looked more like an Octagon! (Picture heavy!)

bianchi10

bianchi10

Final Product

woodcraft

That's ready for the trade show!

Video coming?

bianchi10

Working on that.

mvnsnd

Great job!

Campag4life

Wow is that impressive. Can you share your background with us....where you developed your wood working skills?
Exceptional!!!

bianchi10

Thank you!

Appreciate it. The building portion of this was completely done by my buddy. I know better than to pick up a saw and try to do something beneficial with it. I did the caulking and painting.

Campag4life

OK, makes more sense. As I recall you are a younger man with more hair and a very good rider if I recall a year or two back when you built a bike on this forum. Don't tell him that. He is one very creative left hander.

Looks awesome. I am not a roller or trainer guy and instead moved south so I can ride year around as I hate riding indoors...no spin classes either.

I presume you have seen the unbelievable Eddy Merckx roller video. For those that haven't:

bianchi10

Haha! I wouldn't say very good rider. I'm probably the strongest I have ever been right now. I can hold my own and I tend to get after it, but also know there are so many stronger and more talented riders out there that would eat me up for lunch!

I'm actually a couple years older than my buddy who is in the photos. At 36, I look really young for my age. Most would probably think I was around 25 if they didn't know any better. However, my buddy got the short end of the stick when it came to "Male patterns"...haha!

DrIsotope

Not to armchair quarterback it, but I'd think including the provision for at least one railing/handhold would have been a nice touch. It looks otherwise well-sorted.

bianchi10

I thought about it when we were putting together the plans. I have a lot of roller experience and don't need a rail to get started and I'm not concerned with falling off. However, I will be adding some sort of shelving on the side of it where I can place another fan, put my towel or phone. As of now, my idea will be to use some metal tubing and build off of that. Step 1 was to build the platform. The next phase will be applying the shelving unit. Just haven't fully designed it yet.

mercator

Well, if you're going to do it, then do it right I suppose. Nice job!
I presume the duratex was left over from a speaker building project?
I made a similar thing out of melamine coated particle board and it's a bit slippery when covered in sweat, the duratex would be better.

lyrictenor1

Beautiful build!

However, please excuse my ignorance, but what is the purpose of the beautifully built enclosure around the InsideRide unit?

bianchi10

Thanks! A buddy of mine who influenced me to invest into the emotion rollers also built up a platform similar to mine except he put railing on his because he didn't have any roller experience and wanted to feel more secure. He had done the research on what type of rubberized paint would work for our design. This ended up being a great option. He bought it and I paid him for my half. It is more of a hardened plastic than rubber from what I can tell so far, but It is very durable and the texture (from the texture rollers we used) helps give some grab when it's wet.

mercator

It is nice stuff, I've used it on some speaker projects. But it isn't cheap. Another option is truck bed liner.

bianchi10

Thank you. For ME, it has a couple purposes.

1) having the platform that is higher up allows for easier getting on and off the bike instead trying to mount your bike while standing below it while it's on the rollers.

2) It helps protect my rollers while not in use.

3) keeps clean up nice and simple without having to worry about my sweat getting all over the floor. The sealed texture keeps the wood safe and I can wipe it up after a ride or even let it dry up if I wanted and can clean it up later

4) I plan to build a shelf or 2 off of it so I can have easy access to things while I'm training, such as extra water, coffee, phone, towel...etc.

5) It looks cool and I wanted my training area to look complete, but Is it necessary? Absolutely not.

cycledogg

Nice job Nick, enjoy the rollers!

lyrictenor1

Sounds good!

bianchi10

Thank you! So far so good. Smart trainer/rollers has been an amazing change. Im so impressed with how life-like it feels. I seriously recommend anyone who is thinking of doing Zwift to try the 7 day free trial. Part of the reason I held off for so long with zwift was I didn't want to deal with registering and such. Was so simple and quick. Was able to ride within 10 min of getting on the website to start the process.

kingston 

I made my own platform and shelf too but was much lazier about it Yours looks a million times better



I tried the peloton app over the winter and couldn't really get into it. Maybe I'll treat myself to the smart resistance control and a zwift subscription next winter.

whitemax

Really pro job, can't wait to see a video of you Zwifting, hopefully as you transition from the flat up a grade of some percentage.

bianchi10

Thank you. Let's be honest, what I did is extreme an not necessary but it does look great. At the end of the day as long as what you have gets the job done, that is all that matters. Everything else is just a bonus and plus to have! I do love going out to look at my new set up even when its not in use.

To be honest, the zwift and smart resistance is amazing and keeps me pretty focused.

bianchi10

Im planning on doing another video, but you wont really visually see any changes when I hit a hill other than me shifting down and perhaps see the effort that is being given. But I'm hoping to get a small video up shortly