Thinking About Rollers
 

Thinking about getting rollers (maybe used) to help develop certain skills, including riding no-handed. I don’t have the confidence to try it on the road, too afraid of crashing. lol Also, not a fan of riding in/around traffic until I get more comfortable on the bike.

Would it be worth the investment? And what other skills can rollers help develop, if any?

Thanks in advance.

IMO rollers are invaluable. They will teach you to pedal smoothly. Whether you will be able to ride no-handed is not a given. Some people can and some never get there. But, riding them has to improve your smoothness.

Yes, rollers are a nice thing to have. They will help you hold a line better and help with pedaling technique. As far as riding no handed, I find it easier on the road than on the rollers

Agree. It is much more difficult to ride no hands on rollers than on the road. Plus when you fall you fall from a greater height

If your goal is to help develop a very smooth pedal stroke and have a way to ride when the outside conditions are not good, rollers are a fine idea.

You're afraid of crashing on the road, but you'll ride no handed on rollers?

It's a lot harder to ride no-handed on rollers.

I suggest finding a grassy field if you want to learn to ride no-handed.

I'll disagree with all of the above and assert that riding on the rollers does just about nothing for improving riding on the road. Riding "smoothly" really is much ado about nothing. You want to improve your handling skills, you need to ride on the road. Nothing about riding on rollers is really equivalent to that.

I'm guessing the OP's thinking and mine are similar: you can't crash too badly indoors on rollers if set up in a doorway/narrow hallway. I've ridden 2,000 road miles this year and it's obvious that I still wobble around inefficiently cruising on smooth straight stretches.

What do you mean when you say you wobble? Your body wobbles, or your wheels don't track in a straight line?

Is it a problem regardless of cadence or power, or do you find the issue exacerbated when you're riding very easily, and less of an issue when you're putting power to the pedals?

I've found that the faster I go, the easier it is to maintain a rail-straight line (also the easier it is to sit up right with the hands off the bars, though that may only be up to a certain speed). I've also found that it's much easier to bounce around a bit on the bike with a higher cadence with little power output. Dropping the cadence, upping the power, or both, tends to cement the person to the seat a bit more.

Spinning out on rollers with no resistance makes it much more difficult to ride "smoothly" than it does with magnetic resistance or something of the like. I can do threshold workouts on rollers with resistance, but without it I'd be spinning really quickly and wobbling quite a bit more simply because there's not enough force to keep me in place. I suspect this is true of most people.

Don't think....
 

My wheels don't track in a straight line regardless of cadence or power, though TBH on the road, both my cadence and power fall in quite narrow bands. I'm light and haven't done any real training, so I don't have much power, and I naturally like to spin. Not expecting rollers to magically make me a better cyclist, but figure my balance should improve. Just need to clean up the clutter in my house so I can actually roll my rollers out!

I totally disagree with rubiksoval. Rollers help improve riding skills in many ways. It certainly improves cadence, endurance, balance and to pedal smoothly. They helped me in all that I listed and made me a better rider in groups and racing. I have used them for over 20 years now. The ones I use are from SportCrafters. YMMV
Cheers

One thing to try if you find it hard to follow a straight line outside is to try to actually ride within the white line on the side of the road (or a constant distance from it). You'll have to look ahead a bit where you want to be and not down at your front wheel, but over time, it will help condition you to "holding a line".

How does it improve cadence? Anything you do with cadence you can do on the road.

How does it improve endurance? Probably erodes endurance because people generally train less indoors than they do out.

Balance? Any 5 year old that just learned how to ride a bike can balance. Rollers involve balancing in a particular spot in which you don't ever move from. Completely opposite of the road, in which you must negotiate turns, significant changes in speed, debris, obstacles, other riders, cars, etc. Totally different "balancing" needs.

Pedal smoothness? That's a nonsequitor as putting power to the pedals is not a smooth motion and in fact is more effectively done through a stomping motion, at least for higher power outputs, which is something you don't do on rollers.

Riding rollers makes you good at riding rollers. They have nothing to do with riding in a group or in a race. You get good at those things by doing those things.

Wobbly riding...Generally, it is due to arms being too stiff (locked arms) and / or too much input from the handlebar. Also, looking down versus looking ahead while going more slowly can cause wobble. Also, juniors tend to wobble.

As a trackie, I ride rollers a lot - warmup, cool down, high cadence and etc. In general, rollers, without an added resistance feature, are too easy for longer, lower cadence, harder efforts.

I like it when my competitors do not use rollers and encourage that behavior.:D

Many things which can be done on the road are simply easier and more convenient on rollers.

Keep in mind that we are talking about specific skill drills, such as riding at high cadence for an extended period. When was the last time anyone here spun 110 RPM for an hour on the road? It can be done but it is very convenient to hop on rollers for an hour of high cadence.

This is just an example.

For me, rollers are for when you can't or won't ride outside.
If you have to ride inside, you can be on a fixed trainer or rollers.
A fixed trainer is like pedals on a box. There's no feeling of anything except resistance. Sure, augment with Zwifty-games or whatever, but you get your workout with minimal fun.
Rollers change the indoor game because you have to actually balance and focus. I could "almost sleep" on my fixed trainer, eyes closed, earphones singing, lights off, whatever.
Rollers, you can fall off. Of course, there's no forward momentum, so when you fall off, you fall off sideways. And if you're clipped-in, you're probably going down fairly hard.
Rollers make you constantly pay attention to keeping the bike on line, and there's something to that which some folks in this discussion aren't acknowledging. And, yes, that in itself can/may/might improve the skills of a rider.
But you still just keep staring at that wall in front of you. Boooooring, but better than fixed trainer for me.

I think this is the core of your argument but it suggests that pedaling amounts to one big muscle in each leg pushing alternately.

Aside from that muscles don't actually push, muscle strength is useless without the nervous system coordinating the contraction of many muscles in the right sequence,

so training is as much about developing an efficient sequence as developing strong muscles.

Stomping on the pedals produces high power but is inefficient. If it was efficient, you would sprint the whole race, not just a tiny fraction here & there,

and if pro sprinters only stomped, they would not be there to contest the finish. The idea that Mark Cavendish does not pedal efficiently for the majority of the time when he is not sprinting is ridiculous.


So rollers can
- improve endurance by training an efficient muscle sequence
- allow riding during times & conditions when road is not available
- allow specific training without distractions of traffic, wind etc.
- provide a good way to test & adjust fit, equipment changes, etc.
- train holding a line- essential for riding in traffic & groups
- improve balance on the bike generally- what changes from 1st time on rollers to later proficiency? Better balance. That this would not transfer to other riding is also ridiculous. Trainer riding OTOH does nothing for and may harm balance.


I'm sure you know all this- just tossing it out as a counter viewpoint.

You kind of went off in another direction there.
What is pedaling smoothly, then? Pedaling in a circle? Delivering power fluidly? Because you're not delivering power in a full circle, obviously, and you're not even pulling up on the pedal, you're simply unweighting. So all of that pedaling is essentially stomping as power is produced on the downforce.

I think you just made up the improved endurance part. An efficient muscle sequence? That's only available on rollers?!
So does a trainer.
So does a trianer.
So does a trainer.
Disagree. Groups and traffic dictate vastly more complicated and substantial changes in direction, as well as reaction times.
Balance is always utilized on a bike, regardless of riding on rollers or not.

How does a trainer harm balance? Within 1 second of pushing off outside you've regained balance.

Rollers are not this magical training tool that everyone always tries to make them out to be. They're simply a way to ride indoors. Just like a trainer, except for the falling off part and the potential decreased ability to complete higher power workout if you don't have extra resistance. Plus, ever tried taking turns in a group on Zwift on rollers? "Fun".

Which you can do on a trainer, of course.

But a better question would be why you think you need to ride 110 rpm for an hour, ever?

Hour record.

Spinning 110 RPM for an hour is just a drill. I don't need to do it but like any other drill it helps develop other useful skills and habits.

For example, riding at high cadence for an extended period has helped me spin faster on long steady 2% or 3% grades. I'm just able to turn my legs over faster, that's all.

Another example is riding a fixed gear bike with fast road riders. Keeping up with reasonably fast guys on $6k carbon Di2 bikes when I'm on a 48x15 or 48x16 fixed-gear requires some spinning. A paceline on a flat course can force bursts as high as 130 RPM and steady riding at 110.

Again, an hour at 110 RPM is just a drill, that's all. I do it early in the season and typically on a fixed gear bike. Rollers make drills like this very convenient. I'd imagine a trainer would as well but I don't have a trainer, just rollers.


-Tim-

Yeah. I guess I don't get the drills things either. Drills and "rollers make you smooth" just screams "1980s" made-up cycling nostalgia.

I mean, spinning faster on 2-3% grades? That's a function of gearing and power. Either you're producing more power in the same gear, or you just get an easier gear. Why would you pedal faster on such a specific topographical feature, but not on the other 95% of terrain you cover?

Limiting yourself to a single-speed gear for group rides? Eh, if that's fun. I don't see how that would possibly make you a better rider, though, save for maybe some completely random situation in which your cable breaks or battery dies and you're in a specific gear, but again, that's not something most would choose to do and I don't see any physiological benefit to it.

Just old-school stuff.

People often hit the hills at higher intensity than the flats. Either because they're non-climbers and have no choice, or just because the relative performance boost for increasing power is bigger on climbs than on flats and downhills. And people tend to choose higher cadences at higher power.

On the flip side, some people seemingly also have an easier time delivering high torque in situations with lower crank inertial load (such as climbing), which can result in them choosing lower cadences than would be expected given the power they're doing.

In the same way that training wheels make it harder to learn to ride- you get used to not balancing.

"I'll disagree with all of the above and assert that riding on a trainer does just about nothing for improving riding on the road"

Do you agree with the above statement?