E Motion "floating" rollers vs regular rollers?
 

Sorry, this has probably been covered before several times but the search is not working for me...

I just finished a fun session of rollers down in the basement, and I was wondering if those who have tried the newfangled e-motion floating rollers can explain how/why they are different (or better) than my cheapo performance rollers which seem to work just fine for me....as far as I can tell one benefit may be that it is easier to ride the e-motion rollers while standing up...true? Any other real benefit?

Doug

emotions are more a combination trainer/roller than pure roller. you can really crank on the resistance and get the watts up. you can even sprint out of the saddle.

You can get the resistance up extremely high on normal rollers too. My kreitler headwind allows me to hammer at over 500 watts without ever getting out of my small ring.

The sprinting out of the saddle is the real benifit to the emotions.

"I just finished a fun session of rollers down in the basement"

That's all you need to know.

As stated before you can do standing springs, jump out of the saddle, etc. They make riding rollers better. Plus, you can get huge resistance out of them, I've hit over 800w in just the first resistance setting.

I have no bike control skills whatsoever, so these rollers were the perfect solution for my indoor training.
I'll continue posting the link to Dr Will's review of these since I think it's probably the best unbiased review of these as any I've ever read.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?470210

The variable magnetic resistance setting is also great.. you can set between 0-3, 0 being minimal, 3 probably being close to Cat1-2 training.

I think with a mag unit on a regular set of rollers you can get pretty good resistance also. But as others have stated, with the emotion it is the sudden burst of speeds (sprints) and out of the saddle climbing/sprinting where the emotions really shine. Reportedly, you cannot ride off them no matter how hard you ride. This is not true on regular rollers. I am 125lbs adn have ridden off mine on multiple occasions.

Please explain how the Kreitler Headwind resistance unit works. Is it wind in conjunction with magnetic resistance? In other words, as you increase the wind "resistance", the true magnetic resistance is increased?

Also, I have no way to compare my new E-motion rollers to any other type since I'd never ridden rollers before these. However, my son owns a set of the Performance Travel Tracs and said that my E-motions are much smoother and offer greater resistance at the zero setting resulting in a better workout/training session. He said that basically he can only spin on his rollers.

As far as getting out of the saddle, herein is where I discovered one design flaw of the E-motions--the lack of rubber pads/stops on the bottom. I had mine on my tile floor and the weight shift that resulted from my first attempt to stand and hammer caused it to slide across the floor and me to fall, scaring the ish out of my wife. A trainer mat solved that. Should've filmed it for posterity!

I find 'em to be well-designed and well-built. I love 'em.

FYI, you can add resistance to your rollers and convert them to free motion if you're willing to spend a little time and not much money. There are several threads on DIY free motion rollers. Some are very elaborate while others are pretty simple.

To answer your question, the free motion keeps the rollers under you when you ride out of saddle. You can ride out of saddle on normal rollers too, it's just easier with the free motion rollers. They also feel a little more natural.

Nope, no mag resistance. There is a belt that is connected to the fan and the front roller. As you increase your speed, the fan spins faster, causing more resistance on the fan (just like you experience as you try to go from 20mph to 25mph on the road, more wind resistance). Then, to make the whole thing adjustable, there is a flap on the side that allows you to open or close the fan anywhere from 0-100%. The more you have it open, the more air flows through the fan blades, and the more wind resistance it feels. There is absolutely no way to ever max out your gears with the headwind. Kreitler claims that at 40mph with the flap all the way open, the fan provides an extra 2000 watts. Today I did a 20 minute CP test with the fan about 75% open, and my average speed was around 18 mph at 300 watts.

The fan is great because since its just cutting through fluid, the resistance feels exactly like the road, not the odd feeling resistance that magnetic resistor units provide. In addition, the fan has an extreme out put. I can go all out and never get overheated on that thing.

Your report is false. The E-motions have some little skateboard wheels that you can bump against befor riding off, but you can certainly fall off. I've done it a couple times, both times watching TV where I was just zoning out and got too far to the side (up against the little wheel) and couldn't correct myself. That said, I've watched a lot of TV on these things and the little wheels work very well unless you are just in la-la land.

Like others have said, I think the key benefit is riding out of the saddle, banging against the sides, sprinting, etc. without going off the rollers (front, back, or sides). They are very forgiving, I was out of the saddle the first night I had them. I don't have any experience with regular rollers, but I'm guessing that the learning curve is much faster with the e-motions and there is a greater margin for error. If you are on a tight budget, I'd bet you can get all the same benefits from regular rollers, just with a little more practice (and concenration). The e-motions are pricey, but the workmanship/engineering on them is absolutely top notch and the floating design works very well.

No magnets on my headwind unit. It is a squirrel cage fan. The housing has an ajustable door to let air in to the fan. The more the door opens, the more air gets to the fan, which increases resistance. They also claim that the resistance increases at an increasing rate, similar to the real world. I don't doubt it.

Although I don't have any personal experience with the Kreitler Headwind unit, I've heard that it can be very loud. For that reason, I went with TruTrainer rollers and built a DYI freemotion platform.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLKzrTzP_os
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StcY7bG1xzs

emotion
 

I hate how loud some rollers and trainers can be. Emotion rollers are not loud, even when set to max resistance. Also, the kreitler fork mount I just got fits (tight) over my Emotion rollers. This allows me to do very hard intervals and not worry about falling over.

I was referring more to riding straight off the front of them by sprinting or doing standing climbing drills, not riding off the side.

Although, it is interesting that the bumpers are not completely fool proof.

Thanks for the replies...pretty much answers my question.

If I had money to burn I would get a set of these, but for my purposes I will stick with my low-budget rollers...I also have a stationary "wind trainer" that I use for intervals when I feel like torturing myself.

Doug

You are right about not being able to ride off the front or back. The rear wheel is 'captured' by mini rollers that make this impossible. On the DIY versions of the e-motions, I have not seen anyone replicate the mini-rollers, just the in-line skate wheels that keep you from riding off the side.