Caad 8

So long story short, I have a $300 gift card for a bike shop. I'm looking at either rollers or trainers. I know the difference between both. Rollers would be good because its so hilly around here. But I also heard trainers are good for getting back from injuries.

Your thoughts?

Also, can you set a trainers resistance so low so that it works like a roller?

JoeB14

My trainer hasn't been used since I got rollers a year ago. I can't comment on which is better training-wise, but I find the rollers to be much more enjoyable (less boring) and hence I use them more than I ever used my trainer.

khatfull

Save another $100. Wait for Performance to have a big sale and pick up the Travel Trac rollers for ~$120. Use the other $280 for a demo Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. Get the best of both worlds. Both have their place for different things. If you want to do intervals a trainer would be better unless you have insanely good pro-level bike handling skills. Rollers are good for technique. You know the difference...just get both.

EDIT: Sorry, just noticed a $300 gift card from a bike shop. My solution might not work for you

Quel

I'd probably break it down by time. If you want to ride for 2-3 hours, you'll want to zone out a bit, so a trainer helps. When inside, my rides max out at about 60-90 minutes before I get bored, so rollers help keep me focused a bit and paying attention.

nitropowered

Unfortunately, you kinda need both. I use a trainer for hard workouts and hard short intervals. Rollers for spinning or moderate workouts. I can do up to about 300w on my Krietler 3" rollers before I am spinning too fast and feel unsafe.

Caad 8

hmm I see.

Are rollers very hard to ride?

I'd have a tv to watch so hopefully I wouldnt get bored too quickly.

I see

dorkypants

They do take some learning. The trick is that you're generally more stable when you're pedaling faster, and it helps to focus on something far away rather than looking close up. While I've seen videos of people pedaling no-hands and even changing their jersey while on rollers, I'm not confident enough to go there.

Personally I find I have to pay some attention or I'm liable to ride off the rollers, which results in a sudden stop and crash.

Stationary trainers are excruciatingly mind-numbing when used in a solitary situation. I'm told it helps if you're trying to learn something you listen to. If there are bike-oriented conditioning classes where you bring your bike and trainer, those can be pretty motivating too.

Quel

I put my rollers in the door. Held both sides of the frame and went no-hands, gradually letting go for a bit at a time. 5-10 minutes later I was riding rollers no-hands. Wasn't too bad. The problem is getting up to that position because you have a tendancy to push off with your arms instead of just lifting with your abs, and the rollers don't like those jerky movements.

Caad 8

Ok, so a lot of people here have both. Your rollers and trainer are hanging off a cliff, you can only save one, which one do you choose?

Velodad

Rollers

Velodad

Or a fork mount for your rollers.

availpunk9

I get sick of riding rollers after ~1.5 hrs. Unless one gets e-motions (DIYs them), it's hard to do all types of workouts on them. IMO you need both. If I was to choose one, I would get a descent fluid trainer.


I have a Minoura set with mag. resistance and just sold my CycleOps trainer to order a KK.

Brian Ratliff

What are the goals of your indoor cycling?

If you are training to race, both are ideal, but go with the trainer if you can only choose one. This way you can do the whole spectrum of indoor training rides from endurance spinning to threshold intervals. And yes, by gearing your bike down, you can reduce the resistance of your trainer to that of rollers.

But really, both is ideal. The trainer is used for high intensity interval training while the rollers are a huge help in learning bike handling technique. You will be smoother in the peloton and have more confidence handling your bike if you ride rollers regularly.

If you are riding indoors just to ride, get a set of rollers. They are more fun to play around with. In my opinion, a trainer really doesn't have a place in the garage of a non-competitive, recreational cyclist. Before I raced, I bought one just to get some workout in. Boring as all hell and it ended up sitting in the corner for two years before I really got into racing.

JacoKierkegaard

Similar question: For those who have rollers w/ resistance, do you find that the resistance unit fills the need for power training as well as (or nearly as well as) a trainer, or is it best to have a trainer also to supplement the rollers?

datlas 

I also vote for rollers. But I HATE HATE HATE intervals (still do them sometimes, but hate them).

If your goal is intervals you probably should get a stationary trainer.

khatfull

Hands down my KK Road Machine...since it's just three weeks old and cost double what the rollers cost

khatfull

But then you really have a stationary trainer.

availpunk9

Unless rollers are e-motions or some DIY variant of that, one can't do full out standing efforts or jumps. The bike will jump off the rollers. Though I do some longer intensity intervals on rollers, I prefer to use them to pack on base hours and leg speed drills.

Brian Ratliff

Yup. Had the wonderful experience of throwing my bike off the back one time last year. Hit the rear roller with my chainring, breaking one of the teeth and making me get out the file for gouges in the roller.

Pilsley

20 years ago I used to race rollers through the winter seasons. That's really all rollers are good for to be honest - a diversion from boredom. As a training tool they are just too limited in versatility for specific types of training.
Even though your stuck in the basement going nowhere, if your training session lasts longer than 30 minutes (& they all should) You need to be taking care of the very important process of eating. Hands off riding on the road is all well & good, but on rollers, even if your good at it, your taking a digger sooner or later.
Trainers allow you the freedom of movement to eat, change channel, switch music, whatever - yes to be a little lazy with your attention. They are great for specific workouts though & out of saddle exercises can be tweaked & tuned to target muscles quite precisely.

calamarichris

I've tried trainers twice and it feels unnatural and harmful to the frame to have it locked in that upright position.
I love-love-lovve my Kreitler Killer Headwind attachment--takes me over 300+W AND keeps me from getting drenched in sweat. Standing to sprint doesn't really work, but I can't imagine a fixed trainer feels that much more natural.
Also trainers tend to heat up your rear tire, which can't be good for tire lifespan.

Cyclist01012 

Save your money, ride outside!

agarose2000

I just got rollers from Performance Bike. They're solid, work well, and definitely help technique. I can ride them without too much difficulty as long as I'm concentrating - I'm not quite good enough to zone out or stand up on the pedals. But otherwise, I can go pretty hard and stay on track.

I still DEFINITELY vote for the stationary bike trainer if you've got to have only one device. You can get extremely strong just by riding the trainer, and you can do a lot of things that you can't easily or safely do on the rollers. Like hard one-legged drills, really really hard VO2 intervals, long lactate intervals where you ride so hard that you're keeling over, and sudden accelerations. There's simply too much attention needed on the rollers to just stay upright - it's MUCH harder technically than riding on the road - like 3-4x harder. This is good for high-level technique, but your hardcore power training will suffer since you'll won't be able to push into your red zone without risking falling off.

Also agree that if you're not a racer, and you just want to have some indoor mellow fun that breaks a sweat, rollers may be a good choice. But I'd definitely go stationary trainer otherwise. The technique enhancements for rollers aren't critical, either in my opinion, since riding a line at speed in a group requires much, much less technique than staying upright on rollers. I actually highly doubt acquiring excellent roller skills will make me even marginally faster on the roads - it's probably most helpful in case of hitting an unexpected rock or swerving around a crash, but I can do even those skills well enough already.

Also, when I started riding for the first time a year and a half ago, I had some more dicey skills - more swerving and less ability to hold a straight line, especially on my TT bike. Still, despite my ugly technique, I could outclimb a lot of road racers who I overhead talking about their extensive use of rollers to smooth their stroke. Sure, they had better technique, but in most non pure downhill races, having a big engine + jerky stroke will be more effective than having a smooth stroke + small engine. (Big engine + smooth stroke FTW, though!)

RichinPeoria

you live in California ... both are illegal in California .... you have to ride outdoors and enjoy your states beauty; its the law

Velodad

And rollers.