So I had to really good riders tell me they got rid of their trainers and are using rollers now. Say it's better. What do you guys think?

For me I would love it if it is....they are cheaper and more readily available on good ole craigs.

New to rollers...Still have my trainer...Plan on using both...

I find the rollers are good for working on form and longer intervals below threshold...

The trainer is nice because you just focus on shear power and do not need to concentrate on positioning and form, on the rollers if you don't do that you're on the ground...

Another issue is resistance...The rollers I have do not have adequate resistance for high watt intervals...

Both

There are several threads about this already if you want to do a search. I actually have both and I think rollers are way more fun. The trainer is really really boring-- worst than the stationary bike at the gym. You can get DVD's to make it better but personally I think it's a device of pure torture.

On the other hand, I just got a set of rollers and I think they are more fun to ride. In the beginning, they require practice and concentration but they just feel less boring. Both the trainer and the roller offer different workouts. Rollers help you with your balance and pedal stroke but they won't help you climb any hills. Because you can change the resistance with a trainer, it can help build up strength and power.

nahhh..this is the 41...redundancy is the norm

I ride 3-4 months a year indoors (100-120+) hours. The only way to survive without going insane is to ride rollers, they make it less miserable. I have a trainer but never use it. I use E-motion rollers for all my indoor riding. I can do hard intervals on them, sprints, etc.

^^^And I would probably do the same if I had a set of E-motions....

The other issue I have is that my wife also races so that would mean two set of E-motion rollers...That get's pricey...Plus we'd need to figure out where to put them so we could safely mount and dismount...

check out the sticky "before you make another roller thread". Check out my rollers and my free motion setup. I have had them for a week now and ridden every day for at least an hour. Pretty inexpensive and works just as good as a set of e motions.

I can always send you my detailed build list.

rollers

its winter, which means all your riding is around z2/z3 intensity, so there's no use for a trainer. (my rollers have resistance if i want to do threshold intervals, but without resistance i can get up to and hold around 320 watts).

/thread

I got my set of rollers on CL for $50. they are performance brand so not the best of quality but they are getting the job done. They are in pretty good shape. I looked on CL and there were several to chose from depending on what state your from. The hardware ended up costing me around $40 and it is great. It is true you need to concentrate when on rollers, but when you set up a "free motion" like these, you dont have to as much. yesterday I was surfing this forum on my phone while spinning. Today I popped in american flyers and I did a 90 minute ride on them.

personally i feel that free motion rollers defeat the purpose of real rollers. With free motion, you dont even need to pay attention, its just like riding a trainer.

Still need to concentrate WAAAY more than a trainer. Thats your personal opinion I guess so I cant argue that, but I disagree with you.

sort of kind of not really. if you cant fall off the sides and cant fly off the front (without serious work) then you dont need ot really concentrate.

also it allows you to get away with way to sloppy of a pedal stroke compared to regular rollers.

you can still fly off the sides (Even with bumpers like mine). all it takes is for you to get to cocky and not concentrate and have the bars do a sudden twist on you and it wont matter if your in the center or near the sides, you will be on your face.

Do those who ride rollers feel they are more comfortable than trainers? More of a realistic road feel at least? I can't tolerate the trainer after about an hour. I only have a trainer now, but looking to make a change.

that takes alot of work. you still have alot of time to correct it before you fall off the side. Personally i just recommend regular rollers, because it will be more interesting than a trainer, and you get the additional work on your core/pedal stroke. on free motion, you're only getting the added "fun".

There's not much of a difference. you get a little more of a road feel, but your butt and hands will still hurt more than if you where riding on the road (i took comfort as butt pain or hand pain)

what are you talking about only doing z2/z3 efforts indoors over the winter??

Yes that is the case right now, but once January rolls around there will be z4/z5 efforts and that's where the trainer wins out for me...My race season starts first week of April so the build will begin January 1st...

For those complaining about trainer workouts and boredom. I have one answer...STRUCTURE...Trying to ride a trainer for 60mins, without a structured plan, is pure torture, but do a 15min warmup with some spin ups, 2x20min efforts (sub-treshold) with 3-5min recovery between, then some 2min efforts at 105%-110% of threshold and a 10-15min cooldown. You'll be verging on 90min and it really does not seem so bad. I find you start small on the trainer and work from there. Right now my sessions are about 70min and by the time January hits 90-120min will be the norm with 3hrs stints on the weekends. Last season I did 40hrs in January exclusively on the trainer and only the weekend 3hr sessions became torturous.

both.

High intensity intervals on the trainer.
Spinning and "base miles" on the rollers. My rollers simply don't have the resistance to get anything out of an interval workout.

I have both. I see them as totally mutually exclusive. If I had to get only one though, it would (unfortunately) be a trainer. On rollers I can get a good zone 2/3 aerobic (subthreshold) workout and work on pedal stroke efficiency and fluid pedaling. But on a trainer I can do threshold intervals and high intensity anaerobic sprints to the point of almost puking and passing out (sort of). I would find this impossible on the rollers. But if I just rode the trainer like the rollers with no structured workout I would go completely insane. Doing a Sufferfest video or Spinnervals helps me to actually push myself to the brink and actually makes it somewhat enjoyable. So, like I said, if I had to choose one it would be a trainer. You can still do lower intensity aerobic workouts on it as well as technique stuff like one legged drills and super high cadence work but I don't think it would be practical to do super high intensity brief intervals on rollers. . .at least not for me. I have not used the e-motion type of rollers before but from all the videos I have watched it seems like they would allow one to cheat a bit and get a bit sloppy on technique--more upper body movement and choppy pedal stroke. I suppose one option would be to get a set of rollers and use them standard alternating with putting them on the e-motion setup possibly with an added resistance unit.

I agree the ideal is both.

But if you could choose only one, pick rollers.

The idea of adding resistance to rollers is good on paper, but if you start doing high effort intervals on rollers, your form WILL suffer (even just a little) and you WILL fall over. It's not dangerous, since you are going at 0MPH but it is still annoying.

Having used both extensively, I honestly wouldn't even bother with the rollers, seriously.

Everyone hoo-haas bout the "TECHNIQUE" of rollers, but that's the biggest oversold piece of hype, ever. seriously. If you think you'll become a superior bike handler bike riding rollers - get what - nope. Won't happen. All rollers do is smooth out your acceleration. They do NOTHING for awareness, cornering, stopping, etc. You even have to ride a bit unnaturally on regular rollers because you have to be so still - any little jerk, including standing up briskly, will throw you off the front. Having ridden now seriously for 4 years, I rarely ride outdoors in the stock-still position I do on the rollers.

I also will include that last year, I rode the rollers a lot due to being forced indoors due to scheduling before the outdoor season started, and I honestly felt a lot worse outdoors than had I just stayed on the trainer. This was definitelyk because the rollers train you (force you) to ride dead-straight upright. Even a slight body tilt, such as on a turn, is unacceptable on a rollers - you'll go off the side. Went to outdoor riding, and was shocked at how poor I was at even moderate downhill curves, as I was so locked into riding deadbolt upright.

My acceleration was smooth, but that totally doesn't matter when the pack takes off as well. If anything, you better be ready for hard, brisk accels when the outdoor season hammerfest starts, since that's how the group will try to drop you if you're riding with fast guys on a hammerhead ride. They're not going to gently accelerate to keep you there - they'll hit it hard on the go, and you'll put up over 700 watts trying to close the immediate gap.

I also honestly believe that if you are so sloppy on the road that you cannot hold a straight line, you'll have no chance on the rollers. Your best bet in that case is not to force yourself onto the rollers, but to ride outdoors until you CAN hold a line, and then get on the rollers, and rollers are 3-4x more hard to hold a straight line, if not 5-6x harder. Reality though, is in real world, how hard is it to hold a dead line once you're past basic competence? You will NEVER ride on a road surface as slippy as a roller surface. I also hear the argument that you can adjust faster if you get bumped, and while that may be true, getting bumped is far different than roller riding - you get better at recovering from bumps by practicing being bumped.

This is my experience, and others may differ, but I spent over 100 hours in the last 2 years on my rollers trying to 'prove' they were better than my trainer, and even after doing all the techniques (one hand, one leg, standing, no hands), my conclusion was clearly: trainer >>>> rollers, mainly because the technique aspect of rollers is so over-rated in my experience.

Have said this before, but there was only ONE roller-technique that is extremely useful to practice, and that is looking back over your shoulder for cars while riding. If you haven't done this on rollers, you'll be shocked at how far laterally you will veer, which is extremely dangerous in a tight paceline or even in general. Once you master this on rollers, you'll wonder how you even survived doing it with cars just 3 feet off your shoulder in the past.