This is my experience as well

I've been doing two sessions/week spinning as fast as I can for 1.5 to 2 hours per session. There were times where I spent an hour above 95 RPM and I would try to hold 100 RPM for as long as I can.

It has resulted in higher cadence on the road and cadence is less likely to fall off on sustained 1% to 3% grades. I'm better able to maintain rapid leg turnover for long periods of time.

It has trained core muscles slightly - able to hold still rather than rocking back and forth as much. This lets my arms, shoulders and neck relax.

The effects could be felt after only four or five sessions and it has become a regular part of my routine.


-Tim-

What are you referring to? Forces applied to the pedals that are resisted only by the structure of the divetrain and not transferred to the wheel? It may be difficult to measure directly, but it's all very quantifiable. And I hope it is obvious - that it not a stretch to say - that stomping or applying any downward force on a pedal that is already at the 6:00 position (or the rest of the way around until it gets past 12:00 again on a typical road bike) will get exactly zero energy to the wheel.

In other words, stomping may be effective, but stomping through the very bottom of the stroke -stomping so forcefully that one bounces up and down - is a huge waste of energy.

It seems to me that what really works best is not so much stomping as a pulsating kind of mashing.

Stuff like this is what I'm referring to. You're going to such an extreme to make a point that it's completely beyond the scope of what is actually being discussed in the first place, i.e., that rollers are an effective tool to improving "smoothness" (whatever that is) on the road.

Nothing about any of that addresses the assertion that the "smoothness" that rollers supposedly create transfers or is useful for the road.

How did your experience transfer to actually riding on the road?

And, did such experience you think you gained come only as a result of being on the rollers?

Not a stretch at all, and it is quantifiable. You used a rather silly example, but in the real world, any force applied to the pedal which is not at right angles to the crankarm is wasted in proportion to the vector analysis of said force. Hence "pedaling circles," which doesn't mean pulling up on the backstroke but rather to applying force normal to the crankarm. Which is not really very simple, takes a lot of practice, and rollers do encourage such practice.

It is quantifiable by some pedal-based powermeters.

If you are talking about max power in a sprint than maybe but if you are suggesting average power over an entire race leg than you are totally wrong. Or maybe you sprint during an entire race, if you do than I apologize. I would like to add that it is not just about turning circles it is about learning to control your power letting up at the bottom of the stroke and applying power at the top becoming as smooth as possible.

I just happened to think of a qualitative test to see if rollers might help your riding: Get on your bike, put it in a low gear, spin it up to 150 rpm and hold it there for a few seconds. If you can do that without any bouncing, you either already have rollers, are a track cyclist, or in any case don't need them. If you can't, or bounce, rollers might be in your future.

This little test tells you if you are applying force normal to the crankarms. If you are, you simply don't bounce. If you aren't, you bounce.

Anecdote: back when I was stronger, maybe 15 years ago or so, I used to lead a mixed group of geared, SS, and fixie bikes. On my SS bike I could hold my place in the line up to exactly 137 cadence, my aerobic limit, which must have been ~25 mph. I couldn't pull that fast, only ~105 cadence on the front, weakling that I am. But I didn't bounce. Rollers.

An excellent roller drill is to pedal steadily at 115-120 cadence for quite a long period without a break, say 15-45 minutes. I do these once a week. Must have done nearly 1000 of them. That doesn't sound too bad, but the trick is to do it in HR zone 2, i.e. not much excess energy expenditure from the fast pedaling. If you have power or watch your speed, that'll track improvement at the same HR.

So then you'd say that trainer, Zwift, etc. also "Doesn't really have much to do with the road, though"?

I don't see how you get that rollers don't help with holding a line, close quarters riding.

Personal anecdotes (see sig)

Shortly after being introduced to rollers (a few weeks) a good friend noticed that I kept a much better line on the road.

I had been using rollers during the winter months to keep a minimum fitness level.

For years I would do 40-45 minutes at about 90rpm with higher cadence intervals.

Recently I decided to let a bunch of air out of the tires and up the workout to 1 hour. I kept the same avg cadence and still did the high cadence intervals. This recent change has me noticing more strength on the road and ability to sustain harder efforts. When the weather allows for a more regular outdoor riding schedule I'll keep closer track of my numbers, and just observe how well I do when riding with the stronger groups.

Anecdotal, yes.

Here is how you do it! I love my rollers.

My pedaling is smoother. I don't rock on the bike. I can go up or down in rpm's more easily and my ride is more fluid. The French call it riding with "Supplesse" which, I think, means suppleness. I do credit rollers. As you know, if you ride rollers you have no choice but to be smooth. I think this is very important when beginning cycling. I believe this gave me a solid foundation from which to develop as a cyclist. FWIW, I don't think it's an either/or situation. I think rollers and trainers can give you different benefits. If I was a serious cyclist, as in racer, I'd use both in the off-season.

I should have mentioned that a lot of pros train with rollers and a quick search will find coaches on-line who recommend rollers. I don't think people who ride bikes for a living would spend their off-season training on rollers if there was no on road benefit.

One of the "How to Use Rollers" type videos on YouTube (possible the one above) says that Froome is big on rollers.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...e-chris-froome
"His room was at the end of the corridor and in his room he had one of those spinning trainers, and he'd put his bicycle on the rollers and off he'd go. In the mornings, the afternoons, the evenings, you'd hear him spinning away. While other boys sat in the common room watching television, he was in his room pedalling his bicycle."

In his own words in "The Climb"
https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=...ollers&f=false
By the time I was sixteen years old, I had started training during temr-time in South Africa too. I saved up for a set of rollers - a piece of indoor training equipment - for my room at school and I would spend hours on it.

[David] Kinjah had set me believing that once I had developed physically, the mystery of how to eb a full-time cyclist woudl be solved. I simply needed to keep training along the same lines. if I gave time to the bike, the bike would give the strength to my legs.
It was a healthy position to take. I couldn't force the muscles to grow. I needed to spin more. Kinjah always encouraged me to pedal at a high cadence, instead of grinding in a heavy gear. By the time I was sixteen, I was riding the bike on a set of rollers in my room.

You guys have me interested. My question is about rollers noise. How do they compare to a loud magnetic trainer? I'm forced to the shed outside in winter because of how loud my magnetic trainer is.

Over the years I've had two injuries to my right foot/ankle so I have a difference in range of motion. I ride rollers, and have for years. When using the rollers they sound like whirr WHIRR whirr WHIRR. I have no choice but not to be smooth.

I ignore it and just ride.

I tried this morning on the rollers and could hold around 135 before I started to bounce. Looks like I need more practice.

That's pretty dang good.

My fluid resistance rollers are pretty quiet. There is a certain amount of rumbling of tires on rollers on wood floor. Ask TimothyH about his magnetic resistance rollers.

That's really good. I've done 120 but I'm old so.........