In the 23 years that I have used rollers, I have not observed that the resistance unit plays any role in keeping you upright. The key to staying up on rollers is to relax your shoulders and look forward. Looking down and tensing up causes you to waver back and forth. My biggest problem is that I get bored on them, even with music playing or a movie playing on the laptop. I am good for about 45 minutes and then I think about getting off of them, but at this point, I have broken a good sweat. So, I would say that rollers are really good for maintaining or developing cardiovascular base and learning to have a relaxed pedal rhythm.

I have both and there are a couple of downsides to rollers to keep in mind that have been mentioned in some of the previous posts.

1) I find using rollers for hard intervals to be challenging. If you push yourself to the point where you feel a bit wobbly at the end of the interval rollers can be problematic. You have to keep pedaling at a reasonable pace to maintain your balance and if you push an interval to exhaustion you can run into problems (loose your balance). Given I have had this experience I tend to hold back a bit on my intervals on rollers for safety sake.
2) Rollers are not great it you want to watch a movie / sports during an extended low to moderate intensity ride. You need to maintain decent concentration while on the rollers (to remain centered) and if you get caught up in a movie or game it's easy to drift off to the side of the rollers and run into problems (fall off).

Ideally having both is the way to go but if I had to choose one I would go with a fluid based trainer for overall versatility.

Love that video. It's right on so many levels.

Speak for yourself. FWIW, I tested my FTP last weekend on my rollers (w/ resistance). Being in control while deep in the red is a valuable thing to practice.

Do your research pal. If you are in control at the end of a FTP test your not doing it right. Seeing stars, dizzy, barely able to stand, ready to puke ... that's how a FTP test is done.

Rollers are cooler, of course, but that's a comparatively recent development. I used a set of RollTrac rollers (I'll be amazed if anyone remembers those) from 1974 until the RacerMate came out in the early '80s, then ditched them. Figured out that 45 minutes doing intervals is far more beneficial than spinning at moderate effort.

Also figured out that rollers train you how to spin smoothly on rollers but are about as useful as a unicycle for road smoothness. Hot flash: if you can ride 50 feet on a bike without falling over, you can ride as smoothly as any roller fanatic if you so choose. Learning "smoothness" equals learning pack etiquette, not pedaling technique.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=428045

Lol, 41 it up

Perhaps you should look up the definition of "threshold" and then give some thought as to why it is called a "Functional Threshold Power" test (just a suggestion) :) .

Perhaps instead of absurd rhetorical overkill, you do that search and join the real world of training with power

Determining Functional Threshold Pace (FTP) | TrainingPeaks

NB
Note the lack of puking/passing out/falling over/head exploding/spontaneous combustion

Joe Friel's Blog: A Quick Guide to Setting Zones

Alex's Cycle Blog: The Sins of Sins (Testing FTP #2)

Alex's Cycle Blog: The seven deadly sins

You can do this very briefly, but it's really not much like actually riding out of the saddle. (Trainer isn't exactly the same either, but much much closer.)

I kind of amazes me at how fast some threads go down hill.

This one had great potential... simple cost benefit question. Some thoughtful insight... and then, WHAM.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YFQdLLKxiww

if you don't mind spending the money, inside ride rollers might likely be the best training purchase you ever make. The rollers move with your body and you can do just about anything on there, including out of the saddle sprints. The whole 'learn to spin' thing is utterly over rated anyway, and with the resistance unit on here you can simulate pretty much anything. I know I find being locked into a set position to be mentally and physically challenging. I do much better on rollers, and I find I can ride these for hours without some of the difficulties I have with other trainers.

Exactly Manweiser. It turned into a "i know more than you do about max workout heart rates, etc." Where in Ct are you? I grew up in Newtown/Danbury in the 1960s/70s.

But back to the OP question(s), if he is not really sure which to get, look for something used on Ebay or similar to test them out before investing $200 - $400. I found a stationary Magura trainer at the Salvation Army. I took it home and tried it but liked my rollers more because they were much more challenging to master. Once comfortable on them, they are fun! I think that for big aerobic work outs, go to the gym for spinning classes. Whereas I do find them useful, the fit of the stationary spinning bikes is never as good as my own road bike.

I have a set, I have not graduated out of the hallway yet with a wall on each side however :-).

Bill

I fell off of mine too many times. I built this.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=428263

ok, I'll bite...how do you fall off inside ride rollers?

Dunno? The last time I was watching Netflix and came off really fast. I think it's been from watching TV and not paying attention to the sides. Now I have wood on either side of me and even if I watch TV I can see it in my periphery.

Central CT near Middletown. Been here for 25+ years, but moving closer to Litchfield hills in the near future. The wife's family is from the Danbury/Bethel area. Always love riding south of there. Great country roads.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=428304

So less talking about bikes and bike riding and more talking about central CT geography and your family history. Sorry for derailing that discussion...

You live in LA… there are only a couple days a year we can’t ride outside.

That said, I bought a trainer for TV time. I try to get a workout while I watch. Rollers would be useless for me.

My dog likes to lay next to or in front of my bike when I am on the trainer. Rollers really seem like a bad idea in my house.

+1
I'm pretty safe on the rollers while watching tv, but during the last olympics I rode right off while watching the snowboard halfpipe competition.

We have both. Trainers are used for warming up. Rollers are for riding better.
I've posted this before - but appropriate here.
https://vimeo.com/109371142

Cool :thumb:
Reminds me of Einsteins gedankenexperiment: if a rider is spinning on rollers on board a train that is travelling at the speed of light, what is the speed of the spoke at the top of the wheel?

Relative to the train - about 60mph. Relative to what you measured the train speed from - the same as the bottom spoke. But Strava would flag it.
We did get a Strava KOM for this.

Oh the humanity! Two whole posts on the subject.

Train training or RV motion rollers!