Bike Forums - Rollers vs. Trainer

Bike Forums (https://www.bikeforums.net/forum.php)

- Road Cycling (https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/)

- - Rollers vs. Trainer (https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/989279-rollers-vs-trainer.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fox Farm (Post 17466331)

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.

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grambo (Post 17463922)

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.

+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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doge (Post 17467353)

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wesley36 (Post 17467127)

Oh the humanity! Two whole posts on the subject.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doge (Post 17467353)

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

Train training or RV motion rollers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Square Wheels (Post 17466757)

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.

I think it is "woolgathering" hehe. The mind wanders just a little, and BOOM :-). It seemed like I was ready to escape the hallway, so I went to just a wall on one side....did ok for a few days then started falling off the darn things. So, went back to the hallway. I actually have not touched them Dec or January, rode about 20 hours on them in November, but got enough outdoors hours Dec and January that I did not need them. Might give them them a shot tmw tho.

Bill