--got a set of Minoura's from a shop in Berkeley--Wheelgirl.
Very good shop--the owner had the set in the shop for
shop use and sold 'em to me for 50 bucks. They have a
really nice IRO built up there for anyone who's lookin.

i just ordered those traveltec ones from performance. can't wait. do rollers do the equivalent of what spinning a low gear on fixed gear does for pedal technique?

I too don't understand what rollers do really... but after watching one of those vids, I wanna try playing Wii Boxing on rollers!

Don't know exactly what you mean--I've only ever run about 70.
I did notice that after riding them (in the hallway so I can balance
when necessary)--after I got a smooth spin going and could stay
up that I was very conscious of how the bike was tracking--but somehow
without being focused directly on it--then I rode on the street--I could
see how it improves one's balance a lot. It also kicked my ass--
soaked through a shirt in about 10 minutes. . .maybe I'm
out of shape.

You mean completely destroy your pedal stroke as you get lazy and allow the momentum to carry you through dead spots?

No.

It will improve your pedal technique a lot, especially if you use a road bike.

heh, ride with a chain with a little slack in it. you can feel when you pedal stroke gets lazy, so then focus on a good stroke.

kaiju-velo - you look like good material for a RASH KREW recruit.

i had a set of minoura magrollers, exactly as pictured in kaiju-velos photo. they were fine...plenty smooth, fairly quiet. i rode 'em for hundreds of hours over ~15 years! replaced belts a couple times, bearings once. frame was a bit rusty at the end, functionally still perfect. near the very end, the plastic pulley on the mag unit drive shaft cracked. i contacted minoura directly and they sent me a whole new mag unit 'under warranty' (ie: free). that's standing behind your product!

but maybe i'm just a stupid consumer, because despite all that i believed the kreitler hype, and when a set of dyno-lytes came up on the local CL for $150, i went for it (got $100 for my well-used minouras).

the difference? virtually none. the kreitlers are a bit quieter, but lack the adjustability of the minouras. they do seem to be a bit higher quality (alloy endcaps, better welds on the frame). equally 'smooth'.

just another data point...

@12XU
"don't cheap out because you think it's the thing to do!"

Yeah, I'm pretty sure spending way more than you need to is the "thing to do". Most people "cheap out" because they have to feed their family. I wouldn't call that cheaping out. Show a little more respect for people that can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars on every biking accessory. One of the dumber comments I've seen in the forum in a while.

if I could rock kreitlers, I would. they feel nice and solid. even the smaller drums are nice to ride, with their little step-up platform.

currently I have a set of performance brand rollers, I think they are called the travel-trac. think they retail for about 100 bucks.
aluminum drums, folding for e-z storage, smooth, not too loud, and lots of fun to ride. I really felt my positioning and riding smooth out after using them last winter.

Rollers are worth it. Just....get a walkman or something for sessions or you'll go insane!
get a crew together on mulitple rollers and it can be even more fun. we had a ball last year with these things.

I'm also surprised no one brought up R*A*S*H yet!

Is there enough resistance w/ the Performance ones to get a workout?
Or is the workout primarily from staying vertical?
Not understanding the physics here, does gear selection while on rollers even matter?

Thinking of ordering a pair from Performance.

I bought a set of Travel Trac rollers a couple of years ago. The bearings are finally starting to go, but I did get quite a bit of use out of them. I now have a set of Krietlers, which will probably outlast me. So in retrospect, I should have just purchased the Krietlers to begin with. YMMV and everything like that, but I think it's pretty unanimous.