Front axle position on rollers?
 

I picked up some used Minoura rollers last week and don't have the manual. I found a manual for a different brand on Google, which says to position the front wheel's axle directly above, or up to 0.5" behind the axle of the front roller. I also searched BF, but only found one post about setup, and that one suggested directly over the front roller. For those of you use rollers, where do you have your wheel positioned on the front roller?

Directly above.

if you're not positioned either directly above the roller, or just behind the roller your
bike is going to be all sorts of squirrelly. I do recall one poster who had a really bad time
(experience) on rollers until he got them set up correctly.
I go for as close to directly above as possible.

marty

Like the manual says. Those who advocate for slightly behind say it makes it harder to pop the bike forward during hard jumps. Maybe so. I use directly above.

Hmm, the Minoura spacing options are an inch apart. I'm either ~3/4" behind, or ~1/4" in front. I guess I'm going with the 3/4" behind. It feels squirrely, but that's probably just me being new to rollers.

I am almost directly above, just a little behind. It feels squirrely, but once you get used to it and start working on your technique, you will find that will go away. You will pedal smoother and everything will get better. Good luck.

Slightly behind

Measure your bikes wheelbase then use the hole one notch longer then the wheelbase, there should be a scale on the side of the rollers. The front roller location should be 15mm longer than your wheelbase.

Where did you get the 15mm guideline? That's the first number I've seen on setup besides "up to 0.5 inch behind."

15 mm is equal to:


0.590551181102362204724409448818 inch

I keep mine slightly behind. I like to stand up and pedal out of the saddle for about 30 seconds every 20 minutes or so to get relief to my groin and sit bones. So far i havnt ridden off the rollers.

http://www.minoura.jp/index-et.html

scroll down to the rollers, click on the action advance rollers. at the bottom of that page is a pdf of the instructions.

Awesome, thanks!

I have mine set up with axle directly above and it works fine. One disadvantage is that front wheel is higher than rear, so you feel like riding slightly uphill. More weight is on saddle and groin tends to go numb much more easily than on trainer (rollers also force you to put minimum weight necessary on bars, which may be a contributing factor). Unfortunatly it's close to impossible to stand on rollers, so it's necessary to stop every 10-20 minutes to relieve the pressure.

I will have to disagree here. I rode through three movies, with only a break between the movies and most of that time was on the seat while on the rollers. 115 miles on the rollers and I rarely had to get off of the seat and I am using a stock Jamis seat, nothing special.

It's not. It's actually pretty easy once you practice it. I do it at least 5-6 times an per hour on the rollers. I'll shoot a small MPEG video tonight and post it showing ya'll how to do it. Its not as fluid as standing on the road and you cant rock the bike side by side much, but its not impossible either.

Now thats impossible!!! :p

Bravo man! Bravo!

I prefer mine set up in the most squirrely setting possible. I scoot the two rear rollers as close together as possible and have the front-axle directly over the front-roller. Feels more natural, less like you're riding in a ditch.

And yes, you can stand up on rollers and it's even possible to sprint! :)

+1 Here's a video