Elite Parabolic Rollers

nicknick

Hello,

Been searching for topics on rollers, and there are lots of them. However noone seems to have mentioned the Elite rollers. So, does anybody have them? If so how do they compare to the popular Minoura's?

These will be my first set of rollers and like the look of the curved edges that might reduce the chance of me going through the garage door!

Cheapest seems to be about £120. Retail is £160.

BUICK

I have the Elite Ghibli parabolic rollers. I find them to be great and do everything I want them to do, but I haven't used other rollers! One bit of advice I'd give is not to use them on carpet without anything underneath...

heffordvtr

have a look at the new tacx antares t1000 aswell. no ridges at the ends of the drums but they are tapered towards the middle. £107 from wiggle on priority dispatch aswell.

mine arrived this morning, been having a play with them. so far impressed, but again i have nothing to compare them to.

Alex_Simmons/RST

See here:
http://www.fixedgearfever.com/modules.p ... ller_Tests

nicknick

Thanks for the replies!

I actually went for the new Tacx Antares from wiggle for £103 and they should have arrived today but im away until tommorow night so wont be able to pick them up until friday. Went for these over the Elites simply due to price.

Never used rollers before so wouldn't it be ironic if i couldn't train through winter due to a broken bone?! Look at this divi;

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A7UFwHWSnGM

Love it how he's wearing his helmet!

PhilipTom

I've had a set of Tacx Antares for a few days now and am pretty impressed with them in terms of build quality and "useability". I've never used rollers before (apart from a far too brief ride on a luxurious set of E-motion rollers which nearly made me sell the family jewels) but I found it took about 20 minutes of "doorway" bouncing on the Antares to get balanced and after 3 days I'm now hands free although haven't yet mastered grabbing a drink or answering the phone without having a significant wobble.

Am not sure why people say these are for "warm-ups" only. I've just done a simple cadence / gear routine for 40 minutes at 80 to 90% HR and I was properly 'ot at the end with sweat pouring off me. FTR, I do about 250 to 300 road miles per week so regard myself as semi-fit.

It is a bit annoying that the Tacx Speedmatic resistance unit doesn't fit the Antares (although Wiggle told me it did - grrr......) but I am toying with the idea of attempting a little Frankenstein engineering to replicate some of the wonderful homebrew e-motion rollers people have built. Now, who's got a set of plans I can borrow?!

nicknick

PhilipTom wrote:

I do about 250 to 300 road miles per week so regard myself as semi-fit.

Do you have a job??

I did try rollers about 5 years ago and nearly went straight through the oven door in my mates kitchen! But i was a mtber then and not used to a road bike. Good to hear positive stuff about these rollers though, cos £100 is a decent amount of money, especially at the moment. Looking forward to not having to sit on the turbo and get numb bits this winter

PhilipTom

Well, if you get 120 miles in at the weekend (or two club runs), do a few short evening rides (now being partly replaced by the rollers), and take a half day off each week for a long ride (which is possible if, like me, you're self employed), then 250 to 300 is perfectly do-able.

I doubt you will have a problem staying warm on the rollers: if you loose focus for too long, you end up off the front roller, so it's a fairly lively experience. Also try some of the "tricks" on youtube: all quite dangerous!

The key learning tool is a solid narrow doorway to start within. Apart from that, developing the fine art of getting on and off the rollers is quite interesting. It can be a bit of a stretch but well worth it.

nicknick

Well i got my rollers tonight! Having spent the last 3 hours driving up the M1 i had to get them going! I was surprised i had to assemble them myself as the assembled rollers still fit into the box....anyway after a couple of minutes of riding off the side i got the hang of it! The faster you go the more stable you are! Can even ride no hands already! (only just! )

I dont have a doorway that isn't carpeted to started off in the garage, wall on my left and some step ladders to my right. Still get a decent shock when touching the ladders though! Still, great fun

BTW, do you feel like your front end is higher when riding the rollers?

PhilipTom

You're doing well!

The front end does feel a little bit higher but that could be because of the relative position of the back wheel (between two rollers) and the front wheel (just on top of one roller). I guess that might be why but I don't find it particularly noticeable.

Enjoy.