Rollers; with or without resistance function

RichardFcp

I am thinking of getting some rollers for winter training. Is it worth paying a little more for a model that has an adjustable resistance function, or is it better to control effort with the gears?

Eddy S

If you want to use them as a serious training tool then get ones with resistance.

I’m sorry but I just don’t hold to the "just stick it in a bigger gear and pedal faster to make it hard" school of thought - that's not training.

I’m sure someone will be along shortly to disagree... 8)

DaSy

Eddy S wrote:

I’m sorry but I just don’t hold to the "just stick it in a bigger gear and pedal faster to make it hard" school of thought - that's not training.

I’m sure someone will be along shortly to disagree... 8)

I agree I'm afraid!

I have the Cyclops Alu rollers and resistance unit, and they are very flexible and allow you to do some fairly intense training. Very high intensity intervals are still better on a turbo as you do always need to keep an eye on your position and balance on rollers, which tends to slip on all out sprints. But apart from that they are great, and I use them about 50/50 with my Fortius

bahzob

That makes at least three of us that agree. I got some rollers without a resistance unit and found I much preferred them to turbo but could not do hard threshold work on them because my legs couldnt go fast enough to keep the power up.

Bought a resistance unit and now use them all the time.

(Just one hint: I adapted my rollers to put some stoppers at either end of the front roller. This greatly limits the risk of coming off.)

RichardFcp

Cheers, a resistance unit it is then. 8)

Tom Butcher

It depends what sort of session you are doing and what gearing you have. If you are doing short intervals then rollers without resistance aren't great - if you are doing 20 minute type intervals and have a decent gear like 52/12 then I find them fine - depends on your power and your cadence I suppose.

Eddy S

Tom Butcher wrote:

It depends what sort of session you are doing and what gearing you have.

But that was exactly my original point. It shouldn't "depend".

If you can't do all the necessary trainings sets and intervals that you need to do, they are not a useful training tool.

Tom Butcher

Not so - they are good for some things therefore they are a useful training tool. I prefer to do eyeballs out intervals on a turbo anyway - you don't have to think about falling off the thing then.

Eddy S

Tom, that’s fine if you have a solution that works for you but the OP said he wanted a set of rollers for training, not a set of rollers to supplement/relieve the boredom of turbo work.

Not everybody wants, can afford or has room for both a set of rollers and a turbo.

Some, like me, won’t use a turbo. Therefore I need a single, proper solution.

People just need to be aware that rollers on their own without resistance are not a training solution if they are aiming to follow structured training plans.

hopper1

I just got the CycleOps rollers, with resistance....
They seem fairly good to me, without the resistance, but at least I know that as I get stronger, I can use more resistance, instead of having to invest in another training aid.
I only fell off the once, but that was a big one! Probably the worst fall I've had, including the 'on road' and MTB ones!!
I think I have the same attention span as my 3 yr old! :oops:

Tom Butcher

Eddy S wrote:

Tom, that’s fine if you have a solution that works for you but the OP said he wanted a set of rollers for training, not a set of rollers to supplement/relieve the boredom of turbo work.

Not everybody wants, can afford or has room for both a set of rollers and a turbo.

Some, like me, won’t use a turbo. Therefore I need a single, proper solution.

People just need to be aware that rollers on their own without resistance are not a training solution if they are aiming to follow structured training plans.

All I posted was that standard rollers have sufficient resistance for longer intervals - which is true.