Rollers

Skippy2309

well i got a really dodgy knee from a work accident, i am currently awaiting an MRI and possible surgery.... i need to train its driving me insane. only issue is i cant get out in the cold as it really irritates the injury.

I have now been off the bike since late september! i managed one ride to work which is 1.5miles and was in total agony, luckily the trip homes down hill so i just clipped in and held on.


are rollers really worth it? i would prefer them to a turbo, what is the resistance like?

any advice is really welcome

jonmack

Resistance on rollers is minimal, I could easily push 53x11 at 50k for 5-10 minutes, there's no way I could normally do that on the road. They require a few hours of riding on to get used to, and I'd have said if it's rehab you're looking for then go with a turbo, it's a much safer option.

fish156

Skippy, the question of rollers has come up recently here.

Rollers tend not to have much resistance unless you buy..... wait for it..... rollers with resistance.

Skippy2309

so resistance is not that great, which is ok with me for the moment, I want to work on just getting the legs moving.

plus it will be good for working on cadence, balance and core work.

I can always get a turbo to work on power... although turbo seems to be an expensive outlay, as you really do need a whole new wheel / tyre / cassette in addition to just getting the turbo.

I am currently looking at the tacx antares rollers

cheers for the help.

jonmack

Skippy2309 wrote:

I can always get a turbo to work on power... although turbo seems to be an expensive outlay, as you really do need a whole new wheel / tyre / cassette in addition to just getting the turbo.

How did you come to that conclusion? I'd imagine most people spend the £20 or whatever it is on a turbo specific tyre, and that's it. You definitely don't need a specific wheel/tyre/cassette just to ride on a turbo, I mean unless you only have one bike which has tubulars on it, in that case you probably would be better off with a turbo specific wheel.

G-Wiz

I got the Tacx rollers earlier in the year and love them, mainly because you have to think much harder so 60-90 minute sessions aren't such a chore if the weather is crap and you can't get out for the real thing.

I also noticed that by concentrating on riding more from the hip than the knees that I have a technical point to think about when I'm on the road which helps keep focussed on longer days.

Resistance is much less than on the road, I can hold top gear on a 50-11 at 85-90 rpm for a whole hour. It's basically enough for longer threshold pieces at the moment, although I'm probably going to move up to a resistance unit or a standard chainset as I'm improving and starting to spin out a bit. I also have a turbo or do the odd spin class for more intense sessions.

The other thing I noticed is fewer creaks and groans from the bike, I do worry what a turbo does to a carbon frame and where all that flex goes when you take the wheel out of the equation.

If injury prevention / recovery is your thing I'd say they're a good choice, with the caveat that I'm not a doctor.

de_sisti

I have these. They have 3 levels of resistance.
Dead easy to ride on, but expensive to buy.
I suspect a lot of people on this forum never buy cheap.

flanners1

I have these and they are great no way I could hold high cadence 53/11 with these on Level 3 for an hour. The resistance is not as high as a turbo but it does a great job of replicating the 'road'. Using them for the last year and they get a big thumbs up from me.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... s-09-34008

I

genki

Flanners1 wrote:

I have these and they are great no way I could hold high cadence 53/11 with these on Level 3 for an hour. The resistance is not as high as a turbo but it does a great job of replicating the 'road'. Using them for the last year and they get a big thumbs up from me.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... s-09-34008

I

I have the same, and I find them perfect. Very easy to ride (the parabolic edges will nudge you back to the centre if you happen to get close to coming off) and there's enough resistance for everthing except flat-out sprints (but I wouln't want to do those in the winter anyway). I normally ride them on Level 3 and yo-yo up and down the gears which a 90rpm is 150W to maybe 400W? Month to date I think I'm at 400miles which would have been very tedious on the turbo.