Carbon bike on rollers: bad idea?

lost_in_thought

Well?

cjcp

I wouldn't.

Because I'm a clutz.

stuaff

Carbon bike? Why not.
If you had another carbon bike....but...
Maxima? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You must have a more suitable bike, surely....?
Might I ask why?

stuaff

cjcp wrote:

I wouldn't.

Because I'm a clutz.

Same here. Turbo's one thing, rollers another......

tgotb

I get the increased risk of falling off rollers, but...

I'm putting together a carbon bike for road racing, specifically because I might crash it. You can repair carbon in your kitchen, without specialised welding/brazing equipment. Steel/Aluminium/Titanium look like far more intimidating materials to mess around with. Am I missing something?

stuaff

TGOTB wrote:

I get the increased risk of falling off rollers, but...

I'm putting together a carbon bike for road racing, specifically because I might crash it. You can repair carbon in your kitchen, without specialised welding/brazing equipment. Steel/Aluminium/Titanium look like far more intimidating materials to mess around with. Am I missing something?

Depends how much your frame cost...and whether you are both willing and able to do the repair!

greg66_tri_v2.0

Shurly a typo in the subject.

No, no rollers on a carbon bike.



It would look silly.

Besides, I thought you preferred your hair straight.

fossyant

FFS. It's gonna melt. Get a life.

Twostage

lost_in_thought wrote:

Well?

This has been discussed quite a lot. One of my favourite quotes is something along the lines of 'if you think your bike is too fragile to go in a turbo trainer then you'd better not ride it on the road'.

stuaff

Twostage wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

Well?

This has been discussed quite a lot. One of my favourite quotes is something along the lines of 'if you think your bike is too fragile to go in a turbo trainer then you'd better not ride it on the road'.

Rollers. Not a turbo. Big difference....

I just don't see the point of running a 'best bike' indoors, when you're still going to wear out components (particularly Record ones!!) at the same rate without going anywhere...

bigmat

I'd do rollers but not turbo. Turbo puts different lateral stresses on a frame to regular riding, might not be an issue but enough to get me concerned re carbon. No such issue with rollers, and in my experience the chance of a big smash is pretty rare - I came off sideways at 30mph+ and managed to get a foot down before the bike landed. Probably less risky than normal riding to be honest.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Surely if you come off rollers all that will happen is you get a scorched rear tyre and a rubber mark on the floor. Your rear wheel is spinning at the same rate it would be if you were doing say 30mph, but you and the bike have no forward motion or momentum. And unless you're on a fixie, you can stop powering the rear wheel as soon as you stop pedalling.

lost_in_thought

BigMat wrote:

I'd do rollers but not turbo. Turbo puts different lateral stresses on a frame to regular riding, might not be an issue but enough to get me concerned re carbon. No such issue with rollers, and in my experience the chance of a big smash is pretty rare - I came off sideways at 30mph+ and managed to get a foot down before the bike landed. Probably less risky than normal riding to be honest.

Yeah, basically the reason I'm not outside is that I seem to have a habit of going 'yaaaay this sciatica isn't hurting wheeeeeeee maximaaaaaa. [20 minutes elapse] oh cr*p ow ow ow ow now I'm X miles from home'

Another thing to consider is that I generally use the rollers in a doorway so I can 'catch' myself.

lost_in_thought

Greg66 wrote:

Surely if you come off rollers all that will happen is you get a scorched rear tyre and a rubber mark on the floor. Your rear wheel is spinning at the same rate it would be if you were doing say 30mph, but you and the bike have no forward motion or momentum. And unless you're on a fixie, you can stop powering the rear wheel as soon as you stop pedalling.

Exactly... I am trying to think of reasons why I could somehow have a massive carbon-ruining stack and failing to, hence the appeal to the hive mind.

stuaff

lost_in_thought wrote:

BigMat wrote:

I'd do rollers but not turbo. Turbo puts different lateral stresses on a frame to regular riding, might not be an issue but enough to get me concerned re carbon. No such issue with rollers, and in my experience the chance of a big smash is pretty rare - I came off sideways at 30mph+ and managed to get a foot down before the bike landed. Probably less risky than normal riding to be honest.

Yeah, basically the reason I'm not outside is that I seem to have a habit of going 'yaaaay this sciatica isn't hurting wheeeeeeee maximaaaaaa. [20 minutes elapse] oh cr*p ow ow ow ow now I'm X miles from home'

Another thing to consider is that I generally use the rollers in a doorway so I can 'catch' myself.

If it's hurting that much that quickly, that sounds like something you need to get checked out, if you haven't already. Is this a recent problem or a recurring one?

lost_in_thought

StuAff wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

BigMat wrote:

I'd do rollers but not turbo. Turbo puts different lateral stresses on a frame to regular riding, might not be an issue but enough to get me concerned re carbon. No such issue with rollers, and in my experience the chance of a big smash is pretty rare - I came off sideways at 30mph+ and managed to get a foot down before the bike landed. Probably less risky than normal riding to be honest.

Yeah, basically the reason I'm not outside is that I seem to have a habit of going 'yaaaay this sciatica isn't hurting wheeeeeeee maximaaaaaa. [20 minutes elapse] oh cr*p ow ow ow ow now I'm X miles from home'

Another thing to consider is that I generally use the rollers in a doorway so I can 'catch' myself.

If it's hurting that much that quickly, that sounds like something you need to get checked out, if you haven't already. Is this a recent problem or a recurring one?

It's a recent and new problem, but I've been receiving lots of medical input, and am allowed to ride a bike 'briefly'... although for most people 'briefly' is, what, like 10 minutes? Thanks though Stu

gtvlusso

lost_in_thought wrote:

StuAff wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

BigMat wrote:

I'd do rollers but not turbo. Turbo puts different lateral stresses on a frame to regular riding, might not be an issue but enough to get me concerned re carbon. No such issue with rollers, and in my experience the chance of a big smash is pretty rare - I came off sideways at 30mph+ and managed to get a foot down before the bike landed. Probably less risky than normal riding to be honest.

Yeah, basically the reason I'm not outside is that I seem to have a habit of going 'yaaaay this sciatica isn't hurting wheeeeeeee maximaaaaaa. [20 minutes elapse] oh cr*p ow ow ow ow now I'm X miles from home'

Another thing to consider is that I generally use the rollers in a doorway so I can 'catch' myself.

If it's hurting that much that quickly, that sounds like something you need to get checked out, if you haven't already. Is this a recent problem or a recurring one?

It's a recent and new problem, but I've been receiving lots of medical input, and am allowed to ride a bike 'briefly'... although for most people 'briefly' is, what, like 10 minutes? Thanks though Stu

Does not sound too good, I hope that you get the problem sorted soon. May be best to try and avoid any bike related activities until you are 100%. A tough thing to do!

The worst is when you have a niggling injury, work around it with medical advice; i.e you are told that light exercise is okay. Injury is not completely sorted out, but feels okay, you compensate for the injury subconsciously and believe that you are completely fit. Then you start training again the injury comes back with another new injury caused by the compensations made.....just happened to my wife and she is now unable to walk more than 200 yards. She was training for the Brighton marathon.

EKE_38BPM

A friend's Dad was told by the doc that some gentle swimming would help him to recover after a heart attack. The doc didn't take into consideration that the Dad was a former Navy frogman, in the SBS, Navy swimming team etc, so 'gentle' swimming to him would be a massive marathon swim to most people.

After the Dad's second heart attack after a 'gentle' hour of ploughing up and down the pool the doc realised that he should have said something like "only swim 10 lengths" or some such advice.

The average person (e.g the Dad and LiT's doc) doesn't realise that, even when injured, an athlete will push themselves much further than the average person could or would want to.
I would suggest that, if LiT can't keep off the bike, keep the rides to pootle speed for no more than 20 minutes. Rubbish, but probably for the best in the long term.

Get well soon.

jonginge

Sorry to hear about the back, Livs. Hope that sorts itself out soon.

Carbon on rollers should be fine. IIRC you've got the Elite ghibli parabolics. I've got those too and never got close to a pratfall. The edges have woken me out of a daydream a time or two, though
The unsteadiest bit of the process for me is the mount/dismount phase. It's possible to geta step for the ghiblis: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/elite-step-updo ... c-rollers/

Mr 66 is correct, you have no forward momentum so the flatscreen TV or the sheet of plate glass that two workmen are inexplicably trasnporting across the living room are safe

The Rookie

Carbon on rollers is fine, but why not use a 'lesser' bike that is sitting around instead, my mate bought a carbon ribble but still uses his old Dawes road bike for indoor training (and outdoor on shitty days as he doesn't want to drop the nice one!)

Simon

CiB

I used to use my semi-carbon bike on the rollers (sold them through the sheer boredom of it in the end). As above, if you lose it you end up in an undignified sideways fall that does no damage unless you're squeezed into an unfeasibly small gap between a fishtank and your Van Gogh.

Door frames are a good location, as is the patio near to a wall of or fence. IME as soon as you lose it and the wheel falls off the edge of the roller everything stops dead. The only momentum is in the wheels and they don't take much stopping.

First.Aspect

You might want to protect the frame from sweat. Not saying you are a sweaty Betty or anything...

Bu I had a 2nd hand carbon frame when I was a student (a "wow I didn't know that it even existed back then" year old carbon frame) and judging by the lacquer by the head tube, it was used indoors a lot.