Rollers or Turbo

OwenB

Hi, I've been helping out at a local junior cycling club and one of the coaches mentioned to me the other night that once the nights are too dark they're considering hiring a room locally to do roller training sessions mainly for the older kids and also any adults that want to have a go too. It's not being coached and they're apparently going to run a few sessions through a projector to follow. I'm thinking it would be a good way of getting in some training through winter for me and my son but any rider would have to provide their own trainer to take down so I'm wondering what would be best, turbo or rollers or should I get 1 of each?

Also funds are a bit tight so I'm budgeting for a max £150 for each trainer if anyone can make any kit recommendations.

TommyEss

Turbos give you resistance, normally adjustable, whereas rollers offer almost none. That means you generally use a turbo for training effort, and rollers are more useful for warm up and for perfecting technique (as demonstrated at track events - warm your legs by getting them moving but don't wear yourself out).

You have to actively balance on rollers, and you quickly iron out imbalances in your pedal stroke - though I find rollers to have a pretty steep learning curve, and am still not very comfortable on them to be honest!

If I had to have just one, I'd probably go with a turbo - but the key thing is they're fundamentally different, and are for different training outcomes. Might be wise to double-check with the club as to what the sessions are aiming to work on first.

Herbsman

UTS

domc21

i've just got some rollers, i didnt find them that hard. Getting going is the trickiest bit but once rolling along its pretty easy!!

wacka

domc21 wrote:

i've just got some rollers, i didnt find them that hard. Getting going is the trickiest bit but once rolling along its pretty easy!!

Have you tried cycling out of the saddle on them yet?

bigpikle

once you ride the rollers OK its time to try 1 handed, then no hands, then 1 leg, as that will really test balance and smoothness in your pedaling

Iys not true that rollers offer no resistance though - the smaller the rollers the greater the resistance, and some offer additional resistance units. Even with a threshold power very close to 300w I can still get a good threshold workout on my Cyclops rollers as you simply use your gears to create the resistance.

I have both rollers and a turbo and like them both for different things. Generally I prefer the rollers as they keep you focused and I have no doubt it improves balance, develops core strength a little more and time flies past on those, but once you're going really hard (>threshold) it can get to be a problem as you either dont really go full gas or you maybe go too hard and risk losing concentration etc. For anything over threshold intervals I'd use the turbo where I can push myself to the absolute limit and know I wont fall off! Unless you have the rollers that have that are specifically designed for it, then getting out of the saddle is very hard/impossible on rollers. I dont generally do that on indoor training so its never been a worry for me luckily!

RoadMeridaBen

Im a turbo man myself and havent used my rollers since about january. Love sticking the P2 on the turbo and putting some power down in the aero position using a Tacx Fortius at the moment but looking to buy a 2nd turbo
probably a 2nd hand one.

Just waiting for a good one to pop up