Rollers recommendation

sqwerl_mk2 wrote:

Minoura Action Advance

I got a set of these from Wiggle....................simply brilliant!!! They are reasonably heavy with metal rollers (not plastic like most other makes) and are well made (had them about 2 years with no problems). They fold up fairly small and are not so heavy that they are a pain to lug about.

Haven't used the parabolic ones so can't comment, but part of the reason I went for rollers is that you need to concentrate when riding (unlike turbo trainer) which makes them time spent on them go a bit quicker and once you get the hang of it, your balance will improve.

When I first rode them, I clung for dear life to the adjacent wall, but can now ride no handed. You will pick it up surprisingly quickly.............I've only had a few "moments" on them..............best not use them indoors on the best carpet until you get the knack. :oops:

I actually only use them to spin my legs - either as warm-up/down when track racing or as a recovery ride after a hard ride. There is no resistance and even in a high gear, you just spin like a top. It does improve your balance and encourage smooth pedalling but is no use for interval training. I tend to use mine with a fixed-gear track bike, but there is no reason why you couldn't use a road bike (don't want too much tread on the tyre though).

The only rollers with resistance I have seen are made in the USA by Kreitling (?) but they are about $800 for a set with a turbo fan driven off a separate band from the front roller.

Hi folks.

Have a look at insideride rollers - a friend of mine imports them into the UK and let me have a shot on them last week. The steel rollers themselves sit on an internally sprung frame which allows the whole unit to move back and forth with you, so you stay on even when you're out of the saddle giving it some wellie. Also there are small horizontally mounted buffer wheels on either side of the front roller which bounce your front wheel back onto line. I've hit these pretty hard while giving it a 100% sprint effort on the track bike - no worries.

There's a flywheel which smooths out the ride and gives resistance approximate to riding the road. A magnetic resistance unit then offers another 3 levels of resistance, going right up to 1200w resistance at a cadence of 100rpm.

I've been riding rollers for a few years (and have fallen off a few times), but these are really something else. Here's a youtube of me riding my triathlon bike while practising taking my shoes off (at 30mph) getting ready for transition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=driJSVzg0cY

There's a few other youtube videos of top scottish riders on the insideride rollers too - check out Craig Hardie's one for some aggressive sprinting.

If you want any more details - contact Martin at REClassicBikes@aol.com

Cheers, Andy

Hey

thanks for the plug Andy!

Yes these rollers are expensive but they are not just your traditional 3 drum rollers!

If you want a set of three drum roillers with no resistance for warming up on before or after races, these are not for you and you can buy some very good rollers for much less.

The insideride e-motion rollers are a serious bit of kit for home training on.

They have super smoothy unlimitted progressive resistance.

They allow you to stand up, rock the bike, sprint. In fact to just ride your bike as you want to, inside. Every thing short of going around corners. Things you can not do on traditional rollers or turbo trainers.

You can ride at speeds as low as 5 or 6 miles an hour, with full on resisance, completely smooth. Like climbing a very steep hill. Or you can hammer away on your TT bike at 30 miles an hour and 500 watts.

They are callibrated to allow you to know the power that you are prducing simply by looking at the speed on your bikes computer. No need for an additional power meter.

The build quality is off the scale, so they are a once in a life time purchase.

But do not take my word for it, try reading some of these reviews:-

http://www.roadbikereview.com/cat/train ... px#reviews

570 including uk (mainland) delivery

andrewgturnbull wrote:

Here's a youtube of me riding my triathlon bike while practising taking my shoes off (at 30mph) getting ready for transition.

That's impressive...............if I tried that on my rollers I would have bitten the garage floor pretty hard. :roll:

Bronzie wrote:

sqwerl_mk2 wrote:

Minoura Action Advance

I got a set of these from Wiggle....................simply brilliant!!! They are reasonably heavy with metal rollers (not plastic like most other makes) and are well made (had them about 2 years with no problems). They fold up fairly small and are not so heavy that they are a pain to lug about.

What the noise level like on these?

Jakob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5xa7Unc ... ed&search=

£570.00 yikes! Shame the import duties/carriage kills the price so much ... these are around $750 in the US i.e. £375 equivalent UK price (without the duty etc).

I'm sure there would be a LOT more orders at sub £400