Best type of bike for rollers?

captain_vimes
captain_vimes Posts: 262
edited December 2014 in Training, fitness and health
I have just bought a set of rollers for winter training and am in the fortunate position of being able to run pretty much whatever kind of bike I want on them. So what is best? A normal road bike, a track bike or is there something better?

I have two modern road bikes, a classic 70's road bike and a single speed with modern gear on a classic frame.

I have a set of roller tyres ready to go, so what should I put them on?

Comments

  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    Any of the above.
  • captain_vimes
    captain_vimes Posts: 262
    Brief and to the point.

    Mainly I wondered if gears would give me more options or whether riding fixed was better?
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    Do you think a bike with gears might give you more options than a singlespeed..?
  • FatTed
    FatTed Posts: 1,205
    Captain Vimes wrote:
    Brief and to the point.

    Mainly I wondered if gears would give me more options or whether riding fixed was better?

    Gears will give you more options of course, the faster your rear wheel goes around the harder it is.
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,746
    You could use either but as above you may find you want the gears to vary the effort - being able to freewheel might be useful if you are just getting used to them too.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • Lookyhere
    Lookyhere Posts: 987
    Captain Vimes wrote:
    I have just bought a set of rollers for winter training and am in the fortunate position of being able to run pretty much whatever kind of bike I want on them. So what is best? A normal road bike, a track bike or is there something better?

    I have two modern road bikes, a classic 70's road bike and a single speed with modern gear on a classic frame.

    I have a set of roller tyres ready to go, so what should I put them on?

    you don't need roller/trainer tires, normal ones are fine just run them at least 100psi and always at the same psi,
    I ve only ever used a Tacx trainer tire and its hard and plastic in feel, I would not want to use them on a set of rollers.
    a bike with gears and a means of measuring speed and cadence is good.
  • Tom Dean
    Tom Dean Posts: 1,723
    you should be able to go well below 100psi to give more resistance if needed. A conti trainer tyre has been fine for me on the rollers.
  • captain_vimes
    captain_vimes Posts: 262
    Cheers all.

    Geared bike with normal tyres to start off with then.

    Fails will be posted to YouTube in due course........ :lol:
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    I've never heard of needing a turbo tyre for rollers.
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    cougie wrote:
    I've never heard of needing a turbo tyre for rollers.

    Thus the bike can be kept in road spec and used on rollers without an issue.
  • Tom Dean
    Tom Dean Posts: 1,723
    I wasn't suggesting a turbo tyre is needed, just that there's no problem with using one.
  • chrisw12
    chrisw12 Posts: 1,246
    Does anyone use a slow tyre and at low psi on purpose to give more resistance? Does the tyre and pressure make a noticeable difference or is this just a myth?
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,746
    I've heard people recommend a high psi but whether it makes much difference I don't know. I don't find rollers lack resistance anyway though - certainly not for any intervals of a couple of minutes up. I know bigger drums have less resistance and there are stronger riders than me but even so I'd have thought anyone with reasonable supplesse would be fine for anything but flat out sprints.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • florerider
    florerider Posts: 1,112
    You need high gearing to get a good workout.
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,746
    Yes you need to stick it in the big ring you mean - you don't need to be fitting a 56 tooth chainring and an 11 at the back.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • term1te
    term1te Posts: 1,462
    If you switch between bikes, and they have different wheelbases, you'll need to adjust the rollers, otherwise it can get very twitchy. I speak from experience here, having spent 30 minutes on my rollers with a different bike to normal thinking that I'd either got an inner ear infection, or just lost all sense of balance. I then spotted how high I was riding on the front roller, increased the distance between the rollers a couple of cm and balance was restored.
    The Master
    The Moser
    The VN
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    Who can ride no handed then? ( I cant just to make that clear)
  • florerider
    florerider Posts: 1,112
    I can't even ride 'em one handed
  • FatTed
    FatTed Posts: 1,205
    I can't cook an omelette
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybFvomdhW2Y
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgSv8B6UiUY
  • JackPozzi
    JackPozzi Posts: 1,191
    JGSI wrote:
    Who can ride no handed then? ( I cant just to make that clear)

    I'm actually more stable at low wheel speeds riding no handed than when I'm holding the hoods! Weight further back and steering directly with the hips I guess...
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    JackPozzi wrote:
    JGSI wrote:
    Who can ride no handed then? ( I cant just to make that clear)

    I'm actually more stable at low wheel speeds riding no handed than when I'm holding the hoods! Weight further back and steering directly with the hips I guess...

    I'm on Arions with the red rollers and find the front very twitchy. The wheelbase is correctly adjusted but everytime I shift weight backwards to unweight the front , the front starts to have a mind of its own.
  • florerider
    florerider Posts: 1,112
    Don't put new tyres on, they really do make it skittish.

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