Rollers, recommendations?

[softlips]

Thinking of getting some rollers, can anyone recommend any?

Are the ones that give resistance worth the extra?

[Mick F]

I have a set of Elite Parabolic rollers and had them for some years.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/elit ... -prod30010

They are fantastic for riding on. They provide resistance by dint of the heavy rollers and small diameter compared to the bike wheels. The front roller is driven by one of the rear ones via a drive belt. They fold up in half for stowage.

I made a platform out of chipboard to slide in, so I can get on and off easier. The rollers are on a stand of course and therefore you will be riding quite a few inches off the floor, so you need to climb on and off.

Roller riding takes a great deal of practice. You only have a couple of feet wide to ride in, so wobbling is a problem. Best way, is to set the rollers up in a doorway so you can get on and hold onto the door frame, then hold the handlebars with your elbows out to the door frame, then pedal away. As you increase speed, you can pull in your elbows. You have the safety of the doorway should you wobble, and of course it's there for when you stop.

With my platform, I can ride outside or in the middle of a room.

I can manage maybe 20mins at a time, as it's quite hard work and you don't have the benefit of wind to keep you cool. The faster you go, the easier it is to balance, and the faster you go, the more the training benefit. I pick a high gear - 53/15 - and ride along as fast as I can - maybe 20mph maybe 25mph.

[softlips]

Cheers, think I'll give them a try.

[Gattonero]

I have the Elite too, picked up from a Team, but used them very seldom.
what MichF said, to me the biggest advantage is that they fold so they take little space, though the belt is a bit annoying as it moves off when folding, not a big deal really

[De Sisti]

http://www.insideride.com.

I have the version below. Much easier to ride that other rollers that I've tried. It comes with three levels of resistance too.
Not cheap though. However, I think Elite have an agreement with them to manufacturer it much cheaper in Europe.

[Paulatic]

Start them young

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jLZhfCIuXx0

[9494arnold]

Have to say I find pure rollers very scary.
How about a Turbo Trainer? Takes up less space. More secure. (I've seen folk come off rollers quite specatcularly)
I've got a couple of "old school" Turbo trainers with the frame where you take the front wheel out , clip it into the frame and bolt the bike down to the frame behind the bracket .
They take up same (or more room) but are mega secure and they double up to become internal carry racks inside my Camper.

[Mattievrs]

Hi

After a year on tacx Antares rollers I now use cycleops rollers. The tacx ones I found really easy to use as they were parabolic rollers, but I also found them a bit noisy on the bearings. I also had to replace the bearings once as well. I also found it fairly easy to average 25 mph in a half hour stint on them but still feel like I’d tried.The only other issue I had was excessive tyre wear on the rear despite running at 90-100 psi.The cycleops alu rollers are much better in terms of build quality, as they’re near silent in comparison. I have found that they tend to give a better workout due to the smaller circumference rollers and additional resistance unit. They also don’t wear the tyre as much as the tacx rollers did and the alu roller on the cycleops feels like it doesn’t get anywhere near as warm as the tacx did, which also goes for the tyre on the cycleops roller use, it gets nowhere near as warm to the touch.