Road feel on rollers

Shredpirate said:

I'm about to pull the trigger and purchase a set of cycleops alu. rollers (w/o resistance, 3.25" drums). For you cyclists that own a set of non resistance rollers, how close does it get to a real road feel? Thanks

Definately a different animal, mainly because you don't get the variation in terrain that you do on the pavement, such as crown of the road etc. Some time take a good hard look at a road that you consider "flat" and see how many 1 or 2 degree undulations there are even on roads where we barely feel them. What rollers do reproduce very effectively is the feel of actually handling the bike as opposed to just spinning the pedals like on a trainer.

Getting a resistance unit to attach to your rollers is a god idea and will increase the "road feel" somewhat. This has helped me immensely in keeping my motivation up for interval and endurance training this winter. I just find rollers a lot more interesting to ride than a stationary trainer and if it gets boring you can always teach yourself to ride them no-handed. This will do *incredible* things for your bike handling skills on the road, believe me.

Cheers,

NW

It will probably feel like you have a little tail wind. Shift up a gear or two compared to normal flat road riding. 22 mph on my rollers (several years old) feels like 18-19 on the road. Letting a little air out of the tires increases the resistance but will probably wear out your tire faster too.

Rollers feel a lot more realistic vs. a trainer (balance and control). I haven't touched my trainer since I got my rollers.

I agree, with or without resistance, I like rollers over a trainer. But it still ain't like riding on the road. No scenery change, no surprises, no dogs to race, no sunshine, etc. Without resistance I tend to get a real ego boost, because the computer says that I am just flying. I use resistance though, because that way I can get in top gear and stand on the pedals for a little while, occasionally, to give my butt a rest. Trainers are just boring.

I've heard that the smaller diameter roller the more resistance. Mine are also 3.25" dia. Iwould still like more resistance, but you can still get a good work out. I got mine this winter,and at first it was rather frustating learning how to stay on them. After two nights of fighting with them I found a thread that was very helpful. I was able to ride in the door way the next night. now I start in the middle of the room and I don't even think about it if I want to go no-handed. I would like to find a fan unit that I could mount on the rollers for more realism.

OK, I'll be the odd man out. It depends what you mean by "road feel." For steady state riding (maintaining one speed) I guess it isn't that far off. But as you change speed, there is virtually no resemblence. The "power-to-speed" curve on the road is mostly wind resistance, which goes up with the square of the speed. Going 25mph takes twice the power of going 20mph. Fluid and wind trainers mimic this fairly accurately, mag trainers do not. There is virtually no power curve on rollers, i.e. if you pedal at 20 or 25mph on rollers, there is very little difference in the power required. So for an interval workout, rollers have very little road feel.

Thanks everyone for your input. I've purchase a set of cycleops rollers. Damn they are super crazy!! Every time I start pedaling I get the sensation that I'm about to fall off. Any tips for riding safely? 😉

Shredpirate said:

Thanks everyone for your input. I've purchase a set of cycleops rollers. Damn they are super crazy!! Every time I start pedaling I get the sensation that I'm about to fall off. Any tips for riding safely? 😉

For starters it isn't a bad idea to learn to ride rollers in a doorway. After you feel reasonably comfortable and can move to the middle of the room you might want to keep a footstool or something nearby to balance on while you clip in. Once you do get the hang of it it's like...well it's like riding a bike 😄 Once you learn how you never forget.

NW