Getting Started on Rollers

"[email hidden]" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Ok, I am going to give rollers a shot but I am worried I am going to
shoot out the picture window or end up in the petunias. Any advice on
rollers? I hear they are great for your spin and off season fitness.

Do you have any advice on how to start using rollers. It reminds me of
snow boarding, a steep learning curve. So any thoughts or good ideas
would how to get started? Maybe use a doorway, training wheels...

Any help would be appreciated.

John

You won't shoot off since there is no forward momentum except in the
rotation of the wheels. If you do fall off, it is more like you move
about three feet forward and then fall over in slow motion. It is also
easier to stay balanced the faster you make the wheels go (or at least it
seemed that way to me), so I found it helped to start out with the
resistance set on low so I could turn a relatively big gear.

Riding in a doorway is good, but when I started I preferred to have
something I could grab onto and pull myself back up and it is hard to
find a place to grab on a door frame. My recollection is learning by
riding next to a big stuffed chair where I could grab onto the back if I
rode off the drums. It was easier grabbing the chair back since it was
in line with my hand whereas a door frame was vertical. The fraction of
a second it took to turn my hand to grab on made the difference between
falling off and staying upright, plus I would rather fall onto a flat
floor than into a wall or door jamb.

One thing is I have found it really hard to watch cycling videos while
riding rollers. I kept unintentionally steering to follow the road on
the television.

--
Bill Asher

On 12 Nov 2005 21:38:15 -0800, "[email hidden]" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Ok, I am going to give rollers a shot but I am worried I am going to
shoot out the picture window or end up in the petunias. Any advice on
rollers? I hear they are great for your spin and off season fitness.

Do you have any advice on how to start using rollers.

Get a friend, ideally an experienced cyclist or coach, to spot you the
first time.

JT

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John Forrest Tomlinson said:

Quoted message said:

Do you have any advice on how to start using rollers.

Get a friend, ideally an experienced cyclist or coach, to spot you the
first time.

Or a doorway. And I learned not to hang a towel over the handlebars. And
notify the downstairs neighbours that, no, you're not building a jet
engine.

The most useful addition I think is a stable step-up that doesn't get in
the way. It's always a little tricky standing on the metal sidebars with
my metal shoeplates.

--
E. Dronkert

William Asher said:

I kept unintentionally steering to follow the road on the television.

They have curved rollers that help you stay centered, I never tried them
though. I put wide, bright orange tape left and right on the front drum to
give me a hint that it's time to move back. Besides seeing it, I can also
hear it when I'm touching the tape. *If* I wasn't wearing headphones...

--
E. Dronkert

Quoted message said:

Any advice on
rollers? I hear they are great for your spin and off season fitness.

Maybe they're good for your spin, but good spin isn't that important to
road cyclists.

Quoted message said:

Do you have any advice on how to start using rollers. It reminds me of
snow boarding, a steep learning curve.

Use a piece of plywood that spans the frame as a platform. It can be
tricky to start (and especially, stop) if you're wearing cleats and trying
to put your foot down on the narrow edge of the frame.

Snow boarding doesn't have a particularly steep learning curve.

Make sure that a plumb line dropped from the center of your front axle
is centered (or slighly) behind the axle of your front roller's axle.
Lots of wheel speed seems to help.

William Asher says...

Quoted message said:

You won't shoot off since there is no forward momentum except in the
rotation of the wheels. If you do fall off, it is more like you move
about three feet forward and then fall over in slow motion.

Bzzzt! Wrongo! I used to ride rollers in the basement and twice rode off of
them. Fortunately, we had a bunch of boxes stacked up against the wall I ran
into that was a good 15 feet away. The rubber streak on the floor was at least
7' long, so the rear wheel had enough momentum to be spinning hard for that
distance. Of course, the REASON I went off the rollers those times was because
I was doing a fairly fast spin interval and was concentrating more on my spin
than the direction I was going. Those rubber streaks on the basement floor were
great conversation pieces.

"Mad Dog" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

William Asher says...

Quoted message said:

You won't shoot off since there is no forward momentum except in the
rotation of the wheels. If you do fall off, it is more like you move
about three feet forward and then fall over in slow motion.

Bzzzt! Wrongo! I used to ride rollers in the basement and twice rode off
of
them. Fortunately, we had a bunch of boxes stacked up against the wall I
ran
into that was a good 15 feet away. The rubber streak on the floor was at
least
7' long, so the rear wheel had enough momentum to be spinning hard for
that
distance. Of course, the REASON I went off the rollers those times was
because
I was doing a fairly fast spin interval and was concentrating more on my
spin
than the direction I was going. Those rubber streaks on the basement
floor were
great conversation pieces.

You did a 7 foot long burnout? I don't believe it. How much do you weigh? 30
lbs?

Carl Sundquist says...

Quoted message said:

You did a 7 foot long burnout? I don't believe it. How much do you weigh? 30
lbs?

I could care less if you believe it or not. I have witnii. To tell you the
truth, 7' is an estimate made by stepping it off. It was about a foot over 2
steps and my steps are very close to 3'. I wish I'd taken a picture of it
because it was so cool, sort of a soft, curvy "L" shape. The floor was painted
cement, the rear tire was a Vittoria training sew-up at 105 psi, I was at a
cadence of about 180 rpm in 50/11 gearing. Go try it out yourself.

Our team used to do fund raisers at a local mall every year where we'd ride
rollers round the clock. We had 2 sets of rollers and we'd keep at least one of
them spinning from Friday through Sunday night. The preferred dismount was to
ride off. Made for some interesting crashes. 3 to 4' burnouts were not all
that uncommon, but the cement was coarser than the painted floor in my basement.
Average burnout there was probably 12 to 14", longer ones happened when the
rider came off the rollers off balance and kept trying to pedal. Great party
activity!

30 pounds? I wish I could generate my mediocre power outputs with a 30 pound
body. Take me to Ventoux!

"Mad Dog" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Carl Sundquist says...

Quoted message said:

You did a 7 foot long burnout? I don't believe it. How much do you weigh?
30
lbs?

I could care less if you believe it or not. I have witnii. To tell you
the
truth, 7' is an estimate made by stepping it off. It was about a foot
over 2
steps and my steps are very close to 3'. I wish I'd taken a picture of it
because it was so cool, sort of a soft, curvy "L" shape. The floor was
painted
cement, the rear tire was a Vittoria training sew-up at 105 psi, I was at
a
cadence of about 180 rpm in 50/11 gearing. Go try it out yourself.

If you could care less if I believe it or not (actually it's _couldn't_ care
less, unless you really do care), then why did you add supplementary
information?

P.S. I still don't believe you.

Mad Dog <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

William Asher says...

Quoted message said:

You won't shoot off since there is no forward momentum except in the
rotation of the wheels. If you do fall off, it is more like you move
about three feet forward and then fall over in slow motion.

Bzzzt! Wrongo! I used to ride rollers in the basement and twice rode
off of them. Fortunately, we had a bunch of boxes stacked up against
the wall I ran into that was a good 15 feet away. The rubber streak
on the floor was at least 7' long, so the rear wheel had enough
momentum to be spinning hard for that distance. Of course, the REASON
I went off the rollers those times was because I was doing a fairly
fast spin interval and was concentrating more on my spin than the
direction I was going. Those rubber streaks on the basement floor
were great conversation pieces.

I guess that if when I fell off I didn't notice I had fallen off, I could
do something like that. But most times it is obvious something has gone
wrong so I stop pedaling immediately.

Maybe your wheels are made of iridium-osmium alloy and are a lot heavier
than mine. But it just doesn't make a lot of sense that a 5-lb wheel
spinning even as fast as it does has all that much momentum compared to a
150-lb person + 20-lb bicycle.

--
Bill Asher

Mad Dog said:

William Asher says...

Quoted message said:

You won't shoot off since there is no forward momentum except in the
rotation of the wheels. If you do fall off, it is more like you move
about three feet forward and then fall over in slow motion.

Bzzzt! Wrongo! I used to ride rollers in the basement and twice rode off of
them. Fortunately, we had a bunch of boxes stacked up against the wall I ran
into that was a good 15 feet away. The rubber streak on the floor was at least
7' long,

No way. The only way someone is going to go 7' after coming off the
rollers is it they keep pedalling.

JT

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Ewoud Dronkert <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

William Asher said:

I kept unintentionally steering to follow the road on the television.

They have curved rollers that help you stay centered, I never tried
them though. I put wide, bright orange tape left and right on the
front drum to give me a hint that it's time to move back. Besides
seeing it, I can also hear it when I'm touching the tape. *If* I
wasn't wearing headphones...

Ok, let's up the difficulty, pedal at MadDog cadences, in the dark, on a
rolling ship, wearing VR goggles while playing Tony Hawk's Ultra
Skateboard Challenge.

--
Bill Asher

John Forrest Tomlinson <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Mad Dog said:

William Asher says...

Quoted message said:

You won't shoot off since there is no forward momentum except in the
rotation of the wheels. If you do fall off, it is more like you move
about three feet forward and then fall over in slow motion.

Bzzzt! Wrongo! I used to ride rollers in the basement and twice rode
off of them. Fortunately, we had a bunch of boxes stacked up against
the wall I ran into that was a good 15 feet away. The rubber streak
on the floor was at least 7' long,

No way. The only way someone is going to go 7' after coming off the
rollers is it they keep pedalling.

He does claim to be pedaling at approximately 60+ mph. Who knows, maybe
the stripe was caused by relativistic effects.

I should have said: "I don't shoot off because a) I don't find riding
rollers all that erotic, b) I don't pedal all that fast to begin with,
and c) when I do fall off I have enough sense to stop pedaling and look
for something soft to land on.

--
Bill Asher

Dans le message de news:[email hidden],
John Forrest Tomlinson <[email hidden]> a réfléchi, et puis a
déclaré :

Quoted message said:

Mad Dog said:

William Asher says...

Quoted message said:

You won't shoot off since there is no forward momentum except in the
rotation of the wheels. If you do fall off, it is more like you
move about three feet forward and then fall over in slow motion.

Bzzzt! Wrongo! I used to ride rollers in the basement and twice
rode off of them. Fortunately, we had a bunch of boxes stacked up
against the wall I ran into that was a good 15 feet away. The
rubber streak on the floor was at least 7' long,

No way. The only way someone is going to go 7' after coming off the
rollers is it they keep pedalling.

Don't keep haranguing people with reality !! They could have to defend
their claims in a race or two, assuming that the racing they do is on the
road.

But that reminds me of the roller races that used to happen in Chelsea.
Giant rollers. Big wheel speedo. Smelly.
--
Bonne route !

Sandy
Verneuil-sur-Seine FR

Sandy said:

John Forrest Tomlinson <[email hidden]> a réfléchi, et puisa déclaré :

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

No way. The only way someone is going to go 7' after coming off the
rollers is it they keep pedalling.

Don't keep haranguing people with reality !! They could have to defend
their claims in a race or two, assuming that the racing they do is on the
road.

Everybody in rbr is a virtual winner. It's what we're good at.

But seriously, folks, I can believe that it really happened.
If I had to pick someone in rbr most likely to keep pedaling,
after the wheels had come off the rails, it would be Mad Dog.
Persistence is his strength.

Carl Sundquist says...

Quoted message said:

If you could care less if I believe it or not (actually it's _couldn't_ care
less, unless you really do care), then why did you add supplementary
information?

Simple boredom. Cold outside, not ready to go out there and freeze fingers and
toes. Living in the past. Pick your favorite.

Quoted message said:

P.S. I still don't believe you.

I don't believe you that you don't believe me. Prove it.

William Asher said:

Mad Dog <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

William Asher says...

Quoted message said:

You won't shoot off since there is no forward momentum except in the
rotation of the wheels. If you do fall off, it is more like you move
about three feet forward and then fall over in slow motion.

Bzzzt! Wrongo! I used to ride rollers in the basement and twice rode
off of them. Fortunately, we had a bunch of boxes stacked up against
the wall I ran into that was a good 15 feet away. The rubber streak
on the floor was at least 7' long, so the rear wheel had enough
momentum to be spinning hard for that distance. Of course, the REASON
I went off the rollers those times was because I was doing a fairly
fast spin interval and was concentrating more on my spin than the
direction I was going. Those rubber streaks on the basement floor
were great conversation pieces.

I guess that if when I fell off I didn't notice I had fallen off, I could
do something like that. But most times it is obvious something has gone
wrong so I stop pedaling immediately.

Maybe your wheels are made of iridium-osmium alloy and are a lot heavier
than mine. But it just doesn't make a lot of sense that a 5-lb wheel
spinning even as fast as it does has all that much momentum compared to a
150-lb person + 20-lb bicycle.

I don't think physics is MadDog's strong suit. Remember, he's the one who
says shaving a few grams of wheel weight will save a couple minutes on an
hour-long climb.

Mark
(still riding 25-year-old Krietler rollers with 7 ft. skid marks wrapped
around the rear drums from purposely locking up the rear wheel at 50 mph)

Mad Dog said:

Those rubber streaks on the basement floor were
great conversation pieces.

As one of the legion of readers that doesn't believe you, I
have to ask. What were you *really* doing when you laid
down that rubber?

Maybe I don't want to know.

Bob Schwartz