Rollers

I once used a set that was made by a man many years ago and they r still being used today as far as i know. They had quite a bit more resistance than your modern day rollers. He had turned down some large pieces of wood to sizes similar to the rollers used nowadays and somehow attached half a hub in each end of the 3 cylinders. He then attached an old V-belt off a car or tractor or whatever he could find and this kept the front wheel spinning. not sure how u were thinking of making your own, but the larger the roller generally the less resistance. Also take note that the rollers must be very well balanced. During a high speed effort they may be spinning very, very fast (100km/h is a lot of RPM's) and tend to vibrate quite a bit if they r not balanced near to perfect. I cant see any reason why u shouldnt attempt to make your own rollers, just remember to take these things into account.

Mark

You might like to visit

http://www.bikecult.com/works/rollers.html

there are some photos there of old hand built rollers.

I'm sort of thinking about the same thing, welding a frame, gluing wooden sections to an axle, having them lathed, bearings on the ends of the axle into positions on the frame and then some old sprockets and chains.

Have a look at the old wooden rollers pictured at this site, they are cambered into the centre to help keep the bike in position and they look such a wonderfull peice of equipment.

Rod