Can you climb on rollers ????

I jump out of the saddle all the time on my rollers. It took quite awhile before I had the confidence to do that though.
I recommend that you try it for just a few seconds first as the bike will most likely sway.
I usually do about 3 minute intervals out of the saddle. It may be a little easier for you to crank it up a few gears first to get the wheels spinning a little faster. The increased gyroscopic motion of the wheels (which is what keeps us upright on the road) will help maintain the balance for you. Then bite the bullet and raise your ass.

Good luck

Colin

cjcanty said:

I jump out of the saddle all the time on my rollers. It took quite awhile before I had the confidence to do that though.
I recommend that you try it for just a few seconds first as the bike will most likely sway.
I usually do about 3 minute intervals out of the saddle. It may be a little easier for you to crank it up a few gears first to get the wheels spinning a little faster. The increased gyroscopic motion of the wheels (which is what keeps us upright on the road) will help maintain the balance for you. Then bite the bullet and raise your ass.

Good luck

Colin

Colin,

What type of rollers do you have ? Do you have an added fan or resistance unit too ? It seems to me that your cadence would have to be awfully high to support out of the saddle climbing (or sprinting ?) ?😕

I did never try, but I always wanna do it! I don`t like to sit all the time, but I`m afraid that I`ll fall off if I`ll try to stand up..😎

I have standard run of the mill rollers from Nashbar. About $120 worth. When I am out of the saddled I am in one of the third highest gears. I keep my cadence to about 60-70 and let my balance take care of the rest.
with a bit of practice it becomes a lot easier.
When I first got the rollers I kept falling off (in the saddle) and it took some practice to stay upright. Now I don't have any probs.

Colin

cjcanty said:

I have standard run of the mill rollers from Nashbar. About $120 worth. When I am out of the saddled I am in one of the third highest gears. I keep my cadence to about 60-70 and let my balance take care of the rest.
with a bit of practice it becomes a lot easier.
When I first got the rollers I kept falling off (in the saddle) and it took some practice to stay upright. Now I don't have any probs.

Colin

60-70 rpms :eek: Wow, I've never checked myself but that sounds slow ? Not slow to ride rollers seated mind you but to be out of the saddle it sounds slow.....
Right now I'm riding a Trek mtn. bike w/slicks on my Performance (I think) rollers w/no added resistance unit. I typically ride in the second highest gear (44-12 or 91.2 gear inches) I can do some light intervals by shifting into the 11 cog (99.5 inches) but right now I don't think I have the resistance available to try climbing out of the saddle yet. I've ordered a 2005 Felt F65 on which I'm having my LBS install a FSA compact crank. Perhaps when I get the road bike I'll have more gearing (50-11) to try climbing out of the saddle....:p

Getting out of the saddle isn't nearly as hard as riding rollers no handed 😄

The only problem I have with it is occasionally if I surge forward too quickly and the traction of the front tire increases substantialy, I ride right of the front of the damn things, lol. This can make for some pretty entertaining indoor crashes when spinning a big gear at a high cadence.

I recently moved my front-wheel roller forward a couple of notches and this helped with both the balance and the unwanted sprints into the TV set.

YMMV of course,

NW

I am just starting out this winter with my rollers, but a friend of mine has ridden them for years. I have watched him remove his jersey while riding and also do wheelies. I hope with practice I can just hold a line better with mine though. He also sometimes uses a towel folded under the rear roller for added resistance.

NRW77 said:

Getting out of the saddle isn't nearly as hard as riding rollers no handed 😄

The only problem I have with it is occasionally if I surge forward too quickly and the traction of the front tire increases substantialy, I ride right of the front of the damn things, lol. This can make for some pretty entertaining indoor crashes when spinning a big gear at a high cadence.

I recently moved my front-wheel roller forward a couple of notches and this helped with both the balance and the unwanted sprints into the TV set.

YMMV of course,

NW

I ride rollers all the time and thought I was hot until a local Cat 3 guy told me he sprints on his. So I started trying to stand and found it's no big deal. To get started, just go to a harder gear and try easing up for a few seconds at a time. Within a few sessions you'll sense the balance you need, and then it's easy. At this point I can stand all I want and even sprint at high cadence. There is a limit to sprinting, though, because of the surge effect that tends to force you off the front.

I have a mag unit on mine and it makes a HUGE difference for training. I also have small diameter aluminum drums which are way better than the fat PVC rollers on most lower priced models.

warrior1 said:

I am just starting out this winter with my rollers, but a friend of mine has ridden them for years. I have watched him remove his jersey while riding and also do wheelies. I hope with practice I can just hold a line better with mine though. He also sometimes uses a towel folded under the rear roller for added resistance.

:eek: :eek: Wheelies :eek: :eek:
Please explain, this is something I've never heard of....anyone else ?
I've also read here in the past about someone slowly riding their bike up to their rollers and somehow "hopping" onto the rollers without getting off their bike...
Perhaps I should start a new thread called Roller Tricks....??

Ok, after reading the replies I got in this thread I went out to the garage this morning and I tried standing my my rollers....It wasn't too bad, however I made the following observations:

On rollers you cannot lean forward on the handlebars like when climbing on the road, your front tire will get too twitchy...instead you lean back and keep your hips over the crank...it took a little getting used but after a few tries I was able to rock the bike (carefully!!) side to side like when on the road. I'm sure I will get smoother with practice.

I experienced some slipping with my rear tire losing contact with the last roller and feeling like I was going to ride off the front of the rollers. My front roller setup was with the tire basically over the roller. I tried moving my front roller forward but then I felt like I lost contact with the middle roller when I climbed so I moved it back to where I started.

What I am going to try tonight is to drill a couple holes and move the last roller in the back about and inch or so farther back. I am hoping that this will let my back tire settle down a little farther and keep me from losing contact with either of the back two rollers.

Another point; my rollers don't have a resistance unit or fan so what I did to help add resistance what to put a folded towel (an old towl) under the back roller and let it rub to add resistance. I think tomorrow though I will put it under the middel roller instead of the back. However, when I replace these rollers I will definitely get a fan or resistance unit, maybe both ?

Other than that I am extremely happy with the advice I got here and can only say, if you haven't tried standing on your rollers, give it a shot !!! I was thinking of buying a mag trainer to supplement my rollers and now with this new skill I won't have to. 😄 😄

Read through the thread and lead me to a dumb question. Instead of buying something to make your rollers have more resistance, why not just buy a trainer? That way you have the benefits of both. Well, it what I recently did. Have an old set of Cortina rollers (larger aluminum drums) which have had for over 30 years and still going strong. But heard so much about rollers not giving you the strength building so I bit the bullet and got a Kinetic Road Machine. After riding the KRM for a few weeks now I have to admit the trainer does provide help in areas the roller did not. Pretty much just riding the trainer right not but plan to swap back to the rollers one day a week once my training switches from endurance to strength. That way I'll have one easy day on the rollers.

I do agree however that you can get a lot from rollers. Sure my aerobic training benefitted from it. Started riding the rollers back in August, 2004 on days where the weather turned south and only averaged 18 mph over 20 mins. Last time I tried a sustained high speed ride on the rollers, did 32.5 mph over 40 mins.

I've had a little bit of trouble standing up, its a big awkard to not lean forwards so much because i've had my real wheel come forward off the two rear rollers, It definetly takes practice and some serious focus at first. I've read that getting a front fork stand is more ideal if you want to do serious sprinting on rollers, it will prevent you from coming off of them... but would require less balance.

adamallstar said:

I've had a little bit of trouble standing up, its a big awkard to not lean forwards so much because i've had my real wheel come forward off the two rear rollers, It definetly takes practice and some serious focus at first. I've read that getting a front fork stand is more ideal if you want to do serious sprinting on rollers, it will prevent you from coming off of them... but would require less balance.

Yeah, I have to admit my roller session this morning was not quite as sucessful as yesterdays 🙁 I'm not sure that this is the way to go yet 😕 I really like the idea of just having one indoor trainer and my homegym is not that big and I hate to clutter it up by having to get a mag trainer or a cheap spin bike...I'm not convinced that a mag trainer doesn't hurt your bike if you stand & climb repeatedly either...😕 I will keep trying for now...:o

J.