Getting Started on Rollers

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...

A couple of points:

- You won't shoot out the picture window if you don't ride
with a gun.
- Wiping out on rollers is more embarrassing than painful.
- The learning curve is not steep.
- Mad Dog is full of [censored].
- They won't do anything for your spin.
- But that's OK since spin rarely matters in road events.
- Rollers have largely been replaced by resistance trainers.
There are reasons for this.

Bob Schwartz

Bob Schwartz said:

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...

A couple of points:

- You won't shoot out the picture window if you don't ride
with a gun.
- Wiping out on rollers is more embarrassing than painful.
- The learning curve is not steep.
- Mad Dog is full of [censored].
- They won't do anything for your spin.
- But that's OK since spin rarely matters in road events.
- Rollers have largely been replaced by resistance trainers.
There are reasons for this.

Bob Schwartz

Bob,
Is it just an old wives' tale that trainers wear rear tires quite rapidly?

Not that I do not believe you, but it is impossible. I once was involved in
setting up some roller races at a large regional mall. We had to demonstrate
to the mall manager that if someone fell off that he would not go crashing
into the crowd or a plate glass window. I did the demonstration and hopped
off of the rollers at speed. No forward motion whatsoever, and I did a track
stand.

So, we were able to have the races.
"Mad Dog" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Carl Sundquist says...

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If you could care less if I believe it or not (actually it's _couldn't_

care

Quoted message said:

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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

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toes. Living in the past. Pick your favorite.

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

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

Colin Campbell said:

Is it just an old wives' tale that trainers wear rear tires quite rapidly?

They wear tires rapidly if not set up correctly. The tire has to be
tight on the roller, so it doesn't slip. It it slips, the tire will
wear out fast.

JT

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William Asher said:

He does claim to be pedaling at approximately 60+ mph.

Tom Compton collected these data on the speed-power relationship on
rollers:
http://www.geocities.com/almost_fast/trainerpower/tr_compton.gif

(That graph comes from this page:
http://www.geocities.com/almost_fast/trainerpower/ )

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

Colin Campbell said:

Is it just an old wives' tale that trainers wear rear tires quite rapidly?

They wear tires rapidly if not set up correctly. The tire has to be
tight on the roller, so it doesn't slip. It it slips, the tire will
wear out fast.

JT

And now someone is selling 'trainer tires' (I think that's what they
call them) to use in the winter on rollers and resistance trainers.
'Specially formulated and all that.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

"Robert Chung" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

William Asher said:

He does claim to be pedaling at approximately 60+ mph.

Tom Compton collected these data on the speed-power relationship on
rollers:
http://www.geocities.com/almost_fast/trainerpower/tr_compton.gif

(That graph comes from this page:
http://www.geocities.com/almost_fast/trainerpower/ )

Also need to factor in that he was riding on 105 psi (about 7 bar) on
rollers.

But I think I understand it now: he was using a resolution of 4 kilometers
when he measured the 7 foot skid.

You can debate whether good 'spin' is important or not for road racing,
but rollers are definitely good for improving your 'spin.' They pretty
much force you to ride smoothly. Don't you agree?

-RJ

So how do I start on rollers again? Ride next to the coach, buy a boat
and NVG's and go to band camp and play a flute.

I am heading down to the basement now to try them out. If there is a 7
foot streak, I doubt it will be from a burn out, it may be Mexican or
Sushi but not a burn out. Thank you all for the guidance and
entertainment.

John

ronaldo_jeremiah said:

You can debate whether good 'spin' is important or not for road racing,
but rollers are definitely good for improving your 'spin.' They pretty
much force you to ride smoothly. Don't you agree?

Is the feedback from choppiness on rollers more effective
than the feedback from choppiness in any other kind of
riding?

Bob Schwartz

Bob Schwartz said:

ronaldo_jeremiah said:

You can debate whether good 'spin' is important or not for road racing,
but rollers are definitely good for improving your 'spin.' They pretty
much force you to ride smoothly. Don't you agree?

Is the feedback from choppiness on rollers more effective
than the feedback from choppiness in any other kind of
riding?

Bob Schwartz

I think this would be a YMMV thing. I got to where I could ride
rollers OK, but even though I could ride smoother and using a smaller
patch on the rollers, rollers were too unique feeling to me to think I
took much of it with me to the road. So for me it probably wasn't that
effective. I think I get more from both trainers and the spin bike.

OTOH, better bike riders and racers than I used them and said it
helped their spin. They looked pretty smooth going past...

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

Joe Pro says...

Quoted message said:

Not that I do not believe you, but it is impossible. I once was involved in
setting up some roller races at a large regional mall. We had to demonstrate
to the mall manager that if someone fell off that he would not go crashing
into the crowd or a plate glass window. I did the demonstration and hopped
off of the rollers at speed. No forward motion whatsoever, and I did a track
stand.

Dunno what to say about that, Joe. I only know what I've seen. Not only have I
seen forward motion when others rode off, I've ridden it myself into the
basement wall with boxes flying all over the place.

Your "no forward motion whatsoever" claim doesn't make physical sense. If
you're in a big gear and spinning, it's not unreasonable for the wheel to be
going at the equivalent of 40 mph and most folks I know can easily maintain 25
mph on rollers with no load unit strapped on. That's a fair bit of angular
momentum on the average bike wheelset. Are you saying that the angular momentum
of two spinning wheels just evaporates when you go off the rollers? It's gotta
go somewhere. Or did you develop a process to convert it into pizza? If so,
send me a veggie deluxe, light on the cheeze, very heavy on the garlic and
jalapenos because it's gettin' deep here and I want to contribute to the stench.

Mark Fennell says...

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I don't think physics is MadDog's strong suit.

Just shows how flawed your thinking is - or rather, it exposes your inability to
think in a reasonably coherent manner.

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Remember, he's the one who says shaving a few grams of wheel weight will
save a couple minutes on an hour-long climb.

Numbers are apparently your weakness. "Few" has been defined as between 3 and
9. I was talking about a much larger weight reduction than 9 grams. And anyone
that knows anything about the effect of wheel+tire weight on significant climbs
goes for light wheels if they have the means. Look at the wheels Jan, Ivan,
Lance, etc. ride on the big hill Tour stages - they are light enough to be
considered fragile by some riders. Do you think they'd risk a wheel coming
apart on a big descent if there wasn't a big payoff on the uphill?

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

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

Quoted message said:

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

Quoted message said:

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

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great conversation pieces.

You must be guisness book of records material. Unless you kept pedaling after
you came off the rollers, there is no way you wet 15 feet forward.
------------
Alex

William Asher says...

Quoted message said:

He does claim to be pedaling at approximately 60+ mph.

Actually, the bike had no forward velocity until it came off the rollers.

Quoted message said:

Who knows, maybe the stripe was caused by relativistic effects.

No, no, no! Get it right - the sparks were caused by relativistic effects. The
stripe was caused by fear.

Quoted message said:

I should have said: "I don't shoot off because a) I don't find riding
rollers all that erotic,

Trying to troll H2?

b) I don't pedal all that fast to begin with,

No wonder you're such a mellow guy...

Quoted message said:

and c) when I do fall off I have enough sense to stop pedaling and look
for something soft to land on.

Your mommy didn't let you play with the fun kids, did she?

Robert Chung says...

Quoted message said:

Tom Compton collected these data on the speed-power relationship on
rollers:
http://www.geocities.com/almost_fast/trainerpower/tr_compton.gif

Quoted message said:

(That graph comes from this page:
http://www.geocities.com/almost_fast/trainerpower/ )

I've seen that site before and it's pretty cool. I wish I could get similar
data for my current trainer (Cateyemate) but since I've only been on the thing
like twice in the last year I guess it doesn't matter. (such a drag living in a
place where one can ride in relative comfort year round...) The roller numbers
stop too low to extrapolate a sprint velocity with much accuracy.

Carl Sundquist says...

Quoted message said:

But I think I understand it now: he was using a resolution of 4 kilometers
when he measured the 7 foot skid.

No, no no! I was using a resolution of 4 nanometers when we failed to detect
your brain!

[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

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.

I kept pedaling by INTENT! It was a contest, dumbass!

Quoted message said:

Persistence is his strength.

One of many, but at least you're partially perceptive.

I would say yes, definitely.

-RJ

Mad Dog said:

If
you're in a big gear and spinning, it's not unreasonable for the wheel to be
going at the equivalent of 40 mph and most folks I know can easily maintain 25
mph on rollers with no load unit strapped on. That's a fair bit of angular
momentum on the average bike wheelset.

No it isn't. Give it up.

If no one here had ever crashed on rollers you might
be able to pass off this [censored]. But that's not
the case so give it up.

Bob Schwartz