Have a turbo trainer but thinking of getting some rollers also. In my head having the bike move more naturally will feel better than having it clamped in place, which i dont really like. This true? Is the more natural feeling of rollers worth it over a turbo?

Its just so i can stick in a quick hour at night on my roadie and not have to faff with my lights and potentially getting killed by drivers on my way out of the city.

Any helpful input welcomed

Ta

Rollers are great and less boring to ride than a turbo.
Not great for 100% efforts, but great for just about everything else.

Shouldn’t take too long to get used to either, just like “normal” riding really.

I’m also considering taking the ‘roller’ plunge. More appealing to me, and you don’t need a dedicated rear tyre. Perfect.

No idea what one to get though. Will ask the guys on my local club ride.

Was asked last week.

I’ve not used rollers but if you need put the watts out Shirley they are useless?

Okay, I’d like to clear up some urban myths about turbo training – been actively (no sssoooo active atm ) turbo-ing for 5+ years now (not continuously, before you’all start).

I’ve never ridden on rollers so this is going to be a one sided event.

1. You DO NOT NEED a dedicated tyre, even when I was IM training I simply bunged on an old wheel fitted with a vit rubino – absolutely fine. I’m doing the same right now with an old winter hack. Yep, it’s fine to just jump straight onto the road with the same tyre….see 2. for tyre wear.

2. Tyre and turbo roller wear; Pump your tyre up to the exact same pressure each time, DO NOT crank up the roller pressure or you’ll (eventually) fudge the roller and bearings + begin to snap spokes – watch the latter for those out of the seat sprints! You really don’t need heaps of roller pressure against the tyre.

3. They are piss-easy to transport.

4. Don’t waste your time thinking ‘I’ll just get a cheapy for winter, I’ll not use it much’…kind of crud (as I did ). Get yourself a Tacx Flow, some folk diss them but if you utilise their multiple functions they really are a fab training tool……you’ve got to ‘get into it’, but watch out, it’s highly addictive!

5. Boring session; I beg to differ. Yesterday evening I was ramping up watts whilst monitoring cadence …I could monitor HR if I wished (power is the key to using indoor trainers). The beauty of the Flow is you can instantly flick through variables on the bar unit, observe the power graph whilst doing so (feel the pain) or chose to train with static load & cadence…have I mentioned running time and distance….there’s more.

6. One can upgrade (when I’m working that is) the ‘Flow’ to an ‘i-magic’ (google it) and race other users online in real time in virtual reality…boring you say?

7. DO NOT buy a gel type, I trashed mine very quickly…go for the magnetic versions. More expensive but I’ve had ZERO trouble from mine since 2005…it’s showing no sign of wear and I purchased it second hand…quality 🙂

8. You can capture the training data…tracking progress (i magic only, but I bet a PC geek could interface the screen output)

9. More advanced versions, made by other manufacturers are available but you get my point(s). There’s heaps of choice now.

10. Due to my current life-style, I’d be seriously gutted without my turbo….it’s been a life-saver.

11. Rollers….erm, I believe they go around?

I had rollers for a little while but the resistance was so minimal it wasn’t worth it. Alright for warming the legs up, but for anything else go turbo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBc5nnveOUY&feature=related
Freddy Maertens solving the electrical power generation problem.

I have the use of an i-magic if I want and it is still boring. I’d prefer to be unfit than use a static bike. there are so many things to be doing in life, sweating in a garage looking at watts is somewhere near the bottom of the list!
rollers are slightly less boring because you can try no-hands one-leg etc but then it isn’t exactly training…

I’ve used a turbo (tacx excel) for years over the winter season – and as others have suggested they are fantastic for focused and planned workout especially the balls out intervals and power passed workouts
This year I though I’d get some rollers – just to do some steady workouts – how wrong – Because you have to ‘balance’ the bike it gives a whole different workout helping to develop and maintain core strength – using the gears helps very resistance & high cadence makes for some very hard rides – 1hr on the big ring at approx 40kph hurts (me – anyway) I find that I have to give the session full concentration to keep the bike on the rollers

You can get rollers with resistance units built in, cyclops do one IIRC based on the Mag turbo trainers resistance unit.