How much resistance to you experience? I swear the once I borrowed rolled relatively free, but my Tacx ones don’t seem to – it’s like pedalling up a steep hill, if I stop pedalling they stop within two seconds.

Not necessarily a problem, just wondering if this is the norm?

Wonder if I could add some weights to my roller wheels to make it feel more normal.. hmm..

Not normal to have loads of resistance. I assume they are standard tacx ones?
Check –
Do they roll easily without the bike on them?
Set up correctly for length of bike?
Nothing rubbing like brakes?
Tyre pressures OK?
Are they on a soft floor so rub the floor when you are on the bike?

would have thought they should spin relatively freely – is it like that when there is no wheel on them.?

Mine – JetBlack I think – have little resistance inherent, the effort is required though!

Are they actually harder to pedal on though? Turbo has a lot of stored energy in a big flywheel which typically rollers won’t have hence they roll down a lot quicker.

mrblobby – Member
Are they actually harder to pedal on though? Turbo has a lot of stored energy in a big flywheel which typically rollers won’t have hence they roll down a lot quicker.

Rollers have two 622mm diameter flywheels connected to them, twice the size of the biggest flywheel on any turbo 😉

Got some Cyclops rollers and in the big ring its a fair old workout even with the ‘token’ magnetic resistance adjusted to minimum.

My brother had some basic rollers last Christmas, made myself feel sick (after Christmas lunch, admittedly) just getting enough speed up to get into top gear 😆

Rollers have two 622mm diameter flywheels connected to them, twice the size of the biggest flywheel on any turbo

Not as good as a big heavy flywheel (if they were I suspect they’d be rubbish on the road!) Most rollers, you stop pedalling and you come to a stop pretty quickly.

pjt201 – Member

Rollers have two 622mm diameter flywheels connected to them, twice the size of the biggest flywheel on any turbo

But they are hollow, so the rolling mass is low. A pretty poor flywheel.

OP: My guess would be tyre pressure, you need to pump them up really hard for the rollers.

Also check that you have the rollers ‘wheelbaase’ adjusted correctly so that the bike is not wedged in. Aim to have the center of the front drum about 5mm ahead of the front wheel’s axle.

mrblobby – Member

Not as good as a big heavy flywheel (if they were I suspect they’d be rubbish on the road!) Most rollers, you stop pedalling and you come to a stop pretty quickly.

Ah, you didn’t say the flywheel had to be heavy before 😉

OP: My guess would be tyre pressure, you need to pump them up really hard for the rollers.

Yeah.. well.. the wheels I am using are the Powertap wheels I retired because the rims are worn REALLY thin.. I daren’t go above 100psi 🙂

Re the front roller -that’s about where it is. I guess I’m alright.. except for the clicking.

I did a short ride on the rollers this week, haven’t used them for years, was trying to do some high cadence low resistance stuff, strava file is here if interested as it has a power reading https://www.strava.com/activities/442657695

Was in a 52 front ring and somewhere in the upper (bigger) third of the cassette i.e. very low load.

Biggest problem was trying not to bounce off as I seem to have forgotten how to pedal….

100 psi should be fine, you tried taking the drive belt off and seeing how freely they spin on their own?

Might have a bearing in cockeyed, or a bolt over tightened, or something.