[Closed] Indoor rollers

There's a myth that they're deathtraps and really hard to use, but it's a myth. They need about fifteen minutes of getting used to, but they're the nearest thing to just riding a bike other than, well, riding a bike. If you're a really mashy pedaler you'll find them harder to balance on, but then they'll teach you not to be a really mashy pedaler,

I love my rollers, but then again, I’ve been using them since before the dawn of Smart trainers/Zwift/app-based everything.

Rollers condition your body in ways that turbos don’t: you will develop a much smoother pedalling style (souplesse), better balance, and will gain much more core stability.

As you progress, you can learn all manner of stupid cool roller tricks, like one handed riding, no handed, one-leg roller drills, etc.

I hear people say ‘But you can’t add resistance, so they’re not as good as a turbo’. Really? Try putting it in the 50/11 and pedalling at 80-100rpm for 10mins and see how you get on

Big rollers fan, used to train on them when I “raced” . Always preferred them to the turbo and you can often pick them up cheap (well you could pre -c19) from people who didn’t get on with them
Be more Merckx!

Yeah fan of them myself, takes a few minutes to get going (and I still have a wall handy for stops JIV) but for all the reasons that digger suggests, they're good. Plus lots more involving that a turbo.

Big fan too although I’ve never used a smart trainer. They have really changed the way I ride. I’ve have now got a higher cadence, I understand how long i can hold a given power for so I can really push hard on hills and intervals have really improved my recovery rates. As others have said, you can get the resistance just by dropping the air pressure by 10psi and they are easy to store and set up

Another fan here, I'll use them whenever I can instead of the turbo but depending on your weight/tyre choice/tyre pressure etc. they might limit the sort of workouts you can do, I use mine for longer, lower intensity stuff or recovery days when I can't get outdoors. Anything harder than that and I run out of resistance or end up spinning silly cadences.

I do love getting smoother on them and watching your maximum cadence creep up, I think I've managed 185RPM on them which is hilarious, you can't see your computer screen any more and it's basically in the lap of the gods whether you bounce off the rollers or not!

Worth playing with tyre pressures though, too soft and they get a bit lively (forces you to pedal smoother I guess) but too hard and they get too 'easy'. I found a good compromise pressure which achieves enough resistance without being *too* bucking bronco at high cadence.

I think my dream setup in future would be some really posh Krietlers with the headwind fan and just stick a powermeter on the bike. That would give me all the functionality and resistance I would want out of a smart trainer, but in a set of rollers.

One word of warning, if experimenting with Zwift whilst on rollers, and getting a bit too much 'into it', don't lean into a bend. Don't ask me how I know...

I used to use rollers and found they can be boring and you get very hot

Can you not making cycling part of your daily routine?

For me i leave the car at home and cycle 10 miles to work each day, use waterproofs when its raining, quick strip wash in the toilet and im good to go

Also when its windy its good resistance training!

Can you not making cycling part of your daily routine?

Careful, you're questioning the whole concept of indoor training there!

OP said he wanted to improve consistency, which is the beauty of indoor training in general e.g. repeatable and controllable. Rollers are just a good way to do relatively easy indoor sessions and are arguably 'better' for those sessions than a turbo.

Save the outdoor riding for when you have time to savour it and enjoy it!