Originally Posted by https://www.sportcrafters.com/rollers.htm

Discussion On Roller Drum Diameter

Selection of the proper drum diameter for your level of training is very important. Larger drum diameters of 4” or more are made popular by a lot of manufacturers, however you’ve probably noticed these are typically sold with resistance units. Large drums give you a relatively easy spin on high pressure road tires, and a little more aggressive spin on mountain bike tires. If you train on hybrid or mountain bike tires and your body weight is above 170 pounds, you may want to stick with the larger drums.

Smaller diameter drums give you increased natural resistance from tire compression. Some rollers are as small as 2-1/4” which promise a very strenuous workout no matter who you are or what gear you’re in. We don’t recommend this; rollers should always allow you a moderate workout to simulate a level road. Whether you add resistance to provide some occasional uphill simulation is up to you, but you shouldn’t be fighting your roller constantly.

We’ve found that drums in the 3” to 3.5” range give you a good workout and relatively easy spin on high pressure road tires at your normal road speed range, assuming your body weight is less than 220 lbs and you’re in good physical conditioning. Resistance can be added to these units if needed for stronger workouts, but most people find drum diameters in this range to give them the best overall training. Resistance will change with speed, so your gearing will give you a very wide band of resistance range.
If your body weight is higher and you ride a road bike, the smaller diameter drums will give you appropriate resistance but you may need to gear down to a speed less than typical road speed. Your other option is to step up in diameter if you want to use your normal gearing.

Originally Posted by Chad4yew

krazyderek's thread on his home made rollers. Try giving him a pm if you have questions.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...motion+rollers

Where abouts on Long Island are you? You sound just like me with all the resources.

Originally Posted by Chad4yew

Here is something about roller size from https://www.sportcrafters.com/rollers.htm:

Originally Posted by JoeOxfordCT

I appreciate that you want to do this yourself but you know you can get rollers for about $100 ??

https://www.performancebike.com/shop/...slisearch=true

I envy the amount of spare time you have.....

Originally Posted by Dial_tone

How much could you possibly save over a set of Performance rollers? seems not worth it on the surface.

Originally Posted by krazyderek

I think this is an awsome idea. I would see your main tool being a metal lathe though. Steel would work ok for the drums, except you may run into rust problems soon after you're done. Hence why most are aluminum. PVC and all those like materials don't seem to hold up quite as well as metal cause the rollers can get a bit hot at times depending on your tires.

If i were to make some, i would aim to create something that incorporates a flyweel into the design like the [URL="htt p://www.trutrainer.com/products_rollers.shtm l"]Tru Trainner[/ RL] Sure you can get cheap rollers, but you can save yourself some money if you create something that sells for 300-600$.
I'm not really sure if just using really heavy steel rollers would do the job, or if you would need a larger seperate spinning mass. But maybe you could just do 2 standard rollers, with one heavy rollers in the middle?

Either way you may want to consider other sizes, 3" is fairly standard, but something like 2.5" or 2.25" or 2" would offer more resistance.

Anyways, hope this isn't to late. Post some pics of how you made out.

Originally Posted by Turboem1

I do not have to pay for materials or labor. But yes I will have my time invested in it. I didnt realize how cheap some of the rollers were. I may just pick up some of the $100 ones.