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Rollers - still not sure if they're doing me any good

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

Rollers - still not sure if they're doing me any good

Old 07-25-10, 09:10 PM
  #1  
agarose2000
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Rollers - still not sure if they're doing me any good

I've been intermittently using the rollers I got about 6 months ago. (I usually ride outdoors or use a CycleOps Fluid2 trainer, which I love.) Am fairly proficient on them now, and can definitely get a good hard workout on them, but I'm still not sold on them.

My beef with rollers -

- Rollers are great for teaching you to hold a dead straight line, but they don't do anything for my cornering ability, which I consider the central aspect of technical bike handling.

- I probably hold a straighter line now than I did before, but seriously - it's like splitting hairs - insiginficant difference in real-world riding.

- My acceleration is definitely smoother after riding rollers, but it doesn't translate to faster speed. I just look at my speedo output - no speed increase despite that silky smooth spinup.

- And I actually LIKE my crazy fast herky jerky accelerations - very useful for making gaps for a break or to bridge gaps quickly without towing the whole crew behind you if you don't want them there. That type of acceleration is impossible on my rollers - even with the wheelbase set to max, I go flying off the front of the rollers if I do it. So I end up with this silky smooth but slow accelearation.

- I go significantly harder on my CycleOps2 fluid trainer, and definitely get a much harder workout when I'm cranking.


I feel like learning to ride rollers is sort of like learning to do a wheelie - it's a challenging skill to learn, but hasn't significantly improved my speed or handling in most practical situations. If anything, the single biggest thing I did that really smoothed out my pedaling and reduced my upper body motion was to raise my seat a cm higher than I was used to. That had a FAR greater effect on my riding than did the rollers!

I'm all for learning new things and am willing to work hard at something I'm not good at if it'll make me better, but I need someone to convince me that these rollers things are something I should stick with. Else I'm selling the dang things - I've got too many bike toys already.
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Old 07-25-10, 09:32 PM
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they're great for fixing your spin, and top end sprint speed (providing you've done the necessary anaerobic power/strength work).
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Old 07-25-10, 09:57 PM
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Rollers make you smooth. To expect them to help you with "technical bike handling skills" is silly.
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Old 07-25-10, 11:01 PM
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Originally Posted by umd
Rollers make you smooth. To expect them to help you with "technical bike handling skills" is silly.
When you can fall off the rollers and not injure yourself, you have mastered the most technical skill.
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Old 07-26-10, 02:08 AM
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Rollers are like doing scales in music. Playing notes "in order" doesn't do much for expressiveness, beat, rhythm, etc, but it teaches you how to play the notes. It's a really basic basic thing. On a violin (or similar) it's a bit more than that, since there are no frets - you learn what each note sounds like.

Rollers, if you let them, teach you how to pedal smoothly.

I use them to "reset" my cadence preferences. If I find myself pedaling too slow all the time, I take a day off, then ride rollers for a day or two. Instant 20-30 rpm increase.

But like scales, rollers aren't the end all. Just one more arrow in your quiver.

cdr
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Old 07-26-10, 09:04 AM
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Originally Posted by gjb483
When you can fall off the rollers and not injure yourself, you have mastered the most technical skill.
You're overlooking the no-handed, one-footed "skill".
I have no idea how this would be useful in a real-world situation.
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Old 07-26-10, 09:39 AM
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That is why I sold my rollers and spend my indoor training time on a trainer (usually doing interval workouts). It really is a better use of my limited time.
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Old 07-26-10, 09:45 AM
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I love rollers and miss having them. They're good for the spin, and if I'm doing endurance, recovery or even tempo work indoors, I might as well be on the rollers. They feel a lot more natural than my magnetic trainer, so they're more tolerable to ride for an extended period of time. I think I'll pick up a set this winter.
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Old 07-26-10, 09:55 AM
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get an attachable resistance unit
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Old 07-26-10, 08:07 PM
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What's the benefit of being SMOOTH? Seriously - I'll take herky jerky and hella fast any day over a hair slower and silky smooth pedaling.

And if you're accelerating to drop the guys behind you, you WANT that crazy fast acceleration, don't you?
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Old 07-26-10, 08:26 PM
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Please don't ever do mass start races.

Thanks.
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Old 07-26-10, 08:37 PM
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Originally Posted by agarose2000
What's the benefit of being SMOOTH? Seriously - I'll take herky jerky and hella fast any day over a hair slower and silky smooth pedaling.

And if you're accelerating to drop the guys behind you, you WANT that crazy fast acceleration, don't you?
fast and smooth are not mutually exclusive... besides, when you are riding five abreast in a pack, a sudden lateral movement of even 6 inches can cause trouble. in that case, you are not only a danger to yourself but also a menace to those around you.
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Old 07-26-10, 09:09 PM
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Originally Posted by agarose2000
What's the benefit of being SMOOTH? Seriously - I'll take herky jerky and hella fast any day over a hair slower and silky smooth pedaling.

And if you're accelerating to drop the guys behind you, you WANT that crazy fast acceleration, don't you?
try and be silky smooth at 140 rpm. they'll be looking over their shoulders, seeing you down the road.
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Old 07-26-10, 09:18 PM
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CDR posted a video of a crit he did when he was in San Diego back in Feb. He was frequently commenting on one rider, how smooth he was and how effortlessly he navigated through the pack. Of course, he did much of his training on rollers in the dorm rooms in college. Being smooth is a grace under pressure kind of thing.
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Old 07-26-10, 09:26 PM
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Originally Posted by agarose2000
What's the benefit of being SMOOTH? Seriously - I'll take herky jerky and hella fast any day over a hair slower and silky smooth pedaling.

And if you're accelerating to drop the guys behind you, you WANT that crazy fast acceleration, don't you?
What the hell makes you think that being smoother would reduce your ability to accelerate or make you slower?
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Old 07-26-10, 09:39 PM
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Originally Posted by grolby
What the hell makes you think that being smoother would reduce your ability to accelerate or make you slower?
Well he is a triathlete...


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Old 07-26-10, 10:29 PM
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I'm primarily a triguy but spend 80% of my bike time with pure road cyclists most of whom race, and 20% with myself or trifolks. I've never had any problems with group riding, and I've done a lot of group rides in NorCal / SoCal, some of which are on the faster side. (Simi Ride, Spectrum Ride, Palo Alto Noon Ride, etc.)

In terms of seeing why being smoother might make you accelerate slower or reach a slower top speed, I look at pro sprinters at the end of a flat stage going for the finish, or even at climbers making an important break where they really want to power away. They're usually out of the saddle, and the sprinters have their bikes waving to and fro. Of course they're holding a great straight line since they're pros, but that doesn't look anything like what you do on rollers. Even the climbers in breakaway mode don't look like roller riders as they get out of the saddle and crank away.

If I saw someone looking as smooth as a roller rider in a critical final closely matched sprint (or even breakway), I'd wonder if they didn't go hard enough.
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Old 07-26-10, 10:29 PM
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I don't think you understand what smooth means
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Old 07-26-10, 10:50 PM
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Also see souplesse
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Old 07-27-10, 01:13 AM
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It has been my understanding that instead of blowing energy on wiggling your bike around, you want to use it make the bike go forward faster. Being smooth will help you use your energy more efficiently. And smooth doesn't have to mean slow. I don't know why one would think that. A wiggly sprint may look dramatic but it is not always the most efficient use of one's limited resources.
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Old 07-27-10, 01:58 AM
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Originally Posted by agarose2000
I'm primarily a triguy but spend 80% of my bike time with pure road cyclists most of whom race, and 20% with myself or trifolks. I've never had any problems with group riding, and I've done a lot of group rides in NorCal / SoCal, some of which are on the faster side. (Simi Ride, Spectrum Ride, Palo Alto Noon Ride, etc.)

In terms of seeing why being smoother might make you accelerate slower or reach a slower top speed, I look at pro sprinters at the end of a flat stage going for the finish, or even at climbers making an important break where they really want to power away. They're usually out of the saddle, and the sprinters have their bikes waving to and fro. Of course they're holding a great straight line since they're pros, but that doesn't look anything like what you do on rollers. Even the climbers in breakaway mode don't look like roller riders as they get out of the saddle and crank away.

If I saw someone looking as smooth as a roller rider in a critical final closely matched sprint (or even breakway), I'd wonder if they didn't go hard enough.
Being smooth will help you BE there for the 'critical final closely matched sprint (or even breakaway)'
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Old 07-27-10, 02:07 AM
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Old 07-27-10, 03:16 AM
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Originally Posted by agarose2000
I'm primarily a triguy but spend 80% of my bike time with pure road cyclists most of whom race, and 20% with myself or trifolks. I've never had any problems with group riding, and I've done a lot of group rides in NorCal / SoCal, some of which are on the faster side. (Simi Ride, Spectrum Ride, Palo Alto Noon Ride, etc.)

In terms of seeing why being smoother might make you accelerate slower or reach a slower top speed, I look at pro sprinters at the end of a flat stage going for the finish, or even at climbers making an important break where they really want to power away. They're usually out of the saddle, and the sprinters have their bikes waving to and fro. Of course they're holding a great straight line since they're pros, but that doesn't look anything like what you do on rollers. Even the climbers in breakaway mode don't look like roller riders as they get out of the saddle and crank away.

If I saw someone looking as smooth as a roller rider in a critical final closely matched sprint (or even breakway), I'd wonder if they didn't go hard enough.
since when were rollers ever designed specifically for training finish line sprints? it's almost the same as wanting technical bike handling skills to greatly improve from roller use

if you want to go "herky jerky" go buy yourself one of these https://www.insideride.com/index.php?...d=64&Itemid=50
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