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Trainers Vs. Rollers

02.07.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount follows up his post on rollers, by comparing them to trainers.

If the weather changes so you are reluctant or unable to get outside to ride, is it better to hop on a stationary trainer or on bike rollers?

The answer is, it depends on what you want to accomplish.

The consensus among a few experienced cyclists is that rollers will allow you to work on your riding skills, although you’ll need practice to be able to stay upright on them. However trainers will let the most novice of riders hop on and do power workouts without any type of learning-how-to-ride-them period.

So which is better?

“I would recommend both because they do two different things,” Robert Fuller said. Robert is a licensed USA cycling coach and team manager for Rocket Sports Foundation, a youth cycling team in Lodi, Calif. (www.rocketsportsfoundation.org) In full disclosure, Robert did my bike fitting.

“As you know, with a trainer balance is only a minimal factor so doing hard intervals, standing up, sprinting, and slogging away while watching a video or TV is much easier to do,” he said.

But with rollers “there is a riding/balancing skill that is hard to replicate with any other form of cycling,” he said. “When riding rollers you are forced to learn to control your body movements since any movement is magnified on rollers.”

Ah, so true. While riding rollers I’ve turned my head slightly to one side to look at something and found myself lurching toward the edge of the roller and then to the floor.

Robert continued that rollers carry an important benefit. “If an athlete has mastered being able to ride on rollers for 30 minutes without falling off, you know that rider is going to be a safer rider on the road.”

So given that, if he could only have one, he’d use the trainer. “I would say that a trainer is going to give you a better, safer workout for 99 percent of all cyclists.”

A longtime friend of Robert’s is Craig Sanders. Another full disclosure — I work with Craig. He helped me select my bike and introduced me to Robert.

The two used to race bikes together a long time ago.

If Craig had to choose between a roller and a trainer, he would go with a roller. “A trainer is the same as riding a stationary bike at the gym. You can work on power but nothing else.”

Avid cyclist and blogger Dana McEwan (“Maine Velophile“) uses her trainer to build her base. “I do mainly endurance workouts with it and not too many intervals, or at least standing sprints,” she said. “The frame can torque a bit so you have to be a bit careful about body movement on it.”

She added that by the time she’s ready to start doing intervals on the trainer, the weather in Maine is starting to turn milder, and she can do those workouts on the road. “A road ride beats a trainer ride any day.”

Another cycling blogger, Bryan Dewberry, (“Biking to Live“) just started using a trainer. He says his biggest problem with it is boredom. “If I hadn’t set up my laptop on a table in front of me I don’t know if I could do it,” he said. He’s thinking about getting cycling DVDs to play during his workouts.

And in talking with a few sales people at my local LBS, all avid cyclists, they agree with the uses of each piece of equipment but also are split on which to use.

Ann, who is short, prefers a trainer in part because if she fell off a roller, it would be a long way down.

Steve, a former competitive racer prefers to use rollers because it allows him to work on form. Yet, he said, the trainers come with DVD systems that help you simulate riding. And depending on how much you want to spend, you can get trainers with all types of resistance settings.

Dana McEwan uses a fluid trainer, which she likes because it’s quiet. She suggests going with a reputable brand, such as CycleOps. “If you can afford to spend a bit more, then look for a good quality fluid or mag trainer. The latter actually allows you to adjust the resistance remotely,” she said.

But her most important trainer advice? “Invest in a trainer specific tire! And never use a regular tire that has been run a lot on the trainer outside on your road bike. Dangerous!”

I paid $110 for my Travel Trac rollers during a Performance Bike online sale in Sept. 2008. I haven’t seen them anywhere near that price since. A basic trainer I’ve seen on sale for as low as $89.

I may add a trainer at some at some point, in part because my wife wants to do indoor cardio work on her mountain bike. Daresay she won’t go near my rollers.

So depending on whether you want to work on your form and simulate riding while working out indoors or care less about your technique and just want to crank, that may influence whether you want to go with rollers or a trainer.

However, in the end, I agree with Craig: “Riding indoors is boring. I’d rather ride outside.”

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Categories // training Tags // Blount, guest post, rollers, trainer, training

Bike Rollers – Pros and Cons

01.31.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

Guest poster Don Blount rides in bad weather — indoors, on his rollers. He discusses some of their pros and cons.

I feel fortunate to live in a part of the country where outdoor activities can be done year round. I fully appreciate that, having grown up in Philadelphia and living in Denver for several years.

Where I live now in Northern California, the rains have settled in. Other parts of the country are dealing with snow or high winds during winter. Out here we get rain, fog, wind and much lower temperatures. I’ll ride in cold weather. I’ll ride in the dark, in fog and other inclement weather. But I have my limits. And although I’ve gotten caught in the rain, I won’t go out for a ride in the rain. I’m not that hard core, or crazy. But instead of curling up next to the fireplace with a good book or the television, I’ll still ride. Instead of riding outdoors or in a spin class or a stationary trainer, I’ll ride on my bike rollers.

I purchased these rollers in the fall of 2008 for a few reasons: 1) To ride when the weather was too bad to go on the road. 2) To practice technique and handling skills.

I’ll admit that I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into. It took me some time to get used to the rollers. I started out riding in a doorway and took my share of tumbles before being able to move to less confined places. One fall caused my wife to come rushing out to the garage to see what the problem was. I fell in the opposite direction what I had to grab onto. It is a sinking feeling to see something that could save you from going down slowly float out of your grasp. Fortunately by the time my wife arrived I was on my feet, with some of my dignity, claiming that nothing had happened. Later I found that I had bent my derailleur hanger.

What I’ve found that makes rollers most awkward (aside from learning to balance) is getting on and off. The rollers elevate you several inches off the ground, so getting on, moreso off, can be challenging because you just have this little skinny rail to balance your foot on. Miss that and whoosh, slipsville. I’m considering building a small platform to solve that problem.

I can now ride with a chair or counter, something that I can use to steady myself, next to me. And  I have gotten proficient enough that I can stand and pedal. I have begun working on clipping in and out of the pedals, although I won’t be doing anything close to what this guy does.

What I like about rollers is that I can still ride without going out in inclement weather. It helps conditioning, technique and handling skills. If your pedal stroke isn’t smooth while riding rollers, you’ll know because you’ll bounce around. Sprints, intervals, cadence work, all can be done on rollers.

What I don’t like about rollers is that they can be incredibly boring. Even wearing headphones and listening to music or watching television. Then again that just provides more incentive to ride outside once the weather calms. And after a few sessions on the rollers I can do that while working on my handling skills, technique and without losing too much conditioning.

Don also points us to this video by cycling coach Marc Evans, who demonstrates how to ride rollers.

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Categories // Accessories, training Tags // Blount, guest post, rollers, trainer, training

Share the Road…You $%&@%!!

01.26.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

Guest poster Jeff Hemmel blows off a little steam.

Normally I’d be grabbing a little post-ride snack right about now, maybe doing a little stretching. But instead I’m venting, taking out my frustrations on the only thing in sight – my computer.

What’s my problem? The idiot in the white car, that’s my problem. Namely, the idiot who felt the need to stay behind me, while I literally hugged the edge of the road climbing a drawbridge, then for some reason chose to pull alongside me and abruptly lay on the horn. Not a toot-toot, mind you, we’re talking a prolonged blare. I knew the car was there, of course, but the unexpectedness — and the sheer loudness — of the horn startled me.

Me, a guy on a bike, with a cement wall to my right, traffic on my left, already battling 25 mph winds, doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing.

Apparently the guy in the white car was no rocket scientist, so let me give him a little education. Startling a person on a bike isn’t the smartest move you’ll make in life. When startled, most people react with a jerk. (Yes, that term refers to you as well, but I’m referring to a sudden movement in this context). Maybe you liked how I wobbled, and how I had a brief moment of panic. But what if I had gone down? Trust me, moron, my body and bike are no match for your several thousand pound automobile and the surrounding concrete. Maybe you thought it was funny, or that you were making a point for motorists everywhere. But what you were really doing was endangering someone’s life, a move that would have far-reaching effects for both of us.

More to the point, I was in the right, you (substitute name for your favorite feminine hygiene product here). I was staying as far to the right as possible, riding straight and predictable. You had room to pass me, believe it or not, and even more room if you consider that no cars were in the oncoming lane at the moment. But evidently you were just annoyed that a guy on a bike was apparently holding you up.

Obviously I’m preaching to the choir here, but maybe we need to remind our non-riding friends of the law. I’ve got a few who have actually told me how annoyed they are at us bikers on that very same bridge. They seem to think they are in the right, but that’s not always the case.

Here in Florida, state law says you must ride as far to the right as practicable, not as far to the right as possible. That means I’m perfectly entitled to “maintain no less than 2 feet of clearance from the edge of usable pavement to have room to maneuver around obstructions.” Should you, White Car Person, feel the lane is too narrow for both of us to share safely, you need to realize it is me who is entitled to the lane, not you.

Should you feel the need to pass me, and I perfectly understand if you do, you also need to realize that under Florida law, you’re required to give me three feet of clearance. That means you wait until you have a clear road, then you go out and around me. I’ll double check, but I don’t think blaring your horn is part of the deal. Other states with Three Foot laws are Arkansas, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Illinois, Tennessee, Minnesota, Utah, Wisconsin, Arizona, Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisiana, and Maine. (Sorry all you Texans, apparently you don’t have one…yet.)

Bike Noob note: That’s right, the Texas Legislature passed a three-foot law last summer, but the governor vetoed it.

After our little altercation I did all the wrong things, of course. I called you some very interesting names, then tried to channel Fabian Cancellera so that I could catch you at the next traffic light. That’s not a good idea according to most experts. Had I caught you hopefully I would have calmly explained my side of the situation to help you see things differently, not, shall we say, tooted my own horn.

Of course, I couldn’t ultimately match your speed, and the light wasn’t in my favor. But I did enjoy you checking your rearview mirror when you realized I could actually climb a bridge a little faster than you thought…

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Categories // Safety Tags // bike vs. car, guest post, Hemmel, Safety

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