Winter Fitness: Turbo or Rollers?

[r80]

I have Elite rollers, and I now cycle much straighter on the road, and when you get used to it you can watch something and not pay much attention the wheel. I can stand on the rollers as well which is a bit hair-raising.

And rollers wont wreck your tyres!

 

[lulubel]

And rollers wont wreck your tyres!

It's not a huge expense to have a spare back wheel with a trainer tyre on, and takes a few seconds to change it over. That, or having the trainer permanently set up with a spare bike on it, is the only way I'd ever bother to use it.

 

[middleagecyclist]

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to go with rollers as I like the; ease of set up, greater use of core muscles, less boring workout. I'm scouring eBay for some in the locale I can check before bidding on. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[fossyant]

I've got a basic Tacx at the minute (well I did, one of the CC'ers has it) and some rollers (which I recently found again in my garage roof). I still prefer to get out on the road though. Rollers are hard work - I find Turbos easier for all out efforts - i.e. you don't have to think about staying on the bike/rollers.

 

[Pedrosanchezo]

anything tacx is good quality and will do the job of busting up your legs very well.



this is totally true. EVERYONE that I know prefers rollers over turbo's but it depends on what you want out of it.

If youre going to bust yourself on a turbo you need to create some kind of turbo-den. I have large speakers, iPad linked to 24inch monitor and my movie media server so I can immerse myself in horror/action/violent/sufferfest movies in the garage to distract my brain from all the bad things happening from the waist down!! A lot of people call it these types of places 'torture chambers'.

That sounds much better than my set up!!

I am similar and use Trainer road software for power/target training. I only have my macbook pro and a headset to watch movies on though.

Without a target or training regime the turbo sucks. Rollers will be the same though. The scenery stays the same. Bring on summer!!!

 

[e-rider]

Turbo trainers are INCREDIBLY boring to the point where you need unbelievable motivation to keep using them beyond a few weeks use. Rollers however are far less boring and much more fun to ride as they give your mind something to do - i.e. concentrate on not falling off!

Note, no man in history has climbed onto a new set of roller and been able to do it straight off, so please don't expect to be any different. 15 minutes should have you up and running - 1 hour and you will start to relax - 5 hours+ and you wont even need to think about it!

 

[FreeFlow Bikes]

I have a Turbo Trainer but very rarely use it but with the ice we have at the moment it looks like I'll be digging it back out and getting on it. I've liked the look of Rollers but not sure how I'd manage on them and if you'd get as an intensive workout on rollers as you do on a Turbo.

 

[middleagecyclist]

Had a visit to a fellow cyclist and one time work mate the other day. He's got a pair of rollers and I was welcome to try them out. Well, I'm really glad I did before I bought some. Two issues. 1) I found them hard to balance on. I knew this would be the case and would be willing to work on this particular skill but...2) it was so boring!

I restarted my cycling career all as an all weather commuter and so am not too bothered by the most weather in short spells at least. I'd much rather get wet and cold and do an hour of road work than sit inside a room with a fan blowing in my face. I think I'll just drop by the local pool once or twice a week over the winter in order to supplement the cycling.

 

[HLaB]

I have a Turbo Trainer but very rarely use it but with the ice we have at the moment it looks like I'll be digging it back out and getting on it. I've liked the look of Rollers but not sure how I'd manage on them and if you'd get as an intensive workout on rollers as you do on a Turbo.

I sweat more on the Rollers, maybe because I'm concentrating more; if you've got spare cash there's the dearer resistance rollers too.

 

[HLaB]

Had a visit to a fellow cyclist and one time work mate the other day. He's got a pair of rollers and I was welcome to try them out. Well, I'm really glad I did before I bought some. Two issues. 1) I found them hard to balance on. I knew this would be the case and would be willing to work on this particular skill but...2) it was so boring!

The scary thing a turbo is more boring

 

[Stonepark]

Had a visit to a fellow cyclist and one time work mate the other day. He's got a pair of rollers and I was welcome to try them out. Well, I'm really glad I did before I bought some. Two issues. 1) I found them hard to balance on. I knew this would be the case and would be willing to work on this particular skill but...2) it was so boring!

I restarted my cycling career all as an all weather commuter and so am not too bothered by the most weather in short spells at least. I'd much rather get wet and cold and do an hour of road work than sit inside a room with a fan blowing in my face. I think I'll just drop by the local pool once or twice a week over the winter in order to supplement the cycling.

Get some Marathon Winters and put them on your bike and do the real thing...............

 

[Arsen Gere]

FWIW sometimes turbo sessions can be better if you have some sessions written up, circulated among some friends and get together in a group session.

 

[Rob3rt]

Rollers and turbo trainers tend to serve different purposes (there are some exceptions).

Even when the weather is good the turbo is sometimes the smart choice! I love my turbo trainer and I will be riding it throughout the year! It is only boring if you lack focus and have no defined goals for each session, if I am doing all out intervals, the pain is so much so that the time is simply not something on my mind beyond the end of each interval and wishing that the rest periods were longer. For longer threshold rides, the famous 2x20 mins session for example, then focusing on pedalling technique and feeling my legs burning seems to keep my attention and combats the boredom. I never listen to music on the turbo (or running) or watch TV, except when going recovery sessions and just spinning easy, even then it is fairly rare as I tend to just sit near the window and watch the traffic or something and enjoy the fresh air from the window.

 

[black'n'yellow]

Rollers and turbo trainers tend to serve different purposes (there are some exceptions).

Even when the weather is good the turbo is sometimes the smart choice! I love my turbo trainer and I will be riding it throughout the year! It is only boring if you lack focus and have no defined goals for each session, if I am doing all out intervals, the pain is so much so that the time is simply not something on my mind beyond the end of each interval and wishing that the rest periods were longer. For longer threshold rides, the famous 2x20 mins session for example, then focusing on pedalling technique and feeling my legs burning seems to keep my attention and combats the boredom. I never listen to music on the turbo (or running) or watch TV, except when going recovery sessions and just spinning easy, even then it is fairly rare as I tend to just sit near the window and watch the traffic or something and enjoy the fresh air from the window.

^^ that's the answer in a nutshell. As a performance improver, it's hard to beat. And it's only boring if you lack the focus to make the most of your time on it.

 

[middleagecyclist]

Get some Marathon Winters and put them on your bike and do the real thing...............

Got some. Might be on next week the way things are going!