Hi everyone, I’ve had my tacx roller trainer for years and since I had my wahoo kickr the rollers are just gathering dust . I’m buying myself some Garmin Vectors in the new year and think about doing some sufferfest workouts on the rollers . Does anyone else use rollers for their workouts?
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recovery rides!
I do all my indoor rides on rollers. I have Inside Ride E-Motion rollers with the smart resistance unit, so they act like any other smart trainer. I really like the way the bike is completely free to move on rollers.
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Tacx Galaxia make sure I ride them at least once a week. Good for keeping the core strong.
I bet we’ve got lots of folks who have never seen rollers, yet alone tried them. It’s definitely different from having yourself stuck on an immobile bike.
I have an old set of rollers with a “magturbo” resistance unit. Although the resistance is scaled 0 - 6, I spend most of my time at 1 or 0 (1 feels close to what it’s like on a flat road). I prefer to use my rollers for recovery rides and some of the longer aerobic mash ups (e.g. It Seemed Like Thin Air) and I also use it a lot for the cadence drills.
A little too much concentration required when the workout demands high power/resistance, but I love it when the main point is just to get your legs moving.
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How’s that help/work with hip rigidity?
Recently started viewing Eric Lagerstrom’s YouTube channel, and, in this one episode, he mentions something about hip tightness with long(er) use of indoor trainers.
While I’m nowhere near on par with Lagerstrom, et al., I have experienced some recent tightness in the hips which has taken its toll on running. Lagerstrom’s comment piqued my interest with regards to so many successive days of SUF. Then again, I am getting old(er).
(As an aside, I’ve done the hip openers in the yoga section, which has helped. Additionally, switching to Speedplay Zeroes on both indoor & outdoor bikes has also contributed to things loosening up some.)
I’ve done some recovery sessions on rollers. All good until the riders on the video in front of you start leaning into corners and you follow your natural tendency to lean with them!!! 
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I definitely have this problem with the onboard video shots! I’ve had a few wobbly moments in videos like Team Scream.
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I’ve decided the omnium is the safest for the rollers. More centrifuge less lean!! 
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I have a set of Elite Mag rollers that I tend to use for easy recovery spins. Don’t think I’d have the confidence to do any hard efforts on them.
It’s not the several minutes intervals I’ve found too hard to do on rollers, but the snappy intervals. You have to slowly build up power or it gets too rocky. This is true whether it is a standalone sprint or a spike during a longer interval, but try a few minute interval at VO2 Max & it’ll be fine.
You might need to turn on the pedal to start function. I usually have it off but have to remember to switch it on for roller sessions. I often don’t & have to get off the rollers… Start/stop would be a perfect use case for the Wahoo Tickr X “double tap” function though. I use it to mark intervals during treadmill running but not fall off. It’d serve the same purpose here.
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I think we need a new category of knight where rollers are used for the knighthood. Maybe a dark knight of sufferlandria.
I volunteer not to go first, or ever!!!
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Full Disclosure time if you want a laugh.
On Friday I did the “Across the Mountains” vid on the rollers. Really good balance and cadence throughout… then I overbalanced as I was getting off and didn’t clip out in time 
. Must have tensed up when I fell and jarred something, now got a sore left hip although starting to ease. Whatever you do, concentrate till you have both feet back on the ground 
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@SirDale, I haven’t used a fixed trainer for ages, so can’t really compare fixed vs rollers. I don’t notice much difference in stiffness between riding on the trainer and riding outside. To me, that’s one of the big advantages of rollers - the close approximation to the feel of a bike on the road.
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I’m able to do shorter intervals on my rollers. I’m fortunate that they have a smart resistance unit built in, so handle a lot of the power change for me.
For the Pain Shakes in today’s Blender, the trainer responds fast enough to ramp up to the target power, especially when combined with the cadence change. I’ll increase cadence prior to the interval starting so that I’m already at 100 when the actual interval starts, and the rollers handle the rest of the power increase.
Do the rollers have erg mode? What happens when you can’t hold power? Do you get thrown off like a bucking bronco? Come to a sudden screeching halt? 
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Some rollers do have ERG mode. It depends on the model. The Inside Ride rollers have an option to include a smart resistance unit - worth every cent in my opinion.
The Inside Rides are a bit more gradual than that. I’ve hit my limit a couple of times (like in the HM ramp test). The rollers don’t just stop; worst case is that they would go to maximum resistance (it’s a magnetic resistance unit, so doesn’t have infinite resistance). The best analogy I can think of is riding up a steep hill - you kind of know when you’re going to hit your limit and not be able to push the pedals one more turn, and can stop/unclip/get a foot down before you fall.
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I have. But usually too lazy to set up the rollers once the trainer is set up. Really does help your bike handling skills though. Personally I cannot go as hard either.
And one last point, don’t laugh too hard. The one seen in Blender always cracks me up no matter how many times I see it. On rollers, it crashed me up.
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Although I mainly use a smart direct drive trainer, I have ridden recovery videos on dumb rollers with dual Vector pedals. I have attempted EOS but haven’t mastered standing up on the pedals. All the new inspiration videos look like they would be great to practice the rollers with.
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