Re: smooth out your pedal stroke *?*

A trainer has nothing on rollers. It's one thing to just sit on a
saddle and move your legs while watching movies on a trainer. On the
rollers, you need good focus, and while rolling off the edge isn't as
awful as it may seem (the wheels just stop quickly, though you might
burn the rug!) there's a real fear to it. My rollers are about 1.5'
wide, and while I did get up to watching films while riding, the
riding still takes a majority of my focus because you are still
handling the bike. The part that's easy to forget is that while you
are spinning 30+ mph, any slight turn in the handlebars sends you
quickly to the edge, so you learn how to make very minor adjustments.
Standing up for power is a fun experience that I wouldn't recommend on
your first try either! Eventually I got up to riding no hands, and
coming to a full stop and starting back up again, but it takes some
good practice for the balance of that.

Last winter I rode 100 miles on the rollers, mostly while watching
bike messenger racing films. I nearly dumped it several times because
it's hard not to react when you see a cyclist nearly get smashed every
5 seconds from all the crazy weaving through traffic they do.

Ultimately I gave up on winter training. I commute 8 miles a day
anyway, and just couldn't stand biking for more than 15 minutes
indoors. Maybe I need one of those video game biking systems?

On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 10:12 AM, Jeremy Kindy <[email protected]> wrote:
> Roy,
>
> >From my experience, rollers and an indoor trainer are *completely*
> different.  With a standard trainer (where you put the rear axle in a
> vise-like device), you sit there and just suffer.  With rollers, you
> have to keep balanced and make sure you don't run off the edge, so
> there's a lot more to do than just think about pedaling.  I don't
> quite enjoy rollers (I haven't tried watching a movie while on them,
> for instance), but I find them much more enjoyable than a trainer.
>
> I also have yet to try the fixie on the rollers...
>
> On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 9:05 AM, Roy Bird <[email protected]> wrote:
> <snip>
>> I guess it's a matter of "what turns your crank"(how appropriate!)
>> In my case a dislike the experience so much that I would much rather go for
>> a run. Last year I tried an indoor trainer throughout the winter but found
>> it to be a less than enjoyable experience.
>> Cheers
>> Roy
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