E-motion.

Decision made.

"...5. I live in NYC, I don't know how often I might randomly want to set up my rollers in someone's backyard. Has anyone ever taken their rollers to the park with their kids?..."

Not about to make comments about your priorities when it comes to training vs kids cause clearly I am not one to talk, however, just so that others don't mock you, please refrain from talking your rollers to Central Park while taking care of your kids. If nothing else, remembering this tip, is sure to save you from the mockery of passers by. Other than that, I commend you on trying to find good ways to manage time. The nerd factor might be lower if you do 30 minutes squats in the park with your kids climbing on your back :-)

I agree with Dev. Just do some sit-ups, push-ups or chin-ups and maybe run around the climbers while watching the kids

Yeah, well that was on the off chance that I would be babysitting kids (not mine), and happen to also have both my tri bike AND my rollers on me at the same time....

Not to change the topic too drastically but what's the advantage of rollers over a trainer for triathlon training?

Not to further hijack this thread, but i have to interject with the punchline of a true story that happened to me:

Setup:
-me on couch couch flipped over backwards pillows everywhere, rollers flipped over, bike almost out of room

-my line "ouch i fell of the rollers"
-the girl whose appartment it was: "and you managed to get tiremarks on the ceiling!"

true story

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-Cartels: Serotta, Zipp 2001, Guru, eh?
-"It was kinda long and then i got really tired"

That statement catches my eye for one reason, tri bike. Rollers + Tri bike = death trap for most types of rollers.

With sufficient practice and a good set of larger diameter (4.5s) drum rollers you can ride a Tri bike on them, but in my experience it is not pleasurable. There are of course exceptions to this, TruTrainers and the E-Motions are both very nice, but both are expensive (~$800) and you are about as likely to bring a pile of cinderblocks to the park as you are to bring the E-motion anywhere. It's big, it's heavy, it doesn't fold, it's great as long as it's great right where it is.

As for PVC verus aluminum, I have not heard anything about the aluminum adversely affecting wheels, riding rollers induces far less wear on your tires and I would suspect less wear on your bike in general as the stress is more akin to actual road riding rather than a bunch of lateral torque like when stuck in a normal trainer.

In my limited experience with rollers however, it's all about the inertia. Large diameter aluminum rollers have more mass and have more surface area for your wheel, as a result the ride typically feels more like the road, including increased coasting when you stop pedaling. Lower diameter rollers (3.0s or 2.5s) offer far more resistance than larger diameter rollers, they give a better workout without requiring a resistance unit but at the expensive of some of the feel of the larger drums. I've never ridden full PVC, but I know that poly capped aluminum rollers are offered because they are cheaper than full aluminum but have less inertia because the PVC is less dense. I may be wrong, but I would guess that the real advantage of PVC rollers is price, not performance at all.

I guess to summarize, you need to know what you are looking for before you can figure out what is best. If you think you want portability, the E-motions are out, get a set of folding rollers. If you have tons of cash to blow get TruTrainers. If you think you are going to ride a Tri bike on them, get the E-motions or 4.5 full aluminum drums but you will probably end up needing to get a resistance unit.

I really wanted E-motions, but honestly did not want to spend that type of money. I ended up getting folding Krietler 3.0s that offer decent resistance without an extra resistance unit. I then built my own free-motion rollers. Search the forums or online for DIY free motion rollers and you'll see what I mean. I built my own bumpers to keep myself from rolling off the side and dying (or putting another giant tire mark on the carpet) and a free motion frame that I can set the rollers into. When I travel, I pull the normal rollers out of the free motion assembly and they are light and portable. The overall ride quality is still probably not as nice as the E-motions or TruTrainers but I saved about $500 in the process.

Edit: I based my free motion setup on this dude's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StcY7bG1xzs

I have had a number of sets of rollers.

1. Cheap performance rollers (4.5 inch diameter) with PVC drums - worked well in college and for a while, probably about 4 years. Drums were fine. Eventually the bearings went in one of the drums and it was not worth fixing.

2. Cheap other small diameter rollers - friend who was moving gave them to me. He biked a lot and they seem fine. I do not ride them, but have my wife's bike set up on them with a fork stand.

3. Kreitler aluminum drum, PVC end caps, 3 inch diameter - These are by far the best that I have ever used. They never wear out (Although after enough sweating, the frame on the side near the belt is getting a bit rusty). I also have a flywheel to give a far better road feel by upping the inertia of the setup. I also have the headwind fan that allows fof the addition of realistic resistance. Finally, I have the aforementioned forkmount for long rides in aero. They fold, although with the fan and flywheel, this is not so easy to do. Also, Kreitler has a wattage chart so you can get a very rough estimate of power output given all of the different combination of things you have set up on them.

i will agree with the earlier poster about the aerobars and possible trouble issue. You can do it, but I find my body os very tense as any small movement is amplified. I am quite proficient, and can easily ride for over an hour, standing some of the time, on the road bike without touching down. If I want to be in the aerobars for an extended time, I may use the rollers for a short time, and then switch to add in the fork stand so I can relax a bit more.

Gordon

It MIGHT accidentally turn you into a better rider that can hold their line!!

And responding to whoever said "emotion rollers, end of story", um.... no. There's a reason you can stand on them no problem, ride on them no problem, etc..... it's because you don't have to work that hard on your balance!! That KIND of defeats the purpose of rollers.

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MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.

Ditto, my exact roller setup is currently Kreitler 3.0s with poly caps. I kind of wish I had aluminum billet caps for more inertia, but I got the rollers lightly used from a friend so was not going to complain too much. I have been itching for the inertia unit, was not sure if they made that much of a difference though, I will definitely keep my eye out for one now.

As far as the E-motions go, I certainly would not mind a set but I like my setup as well. I can ride my Kreitlers as normal static kick-your-ass-if-you-aren't-paying-attention rollers or I can dump them in my free-motion rig and it is a lot more forgiving. The freedom of choice is nice.

As far as rollers-vs-trainers go in general, there are a ton of threads about it in the past, but they are two completely different feeling workouts. Trainers typically offer more resistance and are better for higher intensity workouts like intervals. Rollers require you to actually develop good form, balance, cadence and develop your pedal stroke. You can't completely zone out or read on rollers like you can on a trainer, but I find rollers to offer an overall much more realisitic riding experience as compared to most trainers. I prefer them over most trainers, but I'm not sure how much I'd still use my rollers if I had something like a CompuTrainer.

That sort of depends on the purpose someone is purchasing rollers. I love the emotion rollers, because they provide the best controlled training environment possible. From short, easy recovery rides to 1000+ watt sprints out of the saddle, emotion rollers let you perform those workouts as well as every option in between. If you want to learn how to ride with the group, then go bump elbows and shoulders with the boys under non-controlled conditions outside.

Buy any POS rollers and make your own e-motion via any of the mock-up methods on YouTube.

In my case, I just tossed rollerblade wheels on my TACX and use bungees.

Total cost = $15 (Rollers were free)

+infinity, they can't be beat.... Get inside a door frame or something you can hold onto for a bit. Makes you a much better rider. Stay up for a while until you feel comfortable enough to go aero, then just pedal harder to get your balance. Excellent investment

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The Rat Snake:
A Tribute Race at Gilbert Lake State Park, Laurens, NY May 16 2015
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I guess the whole point for me is that I DON'T want a trainer, and I DO want rollers. I know the inherent risk of going aero, and I probably won't go aero till I'm truly confident on the rollers. I don't want the E-Motion rollers, cuz I don't want the help that it gives, or the bumpers. I don't really plan on standing up and cranking hard, I can go outside and do specific hill training for that or ride the bridges back and forth.

Thankfully, I am not tool-ish enough to go the Central or Prospect Park with rollers. I figure I can probably just leave the rollers at home when I'm babysitting.

So then, the real questions boil down to PVC vs. Aluminum for living in NYC in a 4th floor walk up.

Hey, we were all holding out hope that you would show up in Central Park with your rollers while kids ran around and put their fingers in the spokes and someone gets the video, posts on Youtube, which is then put up on CNN.com with caption, "what not to do with your kids".

But since you're not going to actually go through with this on account of not having kids to mutilate and subject to the humility of their dad being a "tool", I'd suggest the PVC type for your 4th floor apartment (given that you don't want Emotion).

And don't worry about being a tool around kids, after finishing a run in tights and then getting my son to walk with to school, I got told, "Dad, do you really need to walk around in tights" (moral of the story....kids know when you are engaging in socially unacceptable triathlete behavior....so speedos and compression socks are definitely "out").

Dev

One more thing to add - the fold up rollers (alum and PVC) need to be on a very flat (and preferably level) surface or you'll have all kinds of issues.

I ride PVC Tack rollers I picked up for < $200 new and have no problems with staying upright. It takes one or two sessions to get the basic balance down.

I am curious how people create disasters coming off their rollers... I've ridden off mine and all that happens is I tip over sideways into the treadmill arm or wall if I don't catch myself first. You don't have any momentum... it's just your wheels spinning. You may 'lay a patch' on your carpet or floor but you won't catapult through the TV. Maybe I'm missing something but as a 180lb rider I've never catapulted anywhere off the rollers.

Worse. He was going to do this watching someone else's kids.

"Sorry I couldn't get there faster to help him escape that molester dude, but I was having a hell of a time unclipping on my rollers"

John

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

oh, trust me, i can chase down anyone in my shoes. might look awkward, but no molester types will get to those kids while i'm on duty.

now, regarding being toolish, i have definitely gone to the bar right after a long bike ride, bibs and all. i'm too grown to be embarrassed by things like that. The last time I was embarrassed was junior year when I first had to swim in speedos.