Rollers vs Trainer for Winter training- I use a trainer when spinning w/ my coach but at home I use rollers to help w/ balance, pedal technique and cadence…
How 'bout you all? Pros/cons?
Eric J
Rollers are my preference. Great work-out and it has drastically improved my ability to keep a high cadence and ride efficient. BTW…I keep it in my boiler room (in between a door jam) and can lose 3 lbs of sweat per hour in the cold of winter.
I ride both about 50/50 using an srm. it is far more difficult to sustain wattage on rollers. I usually to steady state sets on rollers then do more intense intervals on the trainer.
I am good on rollers for a max of 90 minutes then I just can not concentrate that hard any more and I switch to the trainer more to relax my brain than legs.
K
Rollers - they encourage higher cadence and smoother pedalling, and improve your bike handling skills. Plus they’re not as harsh on either your frame or your tires.
I personally don’t buy into not being able to do high intensity sessions on them - you can lay down some pretty high watts on rollers. Certainly enough for some tough 10 minute intervals for example. Wouldn’t want to do out of the saddle sprints on them but then I don’t really train like that in winter anyway and if I really wanted to and couldn’t get outdoors then I’d go to my local gym and do a spin class.
I don’t own a trainer by the way so my opinion may be biased…
I just moved to a second floor apartment and now I’m worried about annoying my neighbor downstairs when I hop on the trainer in the morning this winter. How loud do rollers get (I like to do intervals inside, to keep it interesting)? Is is possible to do one-legged drills on them?
Other than that, I’ll have to hunt down a fluid trainer, I guess.
just get some noise dampening mats/carpet. I t may take a couple but my landlord never complained once in the 2 years I cycled in my apartment and she lived right below me.
M~
My magnetic trainer is pretty loud, though. Think turboprop engine, especially when I’m in my big ring.
i had a computrainer and a mag trainer and rollers and no complaints. 
But yeah, I can see how they would be loud. I would just go down and talk to the person downstairs and do some testing to see where in the apartment is the best place to put your bike so as to keep the noise to a minimum for them. Trying to involve them may make things go smoother.