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Turbo trainer or rollers?

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  • 28-11-2016 2:20am
    #1
    Philipkiely1
    Registered Users Posts: 8 ✭


    Hi all ,

    Looking for some knowledgeable advice here.

    I want to buy an indoor trainer, either rollers or a turbo trainer. I'm aware of the majority of the pros and cons with both however there's a few things which may be a deal breaker for me with the rollers. Assuming you've built up confidence in your ability to keep stable on the rollers , is it difficult to keep the bike balanced when you're pushing very hard? Is this something worth being concerned about? I've heard turbo trainers are more suitable for high intensity sessions as obviously the bike won't move no matter how hard you push but I'd find a turbo trainer too boring and they don't provide an anywhere near realistic road feel compared to rollers. Also , I've heard doing out of the saddle efforts is quite difficult to master? Is this something worth being concerned about?

    Thanks in advance


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    #2
    Veloce150
    Registered Users Posts: 79 ✭✭Veloce150


    Philipkiely1 wrote: »
    Hi all ,
    I want to buy an indoor trainer, either rollers or a turbo trainer. I'm aware of the majority of the pros and cons with both however there's a few things which may be a deal breaker for me with the rollers. Assuming you've built up confidence in your ability to keep stable on the rollers , is it difficult to keep the bike balanced when you're pushing very hard?

    Turbos and rollers are not directly comparable. I'd say it's impossible to push hard at all on rollers as they don't generally have any brake or resistence built in. You can up the gears maybe but the resistence will be minimal.

    Rollers are all about balance and teaching you to ride very smoothly at high revs or risk colliding with the the TV. Once you master rollers, you'll be smugly confident when riding on ice.

    Turbos are all about resistence and the more you pay the more realistic/satisfying the feel of that resistence. All but the most expensive turbos are held rigidly, so there is no balance workout. Think of it as a weight-training machine for the legs.


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    #3
    Beasty
    Administrators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 76,477 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Beasty


    Rollers give a particular focus on cadence and are generally more popular with trackies. You can certainly work on cadence with a turbo, but it's much more difficult to do resistance work on rollers. Unless you have a specific reason for rollers stick with a turbo - the main downsides are likely to be noise and swapping over wheels/tyre for something more turbo-specific (or an old tyre you don't mind ruining)


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