What are Bicycle Rollers?

November 14th, 2008 • Comments Cycling/Fitness
Tags: cycling, rollers, trainers, training

In my previous post on winter cross-training, I mentioned that I enjoy using bicycle rollers as a form on indoor training. However, after posting that article it occurred to me that some of you motocross-minded readers may not be entirely sure what bicycle rollers are.

Roller Basics

Essentially, bicycle rollers are a form of bicycle trainer used for indoor training by cyclists. However, unlike the standard bicycle trainer where the rear wheel is fixed into a frame, on rollers the bike is completely free to move. Rollers are made up of a metal rectangular frame holding three metal (they can also be wood or plastic) cylinders. Two of the cylinders are close together at one end of the frame while the third is on the other end of the frame. The rear wheel of the bike is placed in between the two close cylinders while the front wheel is placed on the front single cylinder. The front roller and the front roller of the back pair are connected by a (normally rubber) belt which causes the front wheel to spin as you pedal the back wheel. Because there is nothing holding the bike laterally, you are free to move from side to side, and possibly, right off the side of the rollers. Normally, the front cylinder has the ability to be adjusted from front to back in order to accommodate a wide range of bike sizes and wheelbases.

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