Learning how to ride rollers should be a fairly easy thing to do
and should not take more than a few minutes. Riding rollers is not really any
different than being able to ride on a strip of pavement ~16" wide for an
indefinite amount of time. It is my feeling that if someone is more or less
able to ride on the white line on the side of the road for about 1/2 mile
without too much problem then they can ride rollers.
To learn how to ride rollers follow these 10 easy steps:
- If there is a loading device on the rollers (such as a fan)
disconnect it if possible.
- Place the rollers next to a wall but allow enough room so that the
bike won't hit it while on the rollers.. The wall will be used more or
less as a security blanket.
- Place your bike on the rollers and lean it against the wall. It is a
good idea to have the bike in a moderately easy gear. Something like
a 42x16 or so.
- Place a chair next to the rollers on the opposite side as the wall
being sure to leave enough room so that the bike won't hit it. The
chair should be facing forward (the same direction as the bike). The
chair will be used to aid in mounting your bike and to hold onto when
starting and stopping.
- Mount your bike and get your feet clipped in. At this point you should
have one hand on the handlebars (the top is the best place, not the
hood nor the drop) and the other on the chair back. The bike should be
straight up and the front wheel should also be straight.
- Without letting go of the chair, start pedaling at about 40 RPMs.
This is just to let you get a feel of how the bike reacts to the
motion of the rollers which is really the same as on the road except
your not moving forward.
- Keeping your hand on the chair increase your cadence to at least 80
RPMs. At this point just hold on to the chair but do not have any
weight on it. You should be using the chair just as a balancing aid
not as a support.
- When comfortable, remove your hand from the chair. At first you might
want to lift it just slightly away from the chair until your more
comfortable without it.
- As your comfort level increases, try different things on the rollers
such as shifting gears, pedaling faster and slower, coasting, riding
back and forth across the rollers, standing up (do very slow at first)
and sitting back down, riding with no hands, and whatever else you can
think of.
- To stop, take hold of the chair back then stop pedaling. When the
wheels stop turning, unclip your feet and dismount.
That's it, that's all there is to it. It shouldn't take you more than
about half an hour to learn how but probably only about ten minutes.
Happy Cycling!
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