Torque and effects on training, rollers vs stationary

Originally Posted by NomadVW

I was reading through one of the e-books I've got and it talked about torque on rollers having negligible changes for changes in power output as compared to a stationary trainer (ala fluid, etc).

I decided to take a look back at power files of my rollers vs trainer time and compare torque requirements for power output.

I took a handful of files that show, at least anecdotally, that torque on my Kurt Kinetic is a significantly steeper slope as watts increase than it is on my Minoura rollers with a mag resistance unit at same cadence/power.

Do any of you take this into account when planning training on rollers?

I'm able to get enough resistance to do all the way through L5 work on the rollers. What physiological differences am I going to be experiencing when I am requiring less torque for equivalent power output at equal cadence? I understand that on the road if I want to work different sets of muscles I can shift up a few gears and push a bigger gear at equal power at lower cadence (that is, higher torque). But in this case it's an equal power at equal cadence at lower torque.

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by NomadVW

it's an equal power at equal cadence at lower torque.

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by Arnie Baker

Rollers have limited intensity-training applications, because they do not allow changing torque. In any given gear, even though cadence, and therefore speed may double, torque requirements change hardly at all....

Originally Posted by NomadVW

He's talking specifically of wheel torque in which case really its a moot point. Not even moot, rather completely and blatantly wrong as the legs are trained on crank torque and not hub torque.

Originally Posted by NomadVW

Do any of you take this into account when planning training on rollers?