learning to ride rollers

[Bleve]

Urgh ... I picked my first set of rollers up this arvo ... got home
after a day's assembling kids bikes and fitting a bloke to a new
Synapse (you should have seen his smile when he got back from his test
ride! It was 100 miles wide "do you reckon I could ride to work on
it?" HA! We have a winner! Working at the LBS is very satisfying ...)
etc ... and got home after a tootle down the freeway path & back to
Vermont with a friend (dodging loose dogs etc, and eating a lot of
midges)

Now, I've only used rollers once before, and that was at a mate's place
while he held me, so this is going to be "fun". Pop them beside Dead
Trev's bar (long story) and jump on ... holding the bar with one hand
and the bars with my left. Did about 15 mins, and never felt
comfortable - it'll come I hope, will try and do 15 min on them a day
until my balance gets to the point where I can let go of the wall!

I may be .. some time!

 

[Humbug]

On 09/12/05 at 21:19:00 Bleve somehow managed to type:

<snip>

> never felt comfortable - it'll come I hope, will try and do 15 min on
> them a day until my balance gets to the point where I can let go of
> the wall!
>
> I may be .. some time!


Put a spot on the wall directly in front of you and keep your gaze
FIXED on it, sorta like keeping your head pointed in the right
direction when you're going steeply uphill on a loaded bike at looooow
speed. Well it worked for me... What did NOT work for me was looking
down at the front wheel and trying to keep it centred.

Keep at it - you'll be riding 'em no hands sooner than you think.



--
Humbug
BE A LOOF! (There has been a recent population explosion of lerts.)

 

[Geoff]

Bleve

Make sure the front roller is positioned as close as you can get to
being directly under the axle. This will significantly improve the
handling of the bike whilst on the rollers.

Another thing that worked for me when getting on the rollers for the
first time was to ride no hands (ie don't touch the bars). Support
yourself on one side by lightly resting a couple of fingers on a solid
flat surface (eg a railing or table at the correct height). Once you
get the front wheel moving remove the hand that have on the handle bars
and sit up straight on the bike (not leaning forward) - the steering
will stay reasonably straight on it's own. When you get comfortable in
that position start to lift you fingers off the surface until you are
no longer supported by the solid object. At this point you are riding
no hands. When you have mastered the no hands bit then you can start
going near the handlebars. Do this in stages as well. Start in the no
hands position and move both hands to the top of the bars. As you
touch the bars make sure you apply the weight evenly or you'll wobble a
bit. From here you can graduate to the drops but again remember to
move your weight to the new position in an even controlled manner.

Also take note of what Humbug has said in his post regarding where to
and where not to look.

It's a steep learning curve but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in
no time.

Geoff

 

[Bleve]

Both suggestions noted & acted on, I'm improving (slowly!)

Thanks!

 

[JayWoo]

Urgh ... I picked my first set of rollers up this arvo ...

I found it very WTF to start with! But I gave it a good crack (for at least 1/2hr the 1st time) and it got way easier. It was all just practise, practise, practise for me. I still have one wall handy on my right side for getting on and off. And the occasional "OooFuk!"

 

[Bleve]

JayWoo wrote:
> Bleve Wrote:
> > Urgh ... I picked my first set of rollers up this arvo ...
> I found it very WTF to start with! But I gave it a good crack (for at
> least 1/2hr the 1st time) and it got way easier. It was all just
> practise, practise, practise for me. I still have one wall handy on my
> right side for getting on and off. And the occasional "OooFuk!"


heh! I'm trying to do 15 min a day on them until I get comfortable.
So far I haven't been able to let go of the bar table, but I'm riding
no hands as suggested, and am occasionally feeling able to reduce the
deathgrip on the bar to a slightly less white-knucked clench! I can
ride on a narrow track on the road just fine .. so this is probably
just (!) confidence. Now "RELAX" ok?!!

 

[PiledHigher]

JayWoo wrote:
> Bleve Wrote:
> > Urgh ... I picked my first set of rollers up this arvo ...
> I found it very WTF to start with! But I gave it a good crack (for at
> least 1/2hr the 1st time) and it got way easier. It was all just
> practise, practise, practise for me. I still have one wall handy on my
> right side for getting on and off. And the occasional "OooFuk!"


heh! I'm trying to do 15 min a day on them until I get comfortable.
So far I haven't been able to let go of the bar table, but I'm riding
no hands as suggested, and am occasionally feeling able to reduce the
deathgrip on the bar to a slightly less white-knucked clench! I can
ride on a narrow track on the road just fine .. so this is probably
just (!) confidence. Now "RELAX" ok?!!

Of course, the less white knuckle you are the easier it will be, I learnt in a doorway, then you can bounce off your elbows. You'll find that you'll be narrow post rollers.

I now use them next to a bench, the problem is the bench will have you tending to want to lean on it (which puts your balance to one side).

The comment about the roller position is also very applicable, swapping from a longer to shorter bike (track to road) leads to very different roller orientation and feel. I'm to lazy to move it around but using when getting your feel for them it is very important.

No hands is surprisingly easy when you get your weight properly back (ie. sitting upright and not feeling ready to dive for the bars)

PiledHigher