Roller miles==road miles?

[neilkod]

How 'close' can I consider roller miles/speed to actual road miles/speed? I want to think that they're fairly close since I'm the one turning the wheels and keeping myself balanced. Of course, there is no wind factor but otherwise it feels just like riding. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Most importantly, If I can do a 3M TT in so-many-minutes, should I expect to get a somewhat similar time on a flat road, assuming not a lot of wind?

 

[daveryanwyoming]

How 'close' can I consider roller miles/speed to actual road miles/speed? I want to think that they're fairly close since I'm the one turning the wheels and keeping myself balanced. Of course, there is no wind factor but otherwise it feels just like riding. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Most importantly, If I can do a 3M TT in so-many-minutes, should I expect to get a somewhat similar time on a flat road, assuming not a lot of wind?

Unless you have a resistance unit such as the Kreitler headwind fan on your rollers the power to speed relationship is very different than the road. I have to spin my biggest gears or wind up to really high cadences to break 200W on my rollers. When I do that I'll be riding at 28 Mph or more on the rollers, holding that same speed on a flat, smooth and windless road requires more than double that power. If you have a resistance unit like a fan on your rollers then your results will be closer to the road, but unless you know the specifics of the resistance device it's impossible to say what the exact roller/outdoor speed relationship is. Here's the speed/power relationships for the Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer: http://www.kurtkinetic.com/pdfs/Power_Curves419.pdf I use one of these for the majority of my indoor training and it has far more resistance than my rollers.

You really can't use roller times or speeds to predict outdoor time trial results unless you know the roller's speed to power curve. A power meter can supply the missing info, but in general standard non-fan rollers allow you to go much faster for the same effort than riding outdoors.

 

[NomadVW]

How 'close' can I consider roller miles/speed to actual road miles/speed?

If I take the resistance unit off my Minoura rollers, I'd have to spin the 52x14 or better at 100rpms to get resistance. With my lowest resistance setting on the rollers, there's a huge difference and my "average speeds" for rollers goes well below what it would have been on the road.

You have to have something else to compare things against other than speed if you want to compare rollers/trainers to outside riding. Power is ideal, but time in HR zones could also work. In using power, because the power requirement is much steadier on a trainer/rollers, I find it harder to maintain higher powers for interval times.

That being said, because I do so little time inside and the speeds are so much lower with resistance, I just log the miles the same way I log outside miles.

 

[frenchyge]

Most importantly, If I can do a 3M TT in so-many-minutes, should I expect to get a somewhat similar time on a flat road, assuming not a lot of wind?

Here's a little test: How many mph (max) can you hold for 10 minutes on the rollers? Could you hold the same speed for that period of time on the road?

Personally, I'd be a really fast cyclist if it weren't for that pesky air resistance.

 

[Spunout]

I ride 50km/h for 10 minutes on my rollers.

Yup, I can do that on the road too.

;-)

All kidding aside, train by time. I'd say the rollers, hour to hour, are harder than road riding.

 

[workingguy]

I ride 50km/h for 10 minutes on my rollers.

Yup, I can do that on the road too.

;-)

All kidding aside, train by time. I'd say the rollers, hour to hour, are harder than road riding.

I do about 6 hrs/wk on rollers during weekdays. I may get outside 1 of the weekend days.

Rollers are Kreitler Lytes(3" drum), killer headwind fan fully open, 2 flywheels. 39x19 at 14mph gives me 225W for my 2x30s. Speed is irrelevant when training indoors. Time at intensity is the only thing that matters.

 

[rayhuang]

If you ride Kreitler Dyna-mite's you might be a lot closer. On those rollers I put out 180 watts in a 39/19 at 90 cadence. They are tough little buggers. They have tiny little drums.