The most important thing when you're setting your rollers up is to find a really flat,
smooth surface,
and make sure that the rollers are not moving. Next thing that you have to look at is
the length of the rollers.
The correct length will be a little bit longer
than the front axle, so if you've got the bike on like this, and here's the front axle,
you want the rollers to be just a little bit longer. Well the most important thing when you're
learning is make sure that you do have two things on either side of you,
whether it be a friend on either side or a doorway is really useful because if
you've got your bike in the doorway
you can keep your hands on the handlebars and lean on the doorway with your hips or with your shoulders,
so a doorway is the most ideal. Otherwise, two things on either side, like chairs, are very
handy.
The process of getting onto the rollers - first to check what gear you're in.
anywhere near the middle of the rear cassette is the best place to be,
in the big ring or the little ring, it doesn't really matter but not too easy,
not too hard, so find one of those gears in the middle.
And then it's a little bit of a tricky process to get on the rollers. I always put the
pedal at the bottom and put the first
foot into the pedal here. And then it's all about the angle and the balancing of the bike.
So I use this hip to rest on my seat like that
something close, and just clip in and
try not to keep the bike upright, just let it go in the
angle that feels most comfortable and then swing your leg over like that.
So once you've clipped both of your feet into the pedals and you're holding onto something,
you might be in a doorway so you can lean your shoulders against the doorway but
if you're holding on to the stool, the first thing is to look one metre in front of you and just
remember that.
There's probably three things to remember, that's: look one metre in front of you,
keep your hands loose on the handlebars, and keep pushing on the pedals, because the moment you
take the pressure off the pedals
the wheel starts to move like that. So look one metre in front of you,
push through your hips, and keep your hands really loose
on the handlebars. Try not to steer.
The first thing you're going to feel when you start to pedal is that the
handlebars and the wheel is going everywhere
over the rollers. The harder you push on the pedals, the more that will
start to go straight. So just keep focussed on that point
1 metre in front, and when you get wobbly, maybe just push a little bit harder
on the pedals. If you have 10 gears
on the rear cassette, I personally do just 1 minute in each gear, so it gets harder and harder,
so that's 10 minutes, so you pick a certain cadence, and you just stay at that same cadence which means when the gear gets
harder every time
the load gets more, so keep the same cadence.
I think for a beginner, 30 minutes is too much, because then
two 2 minute efforts would be
enough with 3 or 4 minutes recovery, and that would be the whole session, then it's just a bit of a warm down
for about 5 minutes. To get off the rollers,
the best thing is to hold onto something next to you, slow your pedalling
down and hold onto the rear brake because that's going to give your bike a little bit of
stability when you lean to get off.
Unclip both of your feet, and then on the side that you're going to get off on, just slide your foot down to the side of the
rollers,
be very careful not to slip, and then just dismount like this. So I've got 5 top tips on how
to ride the rollers:
the first one is to make sure you set your rollers up in between two things,
two chairs or a doorway or something to lean on either side. My 2nd tip would be to
be in the right gear - not too hard, not too easy,
just find the middle of your rear cassette and that will be great. The 3rd tip
is to just look ahead about 1 or 2 metres, never look straight down at your front wheel
just keep
focussed on that point 1 or 2 metres ahead of you.
The 4th tip is to not hold the handlebars too tight.
When you get a bit tense and you start to hold tight you start to do a little bit of a wobble,
so don't hold the handlebars too tight, just leave your hands nice and loose on the handlebars
which brings me to the 5th tip, which is drive through your hips.
If you get a little bit wobbly and a bit nervous, just push harder through your hips.