Inspired by the comments to my recent post about turbo trainers or rollers, I decided to take the plunge and go for some, Tacx 1050 Ecotrack ones to be precise. They finally arrived yesterday and my DIY heart was satisfied briefly by the challenge of putting them together. As they are foldable, they looked wonky and I was convinced I had one roller in slightly twisted, but in the end I got it all together and working smooth.

Then came the big challenge of actually becoming friends with them. Decided to forgo my cycling shoes with cleats and instead jumped into my sneakers, positioned myself in a narrow corridor for maximum support and began the process of learning to ride on rollers without falling off. This I had to do before Jon got home, just to save myself the embarrassment of having him looking and laughing at me, wobbling and clutching the door post as I was trying not to fall off again for the 10th time.

I got the hang of it eventually, and it helped not being cleated initially. I realised I had to keep my eyes fixed at a point approximately 10m ahead of me, mimicking how I ride naturally, which made my sense of balance take control more actively and the wobbles gradually stopped. I mustered up enough courage to move the rollers from blocking the front door to the kitchen, which has more space. I had to figure out a new point to fix my stare to in order to stop the wobbles and eventually I was off again.

In retrospect – after my first solid 30mins on the rollers I can now appreciate them better than purely guessing what it must be like. You certainly work up a good sweat if you keep your cadence high. I’m using my roadbike for riding on them, so I can create some resistance in the form of using the higher gears. Balancing on the rollers also mean you have to concentrate continuously in the back of your mind and can’t drift off completely, like I tend to do on the turbo as I’m bored senseless on it in about 10 minutes. So I’m certainly a fan and this will help me get some riding in when I get home from work late or it’s just raining cats and dogs out there. It’s not that I mind getting wet, I’m just getting bored of having to clean the bike all the time – can’t quite fathom riding with a completely gungy, squeaking thing like some people do.