When I first visited Matt up in St. Paul, he was going through showing me his bikes that he used for triathlon training and general bike riding. On the floor, I saw a set of three rollers mounted on two rails and asked him what it was.
"Oh, that's a Kreitler trainer. I do indoor bike training on it... Here, let me show you how it works."
So, he gets on the trainer and starts riding away - gently balancing the bike on the three rollers without any supports. I couldn't believe it. "How the hell do you develop the balance to do that?," I thought to myself.
But, onto other topics we went and I didn't think much of it until about a month ago. My biggest challenge with road bike riding is increasing cadence without sacrificing balance. Whenever I would race much beyond 25 mph in the lowest gear my rear would bounce around on the saddle and send me out of control. Perhaps the bike is slightly off-sized for my frame, but more importantly, I have a hard time controlling my body in the sense that the faster my legs pump the pedals, the less control I have over balance. When I thought about getting back into training, I wanted to take advantage of the fact it is winter to work on increasing my cadence without losing my balance and the Kreitler came to mind.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any local dealers who carried the Kreitler brand, but our local Janesville shop carried Minoura Action Mag branded rollers. Frankly, I didn't care. I have no idea what the difference is between the brands and the web really offered no help. Until I have the chance to test two or more, I still couldn't tell you which one is better and for what reason.
Today I was finally able to level the base and try my hand at the "roller effect." In a word: awesome. Once you get over the fear of weaving off the rollers (and realize the faster you pedal, the more balanced you will feel), you can concentrate on the things for which the rollers are good - a training platform for balance (and subsequently higher cadence for me).
I don't expect miracles to happen because of using the rollers, but at least there's something I can do with my favorite bike when the weather won't assist.
