Bike Rollers.... If Siri can make an omelette while on them, surely i can just ride on them!

It's like i don't know how to ride a bike and have to learn again!!!

A mate of mine was down sizing his apartment, and had no room to keep his rollers, so offered them to me.  Apparently they're good for you bike handling and general cycling skills, balance, etc, so i thought i'd look after them for him.

How hard could it be...apparently you can make an omelette whilst cycling on rollers.  (well Norwegian pro-cyclist Siri Minge can anyway!)  

Well... Last night was go time... me, my trusty Avanti and the rollers...

Ok, so where was i going to set this "funniest home video in the making" up?? A ha, rumpus room, beside the couch, on carpet...soft landing all around! Winning!!

Nup...the carpet too soft, the rollers were rubbing... 

So here i am walking around firstly the house and then the backyard, looking for something that was at the perfect height, so i could hold onto it with one hand and the handle bars, the other.  Outside beside the kids cubby house was the winner...

First off i thought i'd just ride in sneakers - why would i want my feet attached to the bike when i suspected there was a high potential i was going to come seriously unstuck! Nah, that was no good, pedal stroke was off...so proper clip-in shoes it was!

Once i got sorted, i happily managed to keep my cadence in the 90-100 region for twenty minutes.  At the start there was more hanging onto the cubby house than two hands on the bars, but after a while i started to hold the bars for a couple of seconds before i started to lean too much and needed the support.  It was a pretty frustrating ten minutes, and i reckon i know what kids go through learning without training wheels!!

But by the end of the session, i had managed to relax and ride a couple of stints of a minute or so without any support, so i'm thinking that could be considered a successful first roller outing!!

Once i got sorted, my heart rate was in the 140-150 bpm range, so I'm thinking for endurance workouts the rollers may be a better bet than the turbo trainer. But the turbo will definitely have a place for the balls to the wall sessions that are The Sufferefest!