We Apologize for the Unavoidable Delay, and Rollers

I've received comments on the lack of continuity in my posts. Due to extremely limited time and computer and Internet access over the past week, it will be a couple of days before I've uploaded all of my past posts. Please note that the posted date and time reflects the date to which a blog post applies, and not when it was uploaded.

Wednesday was a day of rain in North Carolina, which forced me to do an all to familiar workout on the bicycle rollers. Sophie brought her Minoura rollers down to North Carolina, so I got to ride those for the day.

If you're not familiar: rollers are an alternative form of bicycle trainer, one that is almost as old as the bicycle itself. Think of it as a treadmill for a bicycle. You ride your bike in place on a set of connected metal cylinders, which help turn your wheels as you turn the pedals. It's pretty freaky to see, and there are some YouTube videos on the subject. Riding on rollers is an amazing way to vastly improve pedaling efficiency, and the coolest way of doing indoor bike workouts.

I was amazed at the difference in the quality of construction between her Minoura and my Kreitler rollers. Minoura makes their rollers using aluminium tube stock. They find a tube of the appropriate diameter, wall thickness, and length, cut it, attach polycarbonate end caps, embed bearings in said caps, and mount the rollers to a relatively flimsy frame. Though the rollers are just fine for general use, I can see that they would probably wear quickly, and be prone to bent rollers. (Rollers spin at about 2400 RPM in active use, enough for any imperfections in the rollers to cause a nasty buzz.)

The Kreitler rollers, in contrast, are of heirloom quality. The high end ones use extremely high quality individual rollers, machined on a precision lathe down from aluminium bar stock. The bearings, belt, and frame are sealed, heavy rubber, and steel respectively, all of a very high build quality. With proper care and feeding, I'm sure those Kreitler rollers will last indefinitely.