Old School Winter Roller Regimes

[cornelius]

The snow is falling here as I write.
 
Mrs Cornelius was is very kind and has given me my heart's desire a set of bicycle rollers. They and I are on very good terms already and I'm looking to put in some serious winter work on them with a view to LEL 2013 (there, I've said it now...). 
My other training equipment equipment is:
(a) A fixed wheel (80" gear) bike.
(b) A tin alarm clock (it has a second hand!).
(c) A corpulent body which has not sat a Brooks (or any other) saddle since a traumatic (though eventually satisfactory) PBP 2007.

Does anyone know any old school roller regimes?

[GrahamG]

Unless you've very heavy/large rollers on those, you'll need a geared bike for on the rollers to give you a decent amount of resistance. Save the fixed for days when you head outside (80 sounds big for winter riding, but no doubt that your preference). I'd have thought you could adapt most turbo-type sessions for rollers as long as they don't involve any really hard efforts that will risk you departing the rollers!

[Ningishzidda]

An 80" fixed will teach you how to spin.
Put some gaffer tape across the front wheel spokes to make some resistance.

[greenmeansgo]

Seems not many on YACF use rollers, when I asked.
In addition to just generally riding while concentrating on pedalling technique, I've been working my way through these tricks
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiCdm5FsJpg
I find a geared bike is easier to ride on rollers than fixed, and this also gives you variable resistance, if required.

[Gaston Lagaffe]

 
That was harder than expected. 

First session on some borrowed rollers.  For the first 15 mins I couldn't take my hand off the pallet of horse bedding I'd put the rollers next to for support.  I thought I was never going to get the hang of it.  A couple of scary moments, but managed another 30 mins with hands on the bars. Interestingly, although I wasn't working that hard (I found it easier at a slower cadence of 70 ish) I was sweating much more than if I'd been on the turbo.

Those tricks are a long way off methinks

[Redjeep!]

It gets easier. Honest.

Just stop sweating it and relax. I've had a set for a few years and use them over the winter as a welcome relief from my turbo. I found that once I relaxed and realised that if I came off the rollers I wasn't going to accelerate towards the shed door 20 feet away and smash through it leaving a cartoon outline of a cyclist in the broken wood, it got easier.

I now find that I can do hands free easier than hands on (and I can't do hands free on the road !).  Mind you, I still have supports on both sides ( a solid work bench on one side and a 4x2 rail between two B&D workmates on the other).

You'll probably want a fan as well.

[greenmeansgo]

Sounds like you had fun!

Yeah when you "come off" rollers all that happens is that a wheel (usually the front) comes off the roller you stop. As Redjeep says, you don't have any forward momentum so it's fine. -you just need to unclip - I've never actually fallen over from riding off the rollers.

The tricks are once you're comfortable riding rollers with no support nearby and want to make it more interesting!

[Ningishzidda]

All the inertia is in the rollers. The mass of the vehicle isn’t moving with relation to the rollers frame.
If the rollers’ bearings seized solid and the vehicle drove off the front, the tyres would spin and screech a bit and the driver would emergency stop to a halt.
On a set of driven rollers, if the driver presses the brake, thinking it’s the clutch, the car would be pushed off the rollers with rollers screeching on tyres and the car would stop dead in about 3 inches.
You don’t have to wear a seatbelt in a chassis dyno test.