I have my Tacx Flux 2 fluid trainer that I have been using. Mostly in
the erg mode set the power and pedal you ass off. Sometimes I will
bypass this and just use my Garmin 945 and hit free ride. This pretty
much means that you are in the non erg mode.

Today I uploaded a real ride I did out side to the watch. Then using the
Garmin 945 I choose the option "follow the course." And sure enough it
did exactly that and just like the course the resistance changed on the
hills up and down. It was pretty good to see you do compared to real
activity.

Comparison against the real ride I did on Strava. The Strave ride shows
much less power and I think in general Strava for me in the flatland underestimates power. My power was 124 today and on the real ride only something like 96.

Also, am I the only idiot that finds riding out of the saddle on any
indoor trainer is frankly awkward and not worth the effort. I am not a
Zwift user or any paid subscription. I find just riding trainer with
metrics enough.
--
Deacon Mark

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On Sat, 22 Mar 2025 12:32:26 -0500,
Mark J cleary <mcleary08@comcast.net> wrote:

Also, am I the only idiot that finds riding out of the saddle
on any indoor trainer is frankly awkward and not worth the
effort. I am not a Zwift user or any paid subscription. I find
just riding trainer with metrics enough.

I'm an idiot that finds it awkward, not least because my indoor
riding is on rollers. As such, it's a little extra awkward: if
not reasonably well controlled, it's pretty easy to make the bike
move off the rollers.

I still do it occasionally just to get my butt off the saddle, but
it's not easy.

--
Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> West Lafayette, IN, USA

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On Sat Mar 22 12:32:26 2025 Mark J cleary wrote:

I have my Tacx Flux 2 fluid trainer that I have been using. Mostly in
the erg mode set the power and pedal you ass off. Sometimes I will
bypass this and just use my Garmin 945 and hit free ride. This pretty
much means that you are in the non erg mode.

Today I uploaded a real ride I did out side to the watch. Then using the Garmin 945 I choose the option "follow the course." And sure enough it
did exactly that and just like the course the resistance changed on the
hills up and down. It was pretty good to see you do compared to real activity.

Comparison against the real ride I did on Strava. The Strave ride shows
much less power and I think in general Strava for me in the flatland underestimates power. My power was 124 today and on the real ride only something like 96.

Also, am I the only idiot that finds riding out of the saddle on any
indoor trainer is frankly awkward and not worth the effort. I am not a
Zwift user or any paid subscription. I find just riding trainer with
metrics enough.

Nice work Deacon and I might be trying that out if it turns out that I can't ride on streets again.

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On Sat, 22 Mar 2025 18:50:20 -0400,
Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 3/22/2025 1:32 PM, Mark J cleary wrote:

Also, am I the only idiot that finds riding out of the saddle
on any indoor trainer is frankly awkward and not worth the
effort.

When I used to ride rollers, I found it almost impossible.

It's hard, but not impossible. One has to be very steady and
smooth, and to do so it seems necessary to engage core muscles
that wouldn't typically come into use.

--
Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> West Lafayette, IN, USA

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On 3/22/2025 1:32 PM, Mark J cleary wrote:

I have my Tacx Flux 2 fluid trainer that I have been using. Mostly in
the erg mode set the power and pedal you ass off. Sometimes I will
bypass this and just use my Garmin 945 and hit free ride. This pretty
much means that you are in the non erg mode.

Today I uploaded a real ride I did out side to the watch. Then using the Garmin 945 I choose the option "follow the course." And sure enough it
did exactly that and just like the course the resistance changed on the
hills up and down. It was pretty good to see you do compared to real activity.

Very novel approach to breaking up the "winter" doldrums!

Comparison against the real ride I did on Strava. The Strave ride shows
much less power and I think in general Strava for me in the flatland underestimates power. My power was 124 today and on the real ride only something like 96.

That doesn't surprise me. Unless I'm mistaken, the simulated route
accounts for grade (calculated into the resistance algorithm), nothing
more. It doesn't take into account road surface and head/tail wind.

Also, am I the only idiot that finds riding out of the saddle on any
indoor trainer is frankly awkward and not worth the effort. I am not a
Zwift user or any paid subscription. I find just riding trainer with
metrics enough.

The only problem I ever had sprinting on a trainer was when one I was
using actually broke and I ended up on the floor. Other than that no
problem.

I see a number of people commenting about sprinting with rollers. Yes,
that's hard. After 4o years of riding rollers I still can't do it. Of
course it can be done, and I've known people who _weren't_ notably good
road riders be able to do it and blow us all away in roller races. It's complicated by lateral resistance - one of the challenges to riding
rollers is that the smooth drum provide no resistance to lateral motion
of the tires. One small lean/twitch and the front wheel shoots off to
the side.

People that don't have good innate balance will have a difficult time
riding rollers. I'm one of those people. It took me several months to
keep the bike up, and I that was after setting them up in a door frame
so I had something to lean on and pull the bike back. I can ride
unloaded rollers somewhat effortlessly now (40 years later) but still
can't ride no-handed, can't sprint, and have a really hard time trying
to ride the TT bike while in the aerobars.

A while ago I retrofitted my rollers with a mag unit, and that actually
made things significant easier. There's something about needing to put
more power down that makes the bike more stable - or maybe it's just me.

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On 3/23/2025 3:15 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 3/22/2025 11:40 PM, zen cycle wrote:

People that don't have good innate balance will have a
difficult time riding rollers. I'm one of those people. It
took me several months to keep the bike up, and I that was
after setting them up in a door frame so I had something
to lean on and pull the bike back. I can ride unloaded
rollers somewhat effortlessly now (40 years later) but
still can't ride no-handed, can't sprint, and have a
really hard time trying to ride the TT bike while in the
aerobars.

I don't know, but I wonder if very tiny adjustments to the
roller wheelbase might make a difference. I always adjusted
ours to put the front roller exactly under the bike's front
axle. Does anybody know if having it a few millimeters
forward or backward have any benefit?

Since we describe geometry, especially trail, using the
normal front wheel contact directly under hub axle, that
will necessarily change handling (+/- trail and +/- axle
height as well).

No harm in experimenting I suppose.

--
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

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On 3/23/2025 5:18 PM, AMuzi wrote:

On 3/23/2025 3:15 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 3/22/2025 11:40 PM, zen cycle wrote:

People that don't have good innate balance will have a difficult time
riding rollers. I'm one of those people. It took me several months to
keep the bike up, and I that was after setting them up in a door
frame so I had something to lean on and pull the bike back. I can
ride unloaded rollers somewhat effortlessly now (40 years later) but
still can't ride no-handed, can't sprint, and have a really hard time
trying to ride the TT bike while in the aerobars.

I don't know, but I wonder if very tiny adjustments to the roller
wheelbase might make a difference. I always adjusted ours to put the
front roller exactly under the bike's front axle. Does anybody know if
having it a few millimeters forward or backward have any benefit?

Since we describe geometry, especially trail, using the normal front
wheel contact directly under hub axle, that will necessarily change
handling (+/- trail and +/- axle height as well).

No harm in experimenting I suppose.

Been there, done that...

The roller axles need to be placed under the wheel axles. A little mis-alignment is ok, but getting the front wheel too far back or forward
makes the rollers almost unrideable. Most rollers don't give that kind
of adjustment resolution though. MY ancient Minouras only allow in one
inch increments.

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