just wondering what brands were good, bad, what people thought. I was looking for something a little easier to just jump on. I have a trainer, and a newborn. The trainer requires some time, preparation and a little bit of setup every time.
I tried them at my friends house on the weekend, and I got up pretty fast 3-4 mins , it felt amazing on my fixed gear.
Do you recall what size the rollers were? I have seen them sold with 4 inch, 3, and 2.5, the smaller the roller the higher the tension.
I only used them with a track bike. This was during the big "fixie" boom of the early 2000s and there were bars that ran goldsprints on certain nights of the week. It was a big to-do during the CMWC in NYC in (I think???) 2005 or so. My friend raced track so that's why he originally had them, but I just used them for fun when my friends would come over and wanted to try them.
The ones I had at home were 4" I'm pretty sure, the drums were big, just based on a quick google search. They were definitely the top of the line at the time (Kreitler was the brand as I mentioned in my previous post) as my friend was a manager at a bike shop and was able to get a good fell-off-the-back-of-the-truck type of deal on them.
I don't see how they would take less time to set up than a trainer. They definitely take up more floor space. They are definitely more
fun than a trainer, but that's not saying much. Like I said, for me, they were more of a novelty and I didn't really get into them, but I never cycled competitively nor was I ever really interested in maximizing my cycling efficiency or perfecting my pedal stroke.
Probably now that everyone is stuck inside more than before, they may be hard to find used, but I remember you could buy them used for about 1/4 of the price of new ones because people get bored of them, like many pieces of home fitness equipment.
But if you've already tried them at your friends house and like them, maybe you know you will like them and use them a lot. I'd personally rather spend that $500 on 3-4 pairs of really nice new tires or some other stuff for my bike (or put it towards a guitar) but that's me. I guess it depends on where you're living and how often you can take an hour away from the baby to go for a ride.