Two Wheel Blogs

In consideration of the weather around here coupled with the holiday season and the long hours at work, I am finding very little opportunity to ride outside. Not a bad thing though because while training inside I have discovered something that I would likely never find on the road/trail.

I have been riding the rollers almost exclusively when I train indoors these days. They are stimulating an many ways, but perhaps the thing I like most about rollers has to do with the brutal honesty they offer.

Huh? Yeah! Rollers will show you EXACTLY how good of a rider you are.

A power meter is a great thing, but it only tells you how much power you generate. Want to see the results of a great amount of power but lousy control?

Pretty extreme, but you get the point...we should strive to build more powerful engines, but never loose sight of the importance of good control/handling skills.

While I say rollers show you how good you are, what I really mean is they show you your weaknesses...clearly. A lot of people hate rollers, and I can not help but think that perhaps this hatred stems from what rollers have to teach us.

In truth, I like rollers because they offer a certain excitement and challenge that stationary trainers seem to lack. This translates to less boredom while riding inside. I still manage to get bored once in a while, so I start looking for fun things to try.

Lately I have been doing one-leg work on the rollers. The value of this sort of activity has been highly debated here and there, but suffice to say I believe that one-leg work on rollers can certainly identify dis-equity in your stroke.

You can hold any opinion you like regarding one-leg work, but I was shocked at my findings when I started playing around. I might have guessed that one leg was dominant, but I would have been wrong about everything else.

It may have something to do with my crash this year (that put me down pretty hard on my right hip), but whatever the cause, it seems that most of my power and stability seems to come from my left leg.

Being a right hand dominant person, I might have assumed that my right leg would be my strong one. Back in the day (BMX) I used to start right foot forward do get the holeshot (first off the start...where most races are won). Maybe that would be a good drill to bring the strength back up?

Long story short, I can ride with my left leg only on rollers for a long time, but when I use only my right leg I start huffing and puffing pretty quickly. No doubt about it, it is a weakness.

Say what you want about one-leg training. I figure if there is a weakness and I am working toward diminishing it, it must be a good thing.

In the interest of removing dis-equity, here is another video. Here is what a heap of control can lead to...I doubt that this by itself would win any races either.