Rollers vs dumb trainer vs smart trainer

Equipment
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I have a Cycleops fluid 2 that has served me well and I like it. I don’t have a power meter on my bikes right now, but could put one on my older specialized Allez I think (need to check compatibility). I was considering getting 4iiii for my new roadie SL6 tarmac but not sure I want to mess with the thru axles. I also don’t know if I want to keep my old roadie just for the trainer this winter (and maybe sell in the spring or convert to a gravel type bike if possible). So then I thought about getting the rollers for my tarmac, getting the 4iiii and sell old bike.

I don’t have any experience with rollers and know it would take some getting used to. I’m looking for user experience for rollers and if you love em, like em or hate em. I likely 3join TR again this year, but have not done a plan in 3 years or so. I was doing Tris, but stopped altogether when we had our kid. Now he’s 4 and I am able to start training again, and have been enjoying the rides.

What direction would you lean and why

*Also, whY set of reasonably priced rollers can you suggest? I’d love to slip them under the sofa between uses

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Rollers definitely!
I think the perception that they are hard to learn is a bit over exaggerated.
I would confidently say that you would be comfortable on rollers within a few hours and taking bottles and switching focus away from staying upright like your life depends on it :wink:within a day or two.
I’m maybe biased but I could never imagine swapping the feel of rollers and the continual skill required to be smooth and stable, especially during hard efforts.
Ive used Elite e-motion with TR since April to help me gain an 18% FTP increase, but they’re not under sofa friendly.
Hopefully someone with experience of what you need can recommend a suitable option. Just make sure you have optional resistance.
Also, read online, there’s a ton of people advocating rollers and help on getting started.
Added bonus would obviously be your power meter for outdoor training.

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Lots of threads already on this topic, just put “rollers” into the search box.

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Shortcut to some search results:

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I was going to post a few links, but there were too many results!

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Yeah, when it’s more open like that, I just grab a full search result. Sometimes helps to use Categories and Tags to filter results a bit too. This one I just added the “Equip” category.

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