I need ‘a pair’ of rollers!

Very random question but please bear with me, I thought this would be the best place to ask given the wealth of knowledge tucked away.

I used to be into cycling and used TrainerRoad for all my structure. I’ve been diagnosed with a neurological disorder which has since put an end to my bike days and in the future I think I will need a wheelchair for day to day getting around. Rather than let it happen to me though I though I would embrace my future and start training in a chair, who know TR might produce a wheelchair athlete!!

So I have a chair and want to get a turbo setup equivalent, the problem is though that a dedicated machine is stupid money (not enough volume of sales) but I thought that I could rig my own setup with a ‘pair’ of matching rollers as the chair is to wide for a single unit, one for each wheel! Does this sound crazy so far?

I managed to get hold of a cycleops aluminium roller but have been unable to find the matching pair. Does anyone know if I would HAVE to have the same on the other side, I have seen a few ‘jet black’ rollers that look similar but don’t know if they will be subtly different enough to ruin my plan.

Any advice would be appreciated or I guess in the ‘paying things forward’ thread topic of old does anyone in the UK have an old set of cycleops rollers that I can experience with?!

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If you haven’t seen these or similar options, you can get some simple dual-roller options that could be coupled to do what you want. Even at double the price here, they are much less expensive than the wheelchair rollers I found in a quick search.

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Good ideas from @mcneese.chad!

And a cool idea overall here – from what I understand, you shouldn’t have to have the same rollers on each side. I think any two rollers should do the trick as long as you can get them about even in height so you aren’t lopsided on them!

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I’m not 100% understanding the requirements but my first thought was why not buy a recumbent exercise bike and put a good set of power meter pedals on it.

Sounds like a cool project. I think the tricky part will be getting enough of a flywheel effect. The stroke dynamics of a regular wheelchair are pretty different compared to a bike or handcycle where you are constantly applying force. If there was a way to add a bunch of balanced weight to each of the wheels on the wheelchair, that might be an easy path to get the flywheel effect and allow momentum to be held between strokes. Good luck.

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Sounds like he will be losing strength and/or control of his legs, so a recumbent that still relies on legs for action are not necessarily a long-term solution. I say this based on the emphasis of wheelchair comments above, so I could be off from reading a bit between the lines. If that read is right, he will not have legs for “training” and will likely be aiming to improve control & strength with hand & arms for regular wheelchair use.

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Yea one of the first symptoms was waking up with lead legs all the time and I thought training where you make yourself feel like that was a bad idea! I’m looking more at arms, hence the chair question and will look into wheelchair basketball or even racing. I thought having a TR setup would be cool though as it’s the fittest I have been when I used structured training!

Thanks for the freewheel points, I hadn’t considered that

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As someone whose wife has MS, I just wanted to say that your approach to your challenges is both admirable and inspirational.

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Forgive my lack of knowledge of rollers and wheelchair.

I immediately thought of a British wheelchair athlete called David Weir who competes/competed in all sorts of distances like marathons.

I hope that’s of some use. It’s kinda two rollers in a v shape and the chair sits in the valley. Apologies if it’s not useful.