Rocker Plates for Trainers

Equipment
1

My evolving Google Doc meant to cover a range of Rocker Plate Info.

What is a Rocker Plate?

  • A “Rocker Plate” is a device used to add one or more motion (degree of freedom) to an otherwise rigid bike & trainer combo. Most designs sit on the floor, and then support the bike, trainer and rider on top of them. The rocker plate has mechanisms (simple or complex) that allow motion for the rigid trainer bike and rider combo.

Why use a Rocker Plate with your Rigid Trainer?

  1. Comfort In & Out of the Saddle
    • The small side movement of the saddle, even when seated, helps relieve pressure on the sit bones and soft tissue.
    • The added rocking motion encourages standing because it feels more free than rigid trainers which can lead to more frequent breaks between seated efforts.

  • When you have a bike that is perfectly comfortable outside, and then leads to problems when ridden inside, I feel it is important to look at what is different. When you do, there are two key differences.

    1. Lack of wind resistance on the body riding inside. That is a difference that I find because you end up with slightly more weight on the hands and arms, because you don’t have the wind pushing your upper body back.

      • To compensate for that, I recommend that people raise the front axle about 1"-2" [25mm-50mm] higher than the rear axle. This shifts the weight slightly back onto the saddle and off the hands and arms.

    2. A bike mounted into a typical trainer ends up being very fixed and rigid in position. This can lead to excessive loading on the sit bones on the saddle because there is no shift in the demand on the muscles and tissue around them.

      • The non-equipment solution is to introduce standing breaks into your riding. Anything from every 5 to 10 minutes is common. These breaks can be for anything from 10 seconds or pedal strokes, up to minutes at a time if desired (for saddle relief directly or other training reasons).
      • The equipment solution I recommend is adding motion to the trainer setup. The Kinetic Rock and Roll trainer was my inspiration. But I made a simple double plate stand with a hinge that allowed me to mount a rigid trainer and turn it into a rocking trainer. These are called “Rocker Plates”.
  1. Core & Upper Body Use
    • With softer leveling spring settings, it requires more engagement from the core and upper body to ride level and maintain a smooth pedal stroke.
    • This is true for seated and standing efforts, when compared to rigid trainers.
  1. More Standing Pedaling Motion Freedom
    • Standing pedaling on a rigid trainer is awkward and not at all like riding a bike outside.
    • On a Rocker Plate, the bike & trainer are more free to lean to both sides. This can allow the rider to move in ways that are less awkward than on a rigid trainer.
  1. Frame Stress
    • Unproven by testing and data, but Rocker Plates are likely to reduce stress on frame members since they allow float and likely reduced side-loading to the frame members.
  1. Media
  1. Build Guide with Drawings & Videos
  1. Social Media
    • Zwift Rocker Plates, group by Chad McNeese
    • This is a “Closed” group, in order to reduce spammers. You apply, answer a short question and I will approve you for membership into the group.
    • There are lots of posts with different designs and plenty of discussion.
  1. Testing and Analysis
25 Likes