Best bike rollers 2024: add a little spice to your indoor cycling sessions

Having fallen out of favour in recent years with the rise of Zwift and other Indoor training apps, Rollers continue to be popular among more serious riders and racers. Requiring more technical riding ability to use, bike rollers add realism to indoor training in an attempt to keep boredom at bay. The best bike rollers develop much more than just your legs. They help to improve balance, pedalling style, the ability to concentrate for extended periods and riding in a tight space replicating a bunch or peloton. Their ease of transportation also makes them great warm-up tools for shorter more intense racing like Cyclocross, Track and Crit racing.

In this guide, I have curated eight of the best bike rollers tested and rated by the Cycling Weekly tech team. Two distinct categories separate the intended use of rollers. Units like our Best Smart Roller the Elite Arion and the Wahoo Kickr Rollr, bring the connectivity of the best smart trainers together with the greater realism rollers can offer.

The alternative unplugged units suit those who travel frequently for their racing or prefer much shorter, higher-intensity sessions. Units like our Best Overall Rollers, the Garmin Taxc Galaxia with its built-in rocker base and low cost of entry ticks many boxes.

The Quick List

Best Bike Rollers: Our Pick

Best Overall

Go one step up the rungs with Tacx and you can get their Galaxia rollers. These feature a patented 'swing system', which allows them to swing back and forth very slightly.

Disconcerting as this may sound, it allows the roller to absorb some of the forward motion when you accelerate, change speed, or otherwise stamp on the pedals and we felt that this gave a a nicer feel to the rollers.

All the rest still applies - and both Tacx units retract (rather than fold as most do) to 80cm.

Read Tech Editor Simons' Love Letter to the Tacx Galaxia

Best Smart Rollers

These rollers offer electronically controlled resistance. ANT+ is utilised to send power, speed and cadence data to computers, whilst Bluetooth connectivity means that you can use indoor cycling apps like Zwift and Trainer Road. Added to that, this impressive piece of kit can even simulate climbs up to 5% making us feel more involved when using Zwift.

The rollers are parabolic, with a slight lip at the edge. They're capable of managing up to 645 watts, and the resistance unit is electromagnetic. Like all the others, they're foldable and feature several wheelbase adjustments.

Read more: Elite Arion Digital Smart B+ E-Rollers full review

Best Turbo Trainer Alternative

Wahoo's Kickr Rollr is an excellent option for those seeking the smart benefits and stability of turbo trainers – but with the natural ride feel and convenience of rollers.
Easy to set up, you don't need to remove the wheels, it's also an enticing option for those after a platform for warming up before an event.

Unlike traditional rollers which require a keen sense of balance, with the Kickr Rollr a clamp holds and supports the front wheel, making these very easy to get going with. You also benefit from a little bit of sway at the back, which makes the ride feel much more natural than riding with a fully 'locked-in' turbo trainer.

Out-of-the-saddle efforts are also possible, too, with our tester never experiencing any rear wheel slippage.

The Kickr Rollr simulates gradients up to 10% and is ‘smart’ but for the actual power measurement and controllable resistance (up to 1,500 watts), it has to be connected with a bike-mounted ANT+ power meter.

Read more: Wahoo Kickr Rollr first ride review

Best Budget

The Tacx Antares rollers are particularly popular because of the conical shape of the drums - they dip in the middle, so it was easier for us to remain in the middle of the drum pretty much the whole time.

If you'd like more assurance, or perhaps a 'halfway-house' in learning to use the rollers, Tacx also has a Tacx Antares Rollers Support Stand you can purchase separately. This clasps the front wheel and lets you get used to the feeling on the rear before going all the way.

The Tacx Antares rollers are collapsible and have several wheelbase adjustments.

Most Realistic

When it comes to rollers, the Elite Nero is about as Gucci as they come. First and foremost, they are smart, capable of generating up to 830W of resistance and simulating a 7% grade. They are both ANT+ and Bluetooth enabled so the rollers can talk to any head unit or the training app of your choice.

Elite has also built what it calls a floating system which introduces a bit of fore and aft give into the rollers to absorb abrupt movement caused by changes in speed and prevent you from flying over the front or back. We felt that this worked well, improving the 'road feel' of the rollers.

Best bike rollers for stability

The roller itself aims to offer a real-life feel, thanks to the use of 'Internal Progressive Resistance'. You could use this trainer for full indoor sessions, but for us, it really shone when it came to race warm-ups and the like.

A steel frame offers a sturdy attachment for the fork and will accept both standard QRs and thru-axles. Its length is adjustable to match the wheelbase of your bike and ranges from 840mm / 33in to 1200mm / 47.2in. The set-up comes with a heavy-duty, padded tote bag for transport and storage.

Most Durable

Kreitler has been making rollers for nearly half a century, and once you buy a set, bar replacing the band every few years, they will probably be the only set you'll ever buy — which is good because they are not cheap.

Rollers with larger diameter drums are usually a bit easier to ride, especially if you're new to it, but even after having spent many years riding rollers, we still like the 4.5in diameter drums. They are made from aircraft-grade 6061 alloy and manufactured using a CNC lathe to be within two-thousandths of an inch of concentricity. Kreitler uses ABEC 5 bearings to keep the rollers spinning smoothly, and should you be after a bit more resistance has a weighted flywheel or Head Wind fan available as add-ons.

Best Cheap Bike Rollers

The Saris AL aluminium rollers are fitted with 16in wide aluminium drums that are precision lathed to prevent distortion from heat, and we found them pretty darn quiet too. There's magnetic resistance to up your effort levels and a fold-away steel frame with rubber footpads. You can swap the belt from the left to the right side, depending on which side you prefer to dismount but they won't natively offer power readings.

Notable Mentions

Minoura MoZ Rollers: Similarly in functionality to many other Roller units we have tested here at Cycling Weekly, the Minoura Moz is designed specifically for bikes with shorter wheelbases. It allows for bikes with 24" wheels up to 650c to be used on rollers. Not a common site on modern road bikes but sizes still popular among kids and custom-frame road bikes. It achieves this by being an overall shorter unit but includes much smaller 80cm rollers.

How We Test

At Cycling Weekly, our tech team enter the pain cave to sweat it out countless times every year, putting all the best Indoor training aids through their paces.

All the Rollers in this buyer's guide have been through many static kilometres and miles. Ease of setup, app connectivity, portability and stability are the key areas of focus when we test. Also, important considerations are resistance levels, gradient or movement simulations and the accuracy of the data output, this will depend on each unit's specification, of course.

During testing our writers will simulate a broad range of training styles and sessions including high-intensity and max efforts through to low-intensity and recovery rides. These sessions will be repeated several times throughout testing for each Roller unit. First to determine a base and then to check the replication of data and feel.

FAQs - All about Rollers