Bike Rollers are one of the more established ways to do indoor cycle training. They may have been around a while, but now many experts regard them as a very up-to-date and beneficial tool.

At first sight, it is a challenging prospect that faces you when you pick up your bike and place it between the sets of rollers. Most are set up the same way – a metal frame with three cylinders, two at the rear to place your rear wheel, and one forward to locate the front wheel – and you adjust them to suit your bike length. The front roller and the front roller of the back pair are generally connected by a rubber transmission belt which causes the front wheel to spin as you pedal the back wheel.

The rear wheel not being fixed to the frame, means your bike will slide freely as you ride, simulating the sensation of rapid road riding (if not slippery roads). Here you find the challenge is to keep yourself stable, without the benefit of using the forward movement of a road to reassure you. Well, the simple way used when starting out with rollers is to fit the frame inside a door frame in the house – which is the perfect width to give you a refuge to put your arms when learning to balance - or next to a solid wall, to allow you to lean on it when mounting and getting going.

It is also important not to turn the handlebars or lean too much – keep the bars straight and balance by making tiny corrections. Sounds dramatic, but doing the basics right will let you get on with enjoying your new rollers.

So where you gain, and why serious riders can find this almost addictive once they get going, is that the core balance that you develop, just to keep going smoothly. makes a big difference to you when riding on the road. You boost your ability to control your bike, whether taking sharp turns or reaching for food in your back pockets at high speed, and your confidence and success start to really grow.

The other way you make big gains is in developing a very smooth pedalling stroke. The rollers require an efficient and even way of pedalling, to avoid an unstable ride. So this efficient delivery of the pedal force makes you a far more effective rider, with economy of effort.

One disadvantage of more basic rollers is lack of high resistance, as compared with static bike trainers. So the leading makers have come up with the magnetic resistance attachment, and the more advanced models have a wind resistance fitting, which gives you the breezy feeling of riding outdoors, and needs a greater effort to pedal as well.

The reason people are getting into rollers is to develop your balance, technique and cadence, which have to become good in order to make smooth progress. So it will be hard work at the start, but you will be amazed by the results, and the sense of achievement when it all comes together.