In a message dated 1/22/05 11:45:19 AM Pacific Standard Time,
classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:
> I have a friend who is thinking about making some wood rollers to sell. Now
> I know that New England Yankee used to build them in the 60's but I haven't
> seen any since. Does anybody have an opinion on these and if the response is
> favorable, should they be fairly easy to sell?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Peter Koskinen
> Chapel Hill,NC
>
I would think they should be quite easy to make. Your local lumberyard
should be able to turn the drums from something like 4 x 4 maple (not cheap
though!), and bore them for some common size sealed bearing, and put grooves in for
the belt. Then all you would need to do is make some wood rails. 1 x 6s
should do it. And get some all-thread for the axles, with nuts and washers to bolt
them all together. The front roller needs to have several positions or maybe
a slot in the rails to adjust for wheelbase. The belt can be purchased from
anyone who already makes rollers like Tacx, Minoura, or Cyclops. You could
make them as wide as the mill equipment would allow too. Imagine some 3' wide
rollers! And even build on some side steps to make starting and stopping
easy. The advantage to wood would be they would build up some great momentum.
I don't sell a lot of rollers compared to fixed trainers but this sure would
be fun to do.
Bob Freeman
Seattle