Tacx Antares Rollers

Aside from the absolutely horrid instructions they provided these rollers get the job done for the price. I haven't had any issues aside from the instruction manual and wrong sized washers provided.

I went with this model because I've heard great things about Tacx products. However, I ended up returning this after 3 sessions for a few reasons, which I'll detail below.

One major piece of feedback for Tacx: Improve your instruction manual! I realize there aren't that many pieces/moving parts to assemble this, but I found the instructions to be unhelpful and ended up YouTubing how to assemble it, and I saw where numerous people complained in the video comments about Tacx's poor instructions.

The method for adjusting the length of the rollers so that I could ride on them using both my road bike and my MTB was difficult enough that I knew almost immediately that it would strongly deter me from using multiple bikes. Let's just say that to adjust the length, you're going to need to sit down with it and spend a good 5-10min to get it right (or maybe I'm just super slow).

As far as the locking mechanism, once you set the size there are pin locks that pop into their circular pockets to keep the desired length. The issue I had was that the pins barely made their way into the pockets so that if you manipulated the rollers with any force, the setting would pop open and the rollers would need to be re-adjusted and locked again. This wasn't reassuring given that I was riding my bicycle on them with potential for a fall.

The rollers themselves are tapered, which is helpful for keeping you from riding off of them, although that's still entirely possible. One thing that I didn't expect was how quickly the blue rollers were marked up by my tires (and they wouldn't clean off easily)--granted this isn't a big deal, but still, worth noting. Also, I found these rollers maybe a bit too easy, it took me 5-6 tries to get the hang of riding on them (10min or so). I've heard that the smaller diameter rollers are much more challenging, and if I were to get rollers again I think I'd spring for something with narrower rollers.

Overall, and for this price point, I was disappointed with the plastic molded pieces, poor locking ability, difficult adjustment requirements, and incomplete instructions. I did like the tapered roller shape, the lightweight construction, and the small footprint for storage purposes.