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Tacx Antares Rollers
Simply rolling.
The cycling industry tends to overthink just about everything, but Tacx's Antares Training Rollers are a refreshing exception to this blight of over-engineering. The Antares are straight-up rollers: easy to retract for storage, easy to transport to races, easy to set up and get spinning on. The only bit of special engineering is the conical shape of the rollers themselves, which helps to coach your tires into the center so you don't ride off the edge while you're zoning out to some trainer tunes.
- Classic rollers with just enough innovation
- Conical shape coaches tires to the center
- Retracts for ease of storage and transportation to races
- Item #TAC000U
- Recommended Use
- training
Tech Specs
What do you think about this product?
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March 10, 2021
Tacx Antares
- Familiarity:
- I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions
- Fit:
- Runs large
I did not have any issues putting this together. I did have to consult the internet as to how to properly extend the side bars to set the length (this part was not well described in the instructions). It’s pretty solidly constructed and I’m confident that it’s not going to catastrophically fail. It’s definitely not the fanciest roller set, but it is exactly what it says it is. I’m not planning to use it all the time, so it’s a good value for my intended use. I’ve never been on one of these before, but I have logged many hours on a bike. After set up, I placed it next to a wall to help balance myself and started pedaling. Best advice is to get a really good initial pedal stroke in and then don’t look at your front tire. The faster you go, the easier it is.
Megan L.
December 16, 2017
Good rollers for the price
- Familiarity:
- I've used it several times
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.
Joshua Stark
December 15, 2017
Pain to Adjust, Iffy Locking System
- Familiarity:
- I've used it several times
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.
Ryan Conklin