Kurt Kinetic Z-Rollers

Kurt Kinetic have a range or indoor trainers including the excellent Rock 'n' Roll II, and now they're embracing the roller scene with their Z-rollers. And they're very good, especially if you're required by your other family members to pack your pain cave away after every session, or you want to sling them in the car for a race warm-up.

The Z-rollers are a simple enough design: the standard three rollers are bolted into a frame that articulates at two points so you can fold it back on itself, in the shape of a Z. See? It's not just a clever name. That makes these Kinetic rollers the most compact I've seen when it comes to putting them away. They'll fit in a blue Ikea bag, and they happily stow under one of the chairs in my conservatory.

If you want to get riding, setting them up is simply a case of flipping the two ends out and making sure that the rubber belt is seated properly, and you're ready to go. The front wheel roller is adjustable over a fairly broad range to suit the wheelbase of your bike (97cm to 110cm); it's simply a case of undoing the two ends and moving the roller to a different hole.

In use the rollers are excellent. The design means they have four feet along each side for extra stability and the fact that the frame articulates in two places and doesn't lock means that it copes very well with a slightly uneven surface if you're using them in the car park before a race. The bearings are very smooth and quiet, and the aluminium rollers themselves look built to last; even if they don't, the Z-rollers are backed up by an unconditional lifetime warranty.

The only issue I have with these rollers is that the two sides of the frame are only braced by the rollers themselves, and they're only sitting on a bolt at each end, so actually there's a fair bit of play in the frame when you're manhandling it. Once they're down and you're riding them it's not an issue, but if you're constantly folding and unfolding the rollers – and that's one of their major selling points – then over time those bolts are going to take a fair bit of lateral stress. and not only those bolts, but the ones in the folding points. I'd like to see a cross member in the frame somewhere to keep everything nice and rigid.

Overall the Z-rollers perform very well and their super-compact footprint when they're folded make them a great choice if you're short on space in your house or your car. Slight reservation about the frame design aside, I'd recommend them.

Verdict

Quality rollers that pack up very small, great for home training and race warm-ups