Trainer Wheel

I do 90% of my training on a trainer, but I just use a cheep set of regular road tires and don't bother switching when I go to ride outside. Then I have a set of racing tires that I will swap in on race day. Other than that... there's really no need for all the stress about tires. Yes, a trainer will wear your tires a lot faster, but I have no problems with it because I'm not messing up my race tires.

I bought a cheap wheel with the same cassette as my road wheel. The trainer wheel has a trainer tire.

Same here, works great and I would highly recommend this solution.

I have a training wheel but no extra cassette so I have to move the cassette every time i ride outside. lucky/unlucky i ride on the trainer during the week and outside on the weekend so it's only once. I didn't get the snazzy yellow trainer tire. Makes much less noise.

I do 95%of my biking on a trainer. I have never changed a wheel or a tire for trainer riding. Never had a problem. Sounds like y'all are going through a lot of trouble.

You can get cassettes off eBay for really cheap, although i suppose you're getting good at swaps.

Yea. It's no problem now. Significantly less time than changing a tire. Right or wrong I have an impact driver that will zip it right off with no chain whip. Putting it back on it super simple.

My trainer eats standard road tires up (at least when I adjust the resistance high enough for me to get a decent workout). How are you avoiding this or do you just replace your tires frequently?

I previously used old tires but became tired of the nasty black dust and inconvenient timing of flats. I have a dedicated trainer tire and wheel. The wheel is actually an old wired Mavic Pro powertap but I don't use the power function since I have an ANT+ Smart Trainer. The trainer tire and dedicated wheel are worth the extra expense IMHO. I log a lot of miles and have had no issues with wearing, black dust, slippage or flats

I have a trainer wheel with a trainer tire I got from someone on a forum for cheap. If I were you I would look at Bikes Direct for a wheel set($59), get a cheap cassette with 12-23 or 11-23 from somewhere online for cheap, and put an old tire on it. You don't need to worry about quality since it's not like you will wipe out if you have a blow out.

I was looking for cheap wheels to get an extra set for my kids to switch from knobbies to slicks on the MTB as they are getting into triathlon. Bikes direct was the cheapest I could find. I've come to the conclusion they don't need it or care about slicks, it was more about me thinking it would help them. When they start to care about times there are other things I'm sure they will want before slicks - like a road bike.

Did you check out the product called Bike Trainer Tape that I've been hearing about on Facebook. It supposed to protect your good tires on the indoor bike trainer so you just peel off the tape when you want to ride outside.

Just one person's opinion. I have an incredibly old indoor trainer. It requires windows XP to run since the company has not updated it's product. It still works great so I keep using it. About 3 years ago I went into a local bike shop and got a Schwalbe Blizzard tire. I'm not sure the guy knew what he was doing when he recommended it. It's lasted pretty well. I bought the cheapest wheel they had and use it as my indoor trainer. If I use it, I have to pump up the tire to 98 indicated on my pump. Not 100 and not 96 but 98 for it to work. If I have the program at 100 watts when I stop, the wheel will spin on the average 20 reps. It's been pretty consistent. If it breaks, I'm not sure what I'll do. Here's a picture of the wear pattern after three years. I ride it on the average of 1 hour every week.

just curious .. what trainer do you use??

I have a TACX trainer Cycle Force I-magic that has to be almost 10 years old. It has held up pretty well. I just leave it in one gear and I can control the resistance on the back wheel with buttons on the handlebar.



It gives me a pretty simple screen.



I have my old faithful computer I built also almost 10 years ago that still works to control it.



There are obviously much better units out now, but for reliability I can't knock the system I have.

I got a cheap cassette Tiagra off Ebay for about $28 new.

Rear wheels are around $35 new for a low cost one, also Ebay.

As for tires, I've been using 25mm Gatorskin.
I did by a Vittoria trainer tire, but waiting until the Gatorskin wears out,

I don't change tires either, use GP4k's. I just deal with the fact that'll I'll go through a couple extra tires each winter.

I have an additional wheel, with the same cassette I use for outdoor riding (training and racing) and threw a cycleops trainer tire on there...

Now that my bike is on the trainer for the winter, I just leave the trainer wheel/tire on there and will then swap it out as it warms up...

I use the same wheels and tires that I ride outside - using this sequence:

Spring - Move front tire to the back and install new tire on the front. Ride mostly outside.
Summer - Ride mostly outside.
Fall - Ride mostly outside.
Winter - Ride mostly inside

Rinse and repeat.

Agree an inexpensive rear wheel and an extra cassette can be had pretty cheap. I picked up a used rear Shimano R500 for $40; probably a better wheel than really needed for a trainer but it was there. Cheap road wheels tend to be a bit heavy, but who cares on a trainer. Durability also doesn't matter as much if you're eliminating any chance of a pothole or a bump.

I do like a narrower range cassette for trainer use - I have a 12-25 on my trainer wheel now and would go 11/12-23 without a lot of argument.

For $25-35, there is not much to be gained by moving your cassette back and forth.

I've found that if you have the same or similar cassette on your trainer and road/race wheels, you can usually switch out without much derailleur adjustment. For 10 speed, note that some of the spacers are slightly different than the others; if you get the cassettes at the same point relative to the hub/dropout you won't have to fiddle much when you change over.

Note a lot of people don't bother with any of this, and just use the same tire, wheel, and cassette on their trainer. Depending on the texture of the trainer roller, and maybe the rider weight, people seem to get away with this. Not me. My trainer does seem to eat tires up pretty fast unless they're trainer specific tires.

Edited by alath 2017-01-24 1:54 PM

Get the least expensive wheel you can find, a cassette that matches what you have on your road wheels and a trainer tire. A steel skewer should've come with the trainer, so make sure you use that. If it didn't, you need to get one.

You should be able to get the entire setup for $100-120, well worth the investment. I use my trainer year around, if the weather is crappy, or if I simply don't have a lot of time, I stay indoors.