Turbo wheel

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Turbobeginner

New Member
Hi everyone,

Apologies for the dumb question!
I have this road bike https://www.thebikelist.co.uk/giant/avail-1-w-2012.
Since the pandemic, I’ve mostly been using it on a basic turbo trainer, with a turbo tyre to keep the noise down as I live in a flat. It’s made me lazy about going outside, and I’d like to get a spare wheel for the turbo only. Im not sure what I need, if I got this basic wheel from decathlon https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/triban-100-700-double-walled-rear-free-wheel/_/R-p-200635
and a new cassette https://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-tiagra-hg500-10-speed-cassette
are these the correct things that will work for me and minimise wear? I already have the tyre and inner tube, do I need anything else?
I don’t mind spending a bit of money to make sure it works and keeps my bike nice, but I don’t want to waste money needlessly.
Im quite confused so any advice for my specific situation would be really helpful.
Thanks for any advice.
 

DCLane

Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
:welcome:

Your bike's 10 speed and it's a 10 speed cassette so that should work.

The wheel however is for a 5-7 speed old freewheel type, rather than a Shimano cassette. It needs to have splines on rather than a thread. Decathlon's example is here: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/triba...ear-road-bike-wheel-for-cassette/_/R-p-200632 and you should be able to see the difference. This is a Shimano splined freehub:

rueda-trasera-700c-dpx_1_1.jpg
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
T

Turbobeginner

New Member
With the cassette, beyond shimano tiagra, to match what is on my bike now, how do you know the size? E.g. Ive found 11-32, 11-34, 11-25t and 12-25t? The second two on another link but which the same part headline.
Thank again!
 

davidphilips

Veteran
Location
Onabike
My advice would be to get hold of a used wheel for the turbo, all you need is an old wheel even with a worn out rim, the basic type of turbo trainer that clamps the rear wheel is quite hard on bearings.
Know i have dumped/scraped many rear wheels with worn rims and if you put a wanted add on facebook/gumtree or even here you may/should be able to pick up one for free.
Use a basic turbo my self and keep a bike on it with a worn rear wheel all i need is a minute to change out the rear wheel if i ever want to use it on the road.
never used a turbo tyre as i just keep worn tyres or tyres with a cut or other fault for the turbo, when i buy a bike (quite often, dont ask) i usually end up buying/fitting better tyres and so have lots of tyres for turbo work.
 

Old jon

Guru
Location
Leeds
Hi @Turbobeginner How close to Leeds are you? I have a back wheel, with a ten speed cassette on it, that you can have FOC. It has done about 5000 road miles, it was retired 'cos the front wheel rim of the pair was worn out.
 
OP
OP
T

Turbobeginner

New Member
Thanks, that would have been amazing but I am car free and lockdown just north of london.
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
In terms of cassette the specific model doesn't matter too much but I would try to match the largest sprocket on your existing one so you don't have any issues with chain length. There is a small number written on each of the sprockets (usually in line with each other) which indicates how many teeth it has. I've just checked my Tiagra cassette and it has 32T written on the largest sprocket, the next down has 28T and so on.

If yours currently has 30T for example then as long as you go 11-30 or lower (11-28 for example) you will be fine. You can then swap the bike wheels out when riding outdoors or indoors easily.
 
Top Bottom