Turbo Woes

[Grahame]

I have Tracx Turbo and decided that I should give it a go for those days when I can't face the fens wind.

My bike is a Raliegh Pioneer Metro, not ideal, but it will do until I can afford a proper road bike.

I plonked it in the lving room and then attached the bike to the trainer okay and tightened things up, as per the unclear instructions.

Then I plugged in my iPod and off I went, 45 minutes at about 15 miles per hour. Then I stopped and had a look at the wheel.

There was bits of rubber all on the carpet and half way up the wall and a distinct smell of burning rubber that i hadn't noticed before.

Looking at the tyre I noticed that the tread was about to come away and the centre section looked distinctly worn.

Today I went out and bought a new tyre; well I needed one anyway. my question is though, are there any turbo trainer tyres available for my sized wheels? The original tyre was 700c X 38c and I cant seem to find any at that size. I don't want to wreck my brand new tyre on the turbo, if possible.

Thanks
Grahame

 

[Dan B]

I magine that the usual 23mm tyre will be too narrow for your rim. Have you thought about getting a spare wheel for use on the turbo - it would be much less faff swapping the wheel when you want to go out than taking the tyre off every time. Decathlon do a cheap £30 rear wheel plus £7 for a screw-on cassette - and if you're riding at a steady pace I don't imagine it matters much that the indexing is off because you're not changing gear anyway

 

[fossyant]

Was it a slick tyre.

you probably had the roller too tight on the tyre. I've run Michelin Pro Race Tyres on a Turbo without problems (i.e. expensive ones). I now have a spare wheel with a cheap road tyre on, should I need to use it.

That said, turbo's are made by the devil - I'd rather ride the bike. So much so, I only did one turbo session after my shoulder op, and was back on the road after two weeks - couldn't stand the turbo.

 

[Herzog]

Ditch the turbo and get a set of rollers...much more fun whilst being better for balance and pedaling technique!

 

[Grahame]

Thanks for the replies.

The tyre is a hybrid, smoothish in the middle with nobbly bits on the edge. I did wonder if I had the tyre too tight on the roller. It would be a bit of a pain changing tyres/wheels every time I want to use the trainer. the new tyre I have on there now is a Continental City Ride Hybrid 700c X 32c. woyld that be strong enough for me not to have a seperate tire for the trainer?

Thanks
Grahame