Rollers - need to use spare wheels??

rohloff-rich

Been looking into turbo trainers and rollers and recently read a comment (on here I think) that with Turbo Trainers you shouldn't use your normal road tyre as the trainer smooths the surface of the tyre and can make it unsafe - which makes perfect sense.

Does the same apply to using rollers? i.e. should you use a seperate pair of wheels on a set of rollers, or is it different because you are much more mobile on rollers?

Bronzie

I don't use different tyres, but then I don't ride the rollers for hours on end, probably 30 mins max a couple of times a week at most. Also my rollers have no resistance.

You can actually buy tyres designed specifically for turbo trainers - hard compound so they don't wear, but would be awful to ride on road as no grip. I guess it's the resistance (and the very small contact area) that causes the tyre to wear quickly - so if you are planning on doing lots of work on rollers with a resistance setting, a spare rear wheel at least with an old tyre on it would make sense (rather than swapping tyres on and off). Probably not such an issue on the front wheel at there is no power transmitted through it.