Turbo trainer wheels

ded
ded Posts: 120
edited November 2009 in Training, fitness and health
I dunno if I should post this here or in "Workshop", but here goes...

My "winter bike" is the same bike as my "turbo bike". Where it goes just depends on how horrible the Scottish weather currently is :? .

Last winter I swapped the tyre on the back wheel every time I wanted to stick it on the turbo, which was clearly a complete pain in the a**e. So this year I was going to buy a cheap spare wheel and cassette for the turbo, when I thought "why not use the wheel from the good bike that never goes out in winter?". Anybody know of any reason why I shouldn't do this? The good bike is 10spd ultegra and the winter bike 9spd tiagra but I should be able to stick a 9spd shimano cassette on the 10spd, no? Anything I'm missing/not thinking about?

This way I can put the money I would have spent on the cheapy turbo wheel towards an even shinier set of wheels for the good bike next year :D

Comments

  • GavH
    GavH Posts: 933
    Why not put the entire GOOD bike on the turbo for the duration with the 'turbo tyre' on it?

    That way the winter bike remains a winter bike.
  • ded
    ded Posts: 120
    GavH wrote:
    Why not put the entire GOOD bike on the turbo for the duration with the 'turbo tyre' on it?
    Because (at the risk of starting another "how strong is carbon" thread) it's made of carbon and the consensus seems to be that it's not worth finding out if turbo trainers put undue stress on carbon frames... I don't want to be the guinea pig anyway :lol:
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    You shouldn't use a carbon frame on a trainer due to the way that it places stress at the rear dropout...

    According to a lad who works at the Specialized shop in Harrogate...

    I've no idea.
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    ded wrote:
    GavH wrote:
    Why not put the entire GOOD bike on the turbo for the duration with the 'turbo tyre' on it?
    Because (at the risk of starting another "how strong is carbon" thread) it's made of carbon and the consensus seems to be that it's not worth finding out if turbo trainers put undue stress on carbon frames... I don't want to be the guinea pig anyway :lol:

    FWIW I don't have a carbon bike but I sure would be p*ssed off if it broke on a trainer.
    And if it did how could you trust a frame made of carbon on the open road, with all it's potholes and rough sections? Much more abuse on the road than on a trainer. Years ago
    I took a really cheapo bike, put it on a trainer, beat the sh*t out of it for many a winter, rarely did any maintenance on it, and it never failed me. Once again FWIW I wouldn't ride a bike that had a reputation for breaking. I doubt carbon is as fragile as you have been led to believe.
  • ded
    ded Posts: 120
    Because (at the risk of starting another "how strong is carbon" thread) it's made of carbon
    I am not getting into whether carbon should/will/won't break and/or the direction of stress on each part of it. Not the point of this thread! My question is about whether wheels get hammered on the turbo - I am sure not, but I was asking if anyone else had an opinion/experience (on the wheels question, not the frame!)

    Try it another way, it's my nice bike, I like it, I don't want it covered in sweat/sticky energy juice/snot/whatever all winter and I don't want to have to clean 2 bikes all the time. My winter bike in contrast is going to get mucky and I will have to clean it! And changing a wheel takes about 5 seconds so that seemed easiest to me...
  • eh
    eh Posts: 4,854
    Well appart from the bearings gettings a pretty good working over, I don't think the rest of the wheel is under anymore stress than in normal use (possibly less).
  • GavH
    GavH Posts: 933
    Well the wheel on a turbo aint hitting potholes or rough roads for miles on end so I cannot see why the turbo would damage it all. Wear away the tyre in jig time yes, wheel no.
  • Old Tuggo
    Old Tuggo Posts: 482
    Why dont you buy a cheap bike for Turbo Training, you could probably pick one up for about£50?

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