Turbo Wheel

ed_j

Hi all.

Considering buying a turbo for winter. I have seen all the reports of increased tyre wear when using it, so I thought I'd get some rubbish halfords £20 wheel and tyre. However, all of these cheap wheels are screw on freewheels. Would it be possible to use a 9 speed freewheel on a ten speed bike? Or would that go completely wrong?

centimani

Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to have a turbo specific tyre.
There may be benefits with turbo tyres, but ive always run my Gator shod wheels on mine, never ever had an issue, no overheating, no excess wear, nothing.

Worth noting, i never apply too much flywheel pressure to the wheel, so if i really give it some beans it can occasioanally slip, and for the most part, i'm just spinning anyway, just to keep some fitness through winter.

Will_55

I have just bought a turbo trainer and have used it 3 times so far with my normal road tyre, its ok when just spinning but when I start putting a bit of effort in the whole room starts stinking of burning rubber! Maybe I've got too much pressure on the tyre from the trainer but I think I'm going to be buying a turbo specific tyre.

luv2ride

I went for a (very cheap) spare rear wheel, as I wanted to upgrade the rear cassette on the road wheel anyway. Works great and swapping between the two takes less than a minute if I choose to go out on the road at the last minute. Must mean you get more mileage out of your road tyres too (which I reckon are expensive enough as they are). I also have a turbo specific tyre which is showing very little signs of wear about many many turbo sessions.

if you have a laptop it also worth investing in a downloadable Sufferfest video for entertainment (!?) as it can get pretty dull otherwise...