Turbo Trainer Advice

Snails

Hi guys, I'm currently considering purchasing a turbo trainer, and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I own a road bike (Cannondale CAAD8 6 Tiagra) and my father owns a mountain bike (Scott Aspect 920), and it would be ideal if we could use both of our bikes on the trainer. As far as I understand, it would not be recommended for me to use my rear race tyre on the trainer, and the knobbly rear tyre on the mountain bike is unsuitable.

My question therefore, is whether it's possible for me to purchase a cheap rear wheel that would fit both the road bike and the mountain bike, enabling both my father and I to use our bikes on the trainer by simply swapping out the rear wheel, or is there no way I'll be able to fit the same wheel to the road bike and the mountain bike?

Thanks very much in advance!

Snails

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

sloppyschleckonds

Lemond Revolution

deanflyer

Lemond here too. Used my mountain bike on it to recover from a broken shoulder. Use it now with my road bike. Much better than traditional turbo trainer. Starts getting noisy when youre putting out over 200+ watts otherwise its not as bad as people make out.

housemunkey

Road bike rear wheels are 130mm whereas MTB are 135mm, so I don't think there is a wheel that would fit both unfortunately.

I use cheaper tyres in the winter and happily use these on my turbo as well, but if you do a serious amount of turboing then you will put a flat spot on the rear tyre. Probably best for you and your dad to just swap out to different tyres whenever you want to use the turbo, doesn't take too much time really. Like me you might even be able to get away with just your usual road tyres.

As far as turbos go, I'd advise something fluid based if you can, little more expensive but much smoother and quieter. I've got an elite elastogel something-or-other and it's great.