Turbo trainer melting my tyres!

TimIrons
TimIrons Posts: 30
edited June 2014 in Health, fitness & training
Let me start by confirming that I am not Chris Hoy smashing out a super-fast turbo training session with wheel speeds of 50mph+. I am a normal non-racing rider that seems to have had a problem setting up my turbo trainer.

I don't know why but recently when I have used my trainer the tyre gets so hot that it melts the tyre and bits of rubber fly off making a real mess of the walls, not to mention the tyre! I have tried winding more pressure onto the adjuster and this didn't seem to have any impact, and I have tried less but this just makes the tyre slip far too much to be worth bothering.

What am I doing wrong? I have used the same turbo for years without much problem, it is a basic Cyclops Magneto unit. I don't want to have to switch to a dedicated turbo tyre unless I have too. Any tips?

Comments

  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    Sounds normal. That's why trainer tyres exist, but they shed too.
  • Dave_P1
    Dave_P1 Posts: 565
    Are you using a normal mtb tyre?
    Product & Race Reviews Here
    Various vids including many Trail Centres
  • Fatamorgana
    Fatamorgana Posts: 257
    A turbo trainer will completely trash any normal tyre. The heat generated will make them degrade very, vey quickly.

    Buy a turbo-specific tyre.
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    Yep knobbly tyres will get trashed, a slick will be better, a turbo tyre best.
  • dgstewart
    dgstewart Posts: 252
    It seems to vary between different tyres. I once used a Continental GP 4 Seasons tyre for just a couple of sessions and it developed an obvious flat spot fairly quickly. Last winter I've been using a Schwalbe Ultremo ZX that came off my good bike at the end of summer, and looking at it now you couldn't tell it had ever been used on a turbo.
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    I use a 4 Seasons on mine (because that's what's fitted to my PowerTap wheel), and find it develops a shiny line down the middle, but doesn't really seem to affect longer term durability much.
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    Fatamorgana wrote:
    A turbo trainer will completely trash any normal tyre. The heat generated will make them degrade very, vey quickly.

    Buy a turbo-specific tyre.

    What a load of BS. I've had the same tubular on my trainer for 2 or 3 years and no problems. Turbo specific my *ss. :roll:
  • TONY.M
    TONY.M Posts: 94
    dennisn wrote:
    Fatamorgana wrote:
    A turbo trainer will completely trash any normal tyre. The heat generated will make them degrade very, vey quickly.

    Buy a turbo-specific tyre.

    What a load of BS. I've had the same tubular on my trainer for 2 or 3 years and no problems. Turbo specific my *ss. :roll:
    Many people have general road tyres for years on their turbo set up and experience very little if any tyre wear. However I believe that this is usually only because their turbo gets used about as much as their car airbags and never for hard riding.

    I have used several road tyres on my Turbo (Kurt Kinetic RM) and the tyre wear is alarming. Several hard rides of about one hour will add up to roughly several thousand miles on the road in my experience. Turbo specific tyres are absolutely superb in comparison and last thousands of miles.
  • xscreamsuk
    xscreamsuk Posts: 318
    8 hours a week ish on the turbo, ridden proper hard, regular road tyre, in it's third year now. Zero problems but I don't use that wheel on the road.
  • TONY.M
    TONY.M Posts: 94
    xscreamsuk wrote:
    8 hours a week ish on the turbo, ridden proper hard, regular road tyre, in it's third year now. Zero problems but I don't use that wheel on the road.
    This is actually really interesting and I do not doubt your experience for a minute. I do wonder if the different rollers on different Turbo trainers make some eat tyres more than others more so than the types of tyres themselves.

    If you don't mind me asking what Turbo and tyres do you use xcscreamuk and Dennisn?

    Cheers

    Tony
  • xscreamsuk
    xscreamsuk Posts: 318
    Tacx Flow, and I think it's an old Pro race3.
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    Whilst I've got a Tacx i-magic, and it does trash tyres. Not horrendously, but if I was using it for 8 hours a week (which in itself is nuts!) then they'd not be lasting.
  • TONY.M
    TONY.M Posts: 94
    xscreamsuk wrote:
    Tacx Flow, and I think it's an old Pro race3.
    njee20 wrote:
    Whilst I've got a Tacx i-magic, and it does trash tyres. Not horrendously, but if I was using it for 8 hours a week (which in itself is nuts!) then they'd not be lasting.
    Roller tightness onto the tyre perhaps is some explanation but I'm sure others have thought about this in more detail before. I just am surprised somewhat to see the differences in our experiences using road tyres.

    Cheers

    Tony
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    It's not really adjustable with Tacx trainers - hence my surprise. You can put it in 3 (IIRC) different positions, but that's it, and IME there's only one that actually works. As I recall the Flow is the same resistance unit.
  • xscreamsuk
    xscreamsuk Posts: 318
    njee20 wrote:
    It's not really adjustable with Tacx trainers - hence my surprise. You can put it in 3 (IIRC) different positions, but that's it, and IME there's only one that actually works. As I recall the Flow is the same resistance unit.

    Mine is adjustable with the little wheel under the roller.
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    Fair enough, mine's different then, just stick the bike in and go, I've just got a big lever to push the roller to the tyre.

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