Trainer Damage?



Uptown

New Member
Sep 18, 2004
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This may be a stupid question but I recently bought a new bike and since it happens to be winter I should probably ride on a trainer, and I wanted to know if the trainer would hurt anything on my bike besides the tires. The bike is an s32 so its not the stiffest thing ever so i was afraid it might be easier to damage on a trainer. Thanks for the responses
 
Uptown said:
This may be a stupid question but I recently bought a new bike and since it happens to be winter I should probably ride on a trainer, and I wanted to know if the trainer would hurt anything on my bike besides the tires. The bike is an s32 so its not the stiffest thing ever so i was afraid it might be easier to damage on a trainer. Thanks for the responses


There are some very good threads on this from a few weeks back. I was just reading them earlier. I think I searched for 'turbo trainer'.
A quick summary of what I read earlier is that apart from your tyres, there should be no risk of damage at all and some people even seem to be able to avoid any excessive tyre wear through various factors.

Just remembered something else....you might want to use an old quick release skewer.
 
Strictly secondhand - I didn't actually see this - but it makes sense - a couple of years ago, I heard of somone who cracked the BB on a carbon frame by sprinting on it while in a trainer.

On the trainer,there is no side to side give when you sprint, so it seems only natural that the BB will endure greater stresses than it would on rollers or on the road. Like I said, I didn't actually see that happen, but it has put me off of trainers and on to rollers. Now if I could just do something about that darn offbeat pedal stroke of mine...
 
JohnO said:
Strictly secondhand - I didn't actually see this - but it makes sense - a couple of years ago, I heard of somone who cracked the BB on a carbon frame by sprinting on it while in a trainer.

On the trainer,there is no side to side give when you sprint, so it seems only natural that the BB will endure greater stresses than it would on rollers or on the road. Like I said, I didn't actually see that happen, but it has put me off of trainers and on to rollers. Now if I could just do something about that darn offbeat pedal stroke of mine...

I agree. After two rides on my carbon frame, which is normally very stiff on the road, I picked up an AL frame to train on. I could actually see the flex in the carbon frame on hard intervals and it was enough to concern me. Was it an actual problem? Dunno. Do I have actual experience with a failure on a trainer though? No. Nor do I allow for the possibility. I have read conflicting info on the topic, so decided to play it safe. Carbon stays on the road for me, because as JohnO said, you get some actual give on the road.