Trainer Tire

Javier said:

Has anyone used Contiental's Ultra Sport Hometrainer tire. I'm on my
trainer four days per week and I'm going thorugh tires like mad.

If your rims can fit them and you don't mind switching wheels for the
road, solid foam rubber tires (not tubes) are ideal for this
application. The rims have to be within a specific range of ERTRO
widths and you wouldn't want to use them on the road. It would be a
pain to take them on and off so you would definitely want a different
set of wheels for them. Since the tires are solid you have forever to
go through them before they wear out (1.5mm tread rubber for typical
road tire, 25mm for solid tire). Plus they are harder to pedal so you
will get more of a workout.

<www.greentyre.com>

Javier said:

Has anyone used Contiental's Ultra Sport Hometrainer tire. I'm on my
trainer four days per week and I'm going thorugh tires like mad.

Traines shouldn't wear out tires quickly -- you might need to change
your setup. In particular, the tire should be firm enough against the
roller that it doesn't slip (slipping can cause a ton of
friction/wear) but not much tighter than that.

JT

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Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Has anyone used Contiental's Ultra Sport Hometrainer tire. I'm on my
trainer four days per week and I'm going thorugh tires like mad.

Traines shouldn't wear out tires quickly -- you might need to change
your setup. In particular, the tire should be firm enough against the
roller that it doesn't slip (slipping can cause a ton of
friction/wear) but not much tighter than that.

Perhaps they *shouldn't* wear out tires quickly, but they do... regardless
of adjustment. Obviously, mis-adjustment will make matters even worse, but a
properly-adjusted trainer still wears tires out far more quickly than use on
the road does. I've heard a variety of reasons why this might be; the only
thing that truly differentiates a trainer environment from the road is the
drum itself. I'd be interested in seeing experiments in tire wear vs drum
size, as well as drum temperature. Seems like some company, looking to build
a superior trainer, would have already done such experiments, and yet I've
seen nothing in any marketing materials.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Perhaps they *shouldn't* wear out tires quickly, but they do... regardless
of adjustment. Obviously, mis-adjustment will make matters even worse, but a
properly-adjusted trainer still wears tires out far more quickly than use on
the road does.

It seems to depend on the tyre. I have a cheapo Ritchey road tyre that
was previously used on the road. It has then been used for hundreds of
hours on the trainer with hardly any wear. It has developed a very
smooth, shiny surface and there's never any rubber on the floor after
use. I pump it up to 9 bar and adjust the roller tight enough to avoid
any slippage, but not any tighter.

With otherwise identical setup, Avocet Criterium SL was another story.
I think it lasted about 30 hours. It must be a difference in the rubber
compound, because the tyre pressure is the same and the adjustment
against the roller pretty much the same.

-as

Javier said:

Has anyone used Contiental's Ultra Sport Hometrainer tire. I'm on my
trainer four days per week and I'm going thorugh tires like mad.

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/bicycle/themes/tires/race/hometrainer/hometrainer_en.html

I have had good results using cheap, heavy tires like the Michelin
Dynamic, which is about 15 bucks at most shops. In the past I have
used Continental Super Sports (don't think these are made any longer),
and other miscellaneous brands.

One shop I frequent has slot in their tire rack for "take-offs". These
are tires taken off new bikes at the customer request and replaced with
a higher end tire. These are typically about $10 and I would bet your
LBS would have some laying around they'd love to get rid of.

HTH,

Greg Wood

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Has anyone used Contiental's Ultra Sport Hometrainer tire. I'm on my
trainer four days per week and I'm going thorugh tires like mad.

Traines shouldn't wear out tires quickly -- you might need to change
your setup. In particular, the tire should be firm enough against the
roller that it doesn't slip (slipping can cause a ton of
friction/wear) but not much tighter than that.

Perhaps they *shouldn't* wear out tires quickly,
but they do... regardless
of adjustment.

I've had the same tire on a trainer for at least six years. It only
gets used once a week for four or five months, and then once a month
after that, but it shows zero signs of wear since I put it on the
trainer. It's an old Continental tubular that I didn't trust on the
road due to wear on the road.

And the front tire I use on my trainer bike has zero wear as well.....

JT

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Antti Salonen said:

It seems to depend on the tyre. I have a cheapo Ritchey road tyre that
was previously used on the road. It has then been used for hundreds of
hours on the trainer with hardly any wear. It has developed a very
smooth, shiny surface and there's never any rubber on the floor after
use. I pump it up to 9 bar and adjust the roller tight enough to avoid
any slippage, but not any tighter.

With otherwise identic al setup, Avocet Criterium SL was another story.
I think it lasted about 30 hours. It must be a difference in the rubber
compound, because the tyre pressure is the same and the adjustment
against the roller pretty much the same.

Avocet and Ritchey tires are both made by IRC. Some of them appear to
be essentially the same product, apart from decorative marks. More than
likely they use the same compound- you could probably check this well
enough by feel. The Criterium SL is however a very thin tire, and if
the Ritchey is a cheapo it would be much thicker.

No one seems to be addressing the question: why do tires wear against
polished steel rollers at all? Obviously, there must be substantial
slippage going on, for a tire to wear out in only 30 hours- even a very
thin one. The Avocet compound is very hard.{

Antti Salonen said:

It seems to depend on the tyre. I have a cheapo Ritchey road tyre that
was previously used on the road. It has then been used for hundreds of
hours on the trainer with hardly any wear. It has developed a very
smooth, shiny surface and there's never any rubber on the floor after
use. I pump it up to 9 bar and adjust the roller tight enough to avoid
any slippage, but not any tighter.

With otherwise identic al setup, Avocet Criterium SL was another story.
I think it lasted about 30 hours. It must be a difference in the rubber
compound, because the tyre pressure is the same and the adjustment
against the roller pretty much the same.

Avocet and Ritchey tires are both made by IRC. Some of them appear to
be essentially the same product, apart from decorative marks. More than
likely they use the same compound- you could probably check this well
enough by feel. The Criterium SL is however a very thin tire, and if
the Ritchey is a cheapo it would be much thicker.

No one seems to be addressing the question: why do tires wear against
polished steel rollers at all? Obviously, there must be substantial
slippage going on, for a tire to wear out in only 30 hours- even a very
thin one. The Avocet compound is very hard.{

41 said:

Avocet and Ritchey tires are both made by IRC. Some of them appear to
be essentially the same product, apart from decorative marks. More than
likely they use the same compound- you could probably check this well
enough by feel. The Criterium SL is however a very thin tire, and if
the Ritchey is a cheapo it would be much thicker.

The fact is still that the Ritchey tyre doesn't show ANY wear after much
more than a hundred hours on the trainer. The Avocet was disintegrating
fast, leaving a pile of rubber dust on the floor after each session.

-as

Antti Salonen said:

41 said:

Avocet and Ritchey tires are both made by IRC. Some of them appear to
be essentially the same product, apart from decorative marks. More than
likely they use the same compound- you could probably check this well
enough by feel. The Criterium SL is however a very thin tire, and if
the Ritchey is a cheapo it would be much thicker.

The fact is still that the Ritchey tyre doesn't show ANY wear after much
more than a hundr ed hours on the trainer. The Avocet was disintegrating
fast, leaving a pile of rubber dust on the floor after each session.

Unless the tire was part of an amazingly defective batch, this can only
be explained by substantial slippage against the roller. I suppose it
would be possible to check this, with the aid of a video camera and
some reference marks on roller and tire. Or conceivably, a series of
temperature measurements. A plot of temperature vs. time might be
revealing.