Hi all,
I'm keen to include a wind trainer into my training regime. I've heard they can chew up your tyres pretty quickly. I was wondering what the best way around that is. Do you change your tyres to old spares to save your good ones or is it better to have a spare wheel. Any advice would be muchly appreciated.

The problem is that the relatively small roller diameter causes a lot of flexure of the tire rubber and fabric plies. You can do a few things to keep tire wear to a minimum. Keep the tires inflated fairly hard. Use the minimum amount of pressure on the roller required to avoid slippage. Using lower gears and spinning faster will require less pressure on the roller and on your knees. If it is practical you might consider gluing a strip of fairly coarse sandpaper to the roller; this will increase the diameter slightly and increase the friction to lessen the amount of force needed to avoid having the tire slip. Choose the winding direction to avoid the tire trying to peel it off. I have seen special trainer tires advertised but have no experience with them.

I ended up buying an inexpensive "training wheel" for about $60 and I mounted a Continental Ultra Sport Home Trainer tire on it. I see that many other companies are now offering such tires. The big advantage for using the trainer tire is that it doesn't wear as quickly and it doesn't shed rubber behind the trainer. Before I started using the trainer tire, I would find a black streak of rubber dust behind the trainer and even running up the wall! So yes, I would recommend that you get a trainer tire to use on your trainer.

I used to have this problem with my first wind trainer 25 years ago and got rid of that trainer quickly. Two years ago I purchased a Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer, it uses a larger diameter roller that the tire rides on, I didn't have any problems that the tires shredding. This year I purchased the trainer tire because it grippier.

Thanks for the info I'm thinking a spare wheel/training wheel would be the go. How does it work with the cassettes are they all pretty standard or do I have to match my existing one. I was going to try and find a cheap wheel second hand but not sure if it would be compatable.

Well, on a trainer you don't have hills to go up, descents to come down, and you can't really sprint. So I tend to use a cassette with closer gearing than I do outside. Outside, for training rides I normally run an 11-28, when racing I'll swap to whatever fits the course (11-28, 12-25, 11-23, whatever) But my trainer rear wheel almost always has a 12-25 cassette on it (unless I swapped it for a race).

And if you haven't figured it out by now, cassettes are pretty interchangeable. Wheels, too.

So a spare wheel/cassette set up for trainer use is a pretty good idea. And FWIW, the cheap 10-speed Shimano Tiagra cassettes shift just about as good as the more expensive Dura Ace ones do. And no one's going to be able to tell which one you have on your bike anyway.

+1

Or care.