I just purchased my first set of rollers, A set of Travel Tracs. After closely inspecting the rollers themselves, I noticed there is a textured feel due to grooves in the aluminum. I presume this is to help with traction so you don't slide from side to side, but I am concerned the grooves will eat up my tires over time. I saw a post where someone wrapped electrical tape around the rollers to smooth out the contact surface, is this really necessary, or will the grooves be okay for my road tires.

Another option (which I would not prefer) would be to have separate tires for the rollers vs road use. I'd much prefer to be able to take my bike from outside to inside without changing tires.

It'll eat up your tires about as much as riding on the pavement.

Worry less...ride more.

fixed that for you

if you're that worried, just slap on some cheap tires.

It's not for traction, it's for cheap (rubber on aluminum has plenty of traction already). Why polish the rollers when all they see is rubber?

Never had a problem with my tires getting eaten up by the grooves (same rollers) in the past 4 years. I don't ride them a lot but when I do I haven't noticed any bits of rubber or extreme tire wear.

Hmm, I did buy just about the cheapest set I could find. I wonder if the grooves exist in all rollers or just the cheap ones. I guess my options are to ride it as is, take it to the machine shop at work and take away the grooves on the lathe (I'm more than a bit concerned I'll tear right through the thin wall), or wrap it with electrical tape like this guy:
https://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-669900.html

For now I'll try it as is, but I'll be sure to post an update if I learn anything helpful.

I have rollers with grooves and had a wheelset with tires retired from outdoor duty. I have many such tires so I always wanted to kill them riding on rollers. I was never able to finish off any tires riding rollers. The trainer would have been a different story.

On mine, I can see dust from the aluminum wearing along with the tires, but I have a set that was just about showing threads when I started riding the rollers and I have yet to wear through the tiny bit of remaining tread. Ride more and worry less.

I did make some time last night to try these suckers out and I'm already glad I traded in the trainer. Maybe I'll work on figuring out how to add a flywheel instead of worrying about my tires so much.

Thanks

It's basically a byproduct of the machining. Mounting them back up on a lathe and turning off a skim would knock down the ridges and improve the surface finish. Won't make any change to performance though...maybe quieter.

Don't worry about the grooves. Just use the rollers.

instead of a flowheel - get a headwind fan. Kreitler has one for a lot of $.

+1

+1

Your tires will "eat up" more of the rollers than your rollers will "eat up" your tires. This is evident by the aluminum roller dust being transferred to the tires and no tire rubber being transferred to the rollers.

I have the cycleops rollers; i.e. not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either. They have grooves. It's nothing to agonize over. I doubt it would even make them quieter; most of the noise is from vibration from the rollers being slightly out of round and out of balance (it'll never be perfect, but generally, the more expensive the rollers set, the more round and balanced the cylinders - it's not just the machining, it's also the alignment of the axle and frame and the tolerance of the bearings).

The gold standard is the Kreitler alloy rollers; it doesn't get any better than machined aluminum endcaps with corresponding gold standard price. Trackies love them because you can spin them up to over 3000rpm (40+mph) without feeling like you're trying to balance on a washing machine.

About a week later, and I've got ~100mi on these babys now. There's no sign of rubber on the floor, although I did notice my tires look well shined/polished even. It seems you all were right. I'll be riding more and worrying less!