Road Cycling

Soldato
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Because it is my understanding that turbo's wreck normal tyres? So I don't fancy changing my tyre and my g/f tyre each time we want to go from turbo to outside.

I've done hundreds of miles on my trainer and I see no adverse tyre wear. Use the calibration in the trainer software to make sure my tyre is nicely contacted - not too firm against the trainer wheel and not too light on the trainer wheel.

One tip - never ever apply the rear brake with the trainer spinning, otherwise it'll eat your rear tyre pretty quick.
 
Associate
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Oh really?! Haha, I thought it was a MUST that you had to buy a turbo tyre if you wanted to go on one. Little did I know!
Perfect, so you don't think we'll have any trouble just using the bikes as we have them set up now? :)
 
Soldato
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Oh really?! Haha, I thought it was a MUST that you had to buy a turbo tyre if you wanted to go on one. Little did I know!
Perfect, so you don't think we'll have any trouble just using the bikes as we have them set up now? :)

I have had zero problems just throwing my bikes on as is, no arsing around with wheel swaps/trainer tyres etc - what a complete faff.
 
Soldato
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If I put a rear cassette on the wheel is there one which would be compatible with both bikes so we only have to have one wheel for the turbo or do we both need our own rear wheels for the turbo?!! (and cassettes!) ugh.
It will all depend on the freehub on the wheel, some are '11-speed compatible' and you can use a spacer to make them 10 speed. Would obviously involve changing the cassette each time.

A 10 speed freehub is not usually 11 speed compatible, as 11 speed cassettes are wider. Also means that although you could use the same cassette on both setups (and either 'lose a gear' on the 11 speed, or have a gear you can't use on the 10 speed) the spacing is different so you'd probably have to fiddle with reindexing one or the other every time you switched from road to trainer wheel.

For the faffing around I'd just buy a second wheel. ~£50 wheel, ~£30 cassette & ~£20 trainer tyre (if you've got an old tyre just use that).

Because it is my understanding that turbo's wreck normal tyres? So I don't fancy changing my tyre and my g/f tyre each time we want to go from turbo to outside.

If you do lots of turbo miles then a trainer tyre is a worthy investment. Certainly if you have a 'spare' wheel to use. If you've old tyres then safe to use those too.

A hard tyre like a Marathon or Gatorskin will do loads more trainer miles than a softer tyre like a GP4000sii. I did less than 60 miles on a GP4000sii on the turbo (too lazy to swap it) and there was little bits of rubber everywhere...
 
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Associate
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Buying another wheel/tyre/cassette for my g/f bike is an option (I already have a one spare wheel)

Just didn't want to spend another £100! (£120 if getting myself a turbo tyre)

I run Schwalbe Ones and my g/f is on something quite hard wearing i think.

Alternatively....i could buy a new bike that is 105 11 speed :D
 
Soldato
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He has two bikes.
And I'm saying that if he wants to rack up the trainer miles not wearing out road tyres he'll therefore need two spare wheels (he has one already). ;)

Buying a wheel & cassette & tyre is probably preferable to reindexing each and every time you swap the wheel (twice per session). Turbo 3 times a week & that's probably getting close to 2 hours of wasted time faffing with indexing. I know what I'd rather be doing with those 2 hours... And I also know the grief if I where to do that and get the indexing wrong on the other halfs bike lol! :D :o

Honestly if youre not doing mega miles just don't bother - run what you have.
Agreed, try your Schwalbe One's to see how well they wear on the Turbo. Just make sure you keep an eye on it! Watch for when you do some high speed or prolonged power sessions, either smelling burning rubber or seeing the little rubber bits scattered around like a fine grey dust... If you catch it soon enough the tyre will probably be ok, if it's too late or already well worn it's new tyre time...

One of my friends does the same with Vittorias and the centre of his tread goes completely flat, really squaring off the tyre. He knows about it and always complains how twitchy and unsettling cornering is when it gets bad, but he has no spare wheels and isn't clocking up too much turbo mileage to worry. We have seen it several times with social saturday riders having bad traction in the wet from really well worn tyres, one of the main culprits usually blamed is using them on the turbo. Small consolation for newbies coming off on corners. :(
 
Soldato
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I'd imagine another culprit for losing it in a corner is too high tyre pressure. Most tyres will square off a fair amount just from road riding unless you're constantly turning.

My GP4000SII was noticeably scarred after a few turbo sessions in the summer.

Alternatively....i could buy a new bike that is 105 11 speed :D

Best option or upgrade her bike to 11 speed :)
 
Soldato
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I was thinking you could probably just use a 10/11 speed wheel and remember not to change gear using ERG mode on the incompatible bike. Seems like a bit too much of a bodge though and if you're going to spend £500 on a trainer you might as well get two spare wheels second hand to go with it.
 
Soldato
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The increased wear rate from using a road tyre on a turbo (if any, I never perceived much beyond that of regular road use) is best just absorbed by replacing your rear tyre perhaps a little more regularly than you would normally.

Buying a spare rim, cassette and turbo tyre is a bit of an unnecessary outlay and faff. Especially given they extent of your increased chain wear from regularly switching cassettes (dependent on mileage and presuming outdoor riding continues too).
 
Soldato
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What if you got an interactive trainer and used it in ERG mode with a singlespeed kit (single sprocket and spacers)?
That works but then you're so totally reliant on the turbo resistance scaling & timing of such. For example my Vortex can only change 1% resistance every second, so a 10% ramp has at least a 10 second delay before the resistance is fully applied and then another 10 seconds before it's removed. 20 seconds of resistance changing 'delay'. Meanwhile you're actually riding the 10% gradient and the 10 seconds afterwards, effectively smoothing the 'ramp' and extending it's gradient by 10 seconds of additional riding. If it's only a short period you're at a disadvantage to riders with a quick resistance change as they can kick into it at the bottom sooner and then have ~10 seconds of less resistance than you over the top. A gear change to negate the slow change (so trainer has less resistance to apply) is the usual 'workaround' riders learn with slow changing trainers like this. Single speed you wouldn't have that option.

In practice as the gradients on the Zwift ramps are not that high (more gradual) things are not as extreme/pronounced and I've actually found the 'slow' power curve of my Vortex gives me an advantage on 'rolling' gradient changes like 'The Esses' on Watopia. I can carry speed onto the ramps further, kicking when the resistance is highest (others are slowed more by their quicker resistance change) and although my resistance is applied over a longer period it's much smoother so I'm able to carry speed better. I can regularly kick 5w/kg there 3(?) times on the rollers and guys on direct drive trainers will need 7+w/kg kicks and still be losing my wheel as my speed is carried - I slingshot past them on the 2nd & 3rd ramps. Helloo breakaway/escape! Quite handily the esses come towards the end of the usual race lap and the finishing straight :cool:

The increased wear rate from using a road tyre on a turbo (if any, I never perceived much beyond that of regular road use) is best just absorbed by replacing your rear tyre perhaps a little more regularly than you would normally.

Buying a spare rim, cassette and turbo tyre is a bit of an unnecessary outlay and faff. Especially given they extent of your increased chain wear from regularly switching cassettes (dependent on mileage and presuming outdoor riding continues too).
Really depends on the wear rate as a soft tyre like the GP4000sii is well known for shredding when exposed to the heat of an aggressive on-wheel turbo session.

Personally buying a £50 new/sh wheel, a £30 105 cassette and £20 turbo tyre which will last for several years (my tacx tyre is around 3 years and 2000 Zwift miles old, maybe had 5-800 non-zwift miles & has hardly any wear). So a £100 'investment'. When your road tyres probably cost ~£40 each and you change them every year, with the trainer wear halving (?) their life, that's an ongoing £40 per year. So less than 3 year ROI.

The wear on cassette is a good mention though, you'll be very hard pressed to 'balance' the wear on both cassettes so they wear at the same rate. Regularly changing chains (before they get too worn) would negate this.

Disclaimer: I change my chains far more frequently than I should so I'm biased towards that. For me they cost <£15 each and by doing so I'm reducing the wear on my £650 powertap C1 chainrings to prolong their life. They're cheaper than tyres and cassettes! ;)
 
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Soldato
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I've done four 100 mile sportives now and I'm not in a great rush to do another if I'm honest so I'm tempted to try out an Audax or two. From my limited reading up on it they sound like a smaller scale sportive where you tend to fend for yourself a bit more, are required to navigate rather than rely on marked routes and are cheap as chips to enter. Anything else I need to know before I take the plunge?
 
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