I am currently using my decent set of wheels on my turbo trainer. they are pretty good ones and was wondering if this is a bad idea. I can not see any reason why they would damage the wheels, but there always seem to be threads on here for cheap wheels wanted for turbo’s.

Anyone got any info if this is a bad idea or not, same question with using good bike on a turbo rather than a cheap one.

Cheers

Dave

I don’t think there is any evidence to suggest that wheels / frames will be damaged on a turbo. However, tyres will be. (Not in a quick or instantly terminal way, they just wear out quicker)

I guess folk wanting a cheap second rear wheel will fit an old tyre / a turbo specific tyre to it as it is easier to swap wheels than tyres.

i think the second wheel is so you can have a decent tyre on the good wheel and a trainer tyre/ old tyre on the trainer wheel.

i’m just running my standard tyres on the trainer – gives me an excuse to replace them come spring 😉

thomthumb – i like your thinking there!

think i will stick with my good bike and wheel then, means i can clear some clutter out the garage!

thank you all.

D

It won’t damage the wheel but will wear the tire out quite quickly.
As far as the frame goes I wouldn’t use a nice bike in a turbo as it puts additional forces on the frame at pretty much the one point where those forces aren’t designed to be taken – close to the dropouts on the seat and chainstays.

Stupid machine.

Aren’t those forces the same ones that are transferred when you hit a bump in the road?
Where is the body weight transferred to the wheel and in-turn to the ground?

If you think about the forces acting on the frame from the wheel axle during real world use they’re always perpendicular to the axle, whereas the turbo trainer (which stays pretty much rigid) causes the frame to twist around the drop out – I won’t use a good frame in a turbo. I use rollers instead.

I’m with you there aP, wouldn’t fix my posh carbon frame into a turbo. The stresses are very different to normal use.

The stresses are very different to normal use.

i’m not sure they are;

when i sit on the turbo the back wheel is fixed, at the axle to the frame, I can see the BB swinging left and right as i pedal.

when i am on the road, the frame is still doing the same flexing, the rear end is held together by the wheel and the axle.

I can see that there are additional stresses, but i don’t think its quite as different as you make out.

When you ride on the road the bike moves side to side (otherwise you’d fall over) the wheels don’t flex in the drop outs because the force is perpendicular to the centre line of the axle. The frame dosen’t flex very much otherwise it’d break very quickly).
When you bolt it to the turbo trainer all that flex you see is the frame flexing between the drop outs (or the centre line of the axle) and the bottom bracket.
Like I said above – I don’t use a good bike in a turbo trainer because I like my bikes and don’t want to shorten their lifespan.

I have a 7 year old aluminium frame that I use on the turbo each winter, it hasn’t broke yet.

ap i disagree. whilst the bike rocks (side to side?) i think that the frame does flex as much.

the tyres on the ground do not allow lateral movement of the dropousts so the frame flexes and the BB moves left and right from the centreline of the bike.

i know my steel road bike does this because the tyre rubs when you honk it but not whilst pootling.