Posh road bike on a turbo?

Any reason why I’ll damage a carbon road bike by using it on a turbo trainer (with old tyre)?

I know I’ll sweat all over it!

Pulls up chair. I worry slightly about the forces you put into the frame that’s clamped by the wheel axle. I don’t think you can get the same forces when actually riding. I await the science to support/disprove this from the arm chair phyicists on here.

you know that 90% of home LCD TV fatalities are as a direct result of improperly secured tarty bikes flying off turbo trainers and rocketing their riders into the wall which then in turn causes the TV to fall and kill the hapless home cyclist!

Hmm, I’ve often wondered this – would happily use my planet x superlight carbon pro on my turbo trainer, as I reckon that is strong enough. When I have used it in there it hasn’t flexed unduly. If I was really cranking it (unlikely being as it’s me) then I would be a little bit more sceptical, and have noted it flex significantly more than on the road. This is because on the road, the bike would lean with my body weight but it can’t when clamped in putting a lateral load on the dropouts.

However, my BMC pro machine would go nowhere near it, as I’m not planning on mullering a £2400 frame on it.

MrNutt it’s 50% for LCDs. 90% for plasma.

I decided NOT to hook the carbon Cayo up to the Turbo and use the steel-framed Sutra instead. I just worry that the frame is under a whole lot more strain as the wheel is being held so rigidly. A roller would be better than a turbo.

I put a ti frame on my turbo. It was like sitting atop a sailing yacht mast in a force ten.

It does start rocking when I ‘sprint’!

I can’t state any specific reason not to nor spout any spurious physics to support said reason but I just wouldn’t do it

theres no reason not to.

for proper turbo workouts theres no reason to be out of the saddle hauling on the bars.

Sounds like BS to me. My turbo only lets me go up to 500W anyway – far short of the 1200W I can put out on the road balls out. I use it for steady state sweet spot/FTP stuff – not heavy duty intervals. And it’s a rather nice Cervelo R3 SL.

They kicked this around pretty well on bikeradar once.

I think the general outcome is mostly:

Can’t see any reason not to, but i’m not going to.

No one can remember anyone breaking a frame (new or old) in a turbo, but everyone prefers not to try with the spanky carbon one.

ditto, you’d struggle to get above 300W out of an average turbo, which is more than enough for steady state work. Turbo’s arent designed for standing up and sprinting, theyr designed to repicate an actual ride, which unless its less than 20 seconds long is unlikely to be at 1200W.

can’t you get turbos that “roll” a bit ?

Certainly don’t have a problem with my Madone 6.5 being on there, as it has been since the roads started being gritted in October…

Ta. I don’t stand up, I’m just not a smooth pedaller (maybe need to shave my legs?)

What razor for turbo boredom?

I can’t see that it’d make any difference. Mate has a rather nice Principia (admittedly an Ali one) that was used as a warm up bike for a Time Trialist, it was permanently attached to a turbo, and carted around the country like that. Hasn’t done the frame any damage. The only long term affect was that the release for the rear caliper had seized through dis-use.

Get a standmount fan from Argos or Homebase for about £40. Makes a massive difference. Without it I’m a sweaty grumpy mess after 15 mins. With, and shirtless, well, I ride as long as the boredom lets me.