bike trainer question

[Geo]

Santa gave me a trainer for Christmas and I've tweeked and tweeked it but it smells like I'm burning the rubber off my back tire. I loosen it up and it feels like I'm riding in granny gears on the big ring. I know, everyone seems to hate trainers but I'm working 2 jobs (son choose an out of state college...god love him!)so I'm not able to ride the beloved weekends. Any of you have trainers and if you could give me input, that would be great! Thanks!

By the way, were any of you with the group riding in NLR on new years eve afternoon? Big group of roadies.

[ODB]

Man, I wish I could help with the trainer question but I've never owned one. I'll check some other forums and get back with you on that.

As for New Years Eve, I spent it with my beautiful wife and our adventure racing friend downing beers on my back deck with a fire in the pit. We all started off the year with a big mountain bike ride in the rain on the second.

Joe

[FishrCutB8]

Where did you get it? I would ask them....LBS?

I ride on one, but have not had any of those problems...

[ODB]

This is what I got from a couple of people on the bikeforums site:

Question is what kind of trainer. Fluid or magnetic?

I have a fluid and while I do not smell tires burning (I can not smell anyway), but I have experienced the spinning. If t he tire is not clamped in well you can spin and spin and have no resistance. To much resistance will indicate by fast tire wear. If your tires is in right and you still have that problem look at your resistance setting and make sure it is at an appricable level.

My problem is generally too much resistance...

and...

I am also new to trainers as I got mine last week: a Minoura Hyper-Mag Alu. On my first serious training yesterday I could also smell like burning tire. The tire was not overheated and I have no redidue on the roller so I think the smell came from the mahnetic wheel. From what I read all trainers are supposed to become very hot while riding hard. That's why fluid trainers all seem to leak after a while, the main reason I went magnetic.

If I get anything else I'll let you know.

Joe

[Geo]

Joe,
Thanks for the info! Yes, I bought it at a LBS. I think i'm going to take it over to Conwat to The Ride bike shop since they have training classes on Tues/Thurs nights. Maybe since they use them often they would be able to help me adjust. My trainer is a Cycle Ops Mag Plus.

[ODB]

Some more info:

I use mine a lot (Minoura magnetic), adn I smell rubber a lot. And I know why: the tire gets reduced to shred. There is black tire dust everywhere behind the thing. That's what you get for running a rubber tire on a 2" metal roller. It's part of the experience. I don't think the type of load (mag or fluid) will change that, unless someone comes with a water-cooled roller...

and

My Minoura magnetic trainer chews up my rear tire too. I did tweak the placement of the roller so that it only just comes into contact with the tire. That reduced the amount of tire dust and got rid of the smell. I still get plenty of resistance when I pedal, so my workout isn't affected. Last year, the roller was adjusted closer to the tire, so not only did I get the smell and the mess, my rear tire was showing threads in a few places. Definitely use a trash tire for the trainer.

[ODB]

More Ideas:

I have a CycleOps Fluid 2, and I haven't had any of these problems (it's my first off-season). My wife uses it as well, so I am constantly taking out one bike and putting another in. I would assume that the wheel that applies the resistance is too tight. IIRC, the instructions say two turns after it makes contact, but I think I do it less.

The instructions also say that you may have accelerated wear, but this business of hot tires and rubber shards flying everywhere is extreme. I'm using an Ultra GatorSkin on the rear - not sure if that makes any difference.

and

Make sure the tire is inflated to the maximum pressure. This distorts the tire less