By John Marsh, Editor & Publisher
I bought a new trainer recently. When making the purchase online, I noticed that – like many others – the company offers a “trainer tire” for sale. (Their bread and butter are “old school” back wheel-on trainers.) I did not buy one of the trainer tires.
When setting up the trainerfor the first time, and getting my bike ready for it, I opted for another approach that added another element to the mix.
Where I live, it’s not unusual to have days, or stretches of days, pop up in the winter that allow you to ride outside. I wanted to make it as easy as possible to pull my main bike (which I prefer to use on the trainer) off and hit the road with little extra effort.
So, instead of buying that “trainer tire,” I just tracked down one of the tires I had used last winter and for most of the rest of last year. It had worn really well, but I had recently removed it in favor of some new rubber that I’d been meaning to put on anyway. (I tend to keep older tires around on a “just in case” basis.)
But instead of putting that tire on my everyday rear wheel, I also pulled out one of my lower-end backup wheels and installed the tire on that wheel.
Thus, I have both a training tire and a training wheel – keeping the good rubber and wheel at the ready.
When I decide to ride outside, I just pull the bike off the trainer, swap out rear wheels, and hit the road.
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—John Marsh & The RBR Team
15 years ago I built up a cheap frame off eBay with just enough parts to work on my trainer. No brakes obviously. Cheap wheels, cheap everything else too. I do use the same brand/style saddle as my outdoor bike.
That eliminated any excuse for not going to the trouble of setting up the trainer for a training session. It’s also easy to warm up before a strength training session.
And yes, I have more than enough left over road tires for the trainer. Patched cuts, even large ones, aren’t a risk on the trainer as they would be on the road!
Great tip! Just did the same using an older rear wheel with a dedicated cassette and used tire in reasonable shape for my non-fender bike (fender bike gets most of the outdoor miles at this time of year).
And like Merlin, I also use the trainer bike for warmup before a strength training session with one of the RBR-supplied e-books.