Worn trainer tire? Or something else going on?

[schwa86]

I have a cycleops fluid trainer, and have an extra wheel with a Victoria Zaffiro pro tire on it. It's probably 4-5 years old (the tire). I bet it has somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500-2000 trainer miles on it. There still seems to be plenty of tread left on the tire.

Towards the end of last season, I noticed an accumulating amount of black rubber dust around the trainer -- for all those posting on the what's on your coffee bench thread, about the consistency of an espresso grind :). The tire has somewhat of a metallic sheen where it comes in contact with the trainer. In turn, the trainer cylinder (where the tire touches) is ever so slightly "rough". I do not see any leaks of silicon from the actual fluid part of the trainer.

Is it just routine tire replacement time? Or should I be looking into underlying cause? Or is this normal behavior of the tires, and I've just been lucky to date that I haven't experienced before.

[FlashUNC]

2000 miles on a trainer, I'd say that tire is well and truly cooked.

[AngryScientist]

there was a recent thread about this topic, and as i mentioned there, a trainer specific tire generally runs cooler, quieter and with much less debris created than an old road tire. for me, i couldnt get my tacx smart trainer to calibrate with an old road tire, and a trainer specific tire solved that problem, so there is definitely less "slip" with a trainer tire too.

if you have a dedicated trainer wheel anyway, i'd go ahead and get a trainer tire.

i have a tacx one that has been very good.

[schwa86]

there was a recent thread about this topic, and as i mentioned there, a trainer specific tire generally runs cooler, quieter and with much less debris created than an old road tire. for me, i couldnt get my tacx smart trainer to calibrate with an old road tire, and a trainer specific tire solved that problem, so there is definitely less "slip" with a trainer tire too.

if you have a dedicated trainer wheel anyway, i'd go ahead and get a trainer tire.

i have a tacx one that has been very good.

Thanks angry. The Zaffiro is a trainer tire, hence at least some of my confusion.

[AngryScientist]

Thanks angry. The Zaffiro is a trainer tire, hence at least some of my confusion.

oh, i did not realize that.

yes, i agree that would be odd. check out the picture of the cyclops trainer tire failure in this thread though...

maybe some of them just do go bad! ?

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=229637&highlight=trainer+tire

[merckxman]

The Zaffiro Pro is a road tire, the name of the trainer tire is Vittoria Zaffiro Pro Home Trainer.

[schwa86]

That's what I have.

[schwa86]

I thought I would report back for those interested. Per my original post, I do have a trainer specific tire which still has plenty of tread on it.

Having not really gotten any feedback I could hang my hat on, I sent a similar message to CycleOps (Saris) customer service as my original post. They immediately responded, said it sounded like I need a new resistance unit due to the roller wear I described, and that this could absolutely result in the tire wear symptoms I described.

A shout out to their customer service as well -- prompt, specific, and sounds like they might just send me one for free.

[AngryScientist]

that's pretty interesting!

let us know how this turns out.

[R3awak3n]

I thought I would report back for those interested. Per my original post, I do have a trainer specific tire which still has plenty of tread on it.

Having not really gotten any feedback I could hang my hat on, I sent a similar message to CycleOps (Saris) customer service as my original post. They immediately responded, said it sounded like I need a new resistance unit due to the roller wear I described, and that this could absolutely result in the tire wear symptoms I described.

A shout out to their customer service as well -- prompt, specific, and sounds like they might just send me one for free.

those guys are great, I lost a few parts of a set of rollers, emailed them and they not only got back to me quick, they sent me the parts for free.

[schwa86]

Thought I'd report back. Replaced the fluid unit with one sent to me by Saris/Cycleops. It was long out of warranty, so didn't mind paying for the new one. Using the same tire I originally wrote about with no issues. Have ridden about 5-6 hours with it, so expect the "grooved"/"pebbled" roller area was indeed the problem.