Help me out with this one! Electric sparks on the Rollers

[bianchi10]

I have been riding on rollers for training purposes throughout the years and never experienced this issue till switching to the Tubolito inner tubes. When on the rollers, it creates an electric static build up that causes a spark at the contact point of my tire to the roller. This spark is fairly loud/large and can be felt in my hands as it exits through the shifters. I wish I could attach a video to show you.

Bike - Specialized Sworks Tarmac
Wheels - Enve 4.5
Tires - Continental GP5000 Clinchers
Rollers - InsideRide E-Motion Smart rollers

I swapped the inner tubes out with standard tubes and no issues. That narrows it down to the Tubolito's. Any idea on what is causing this electric charge with them? Valve stem material? Possibly material of the Tubolito innertube?

Obviously, getting rid of the Tubolito inner tube and back to a standard will fix the issue, however I paid a lot of money for them and would like to give them a real shot on the road to see how they perform, so lets not be the smart guy who says "get rid of the Tubolitos, problem solved" :p

[parallelfish]

I would guess the turbolito material is subject to build up of a static charge. Interesting.

[Peter P.]

Friction between the tube and the tire. If you were to connect your rollers to a grounded point near your location such as a water pipe, through a 1 mega-ohm resistor, the charge would bleed off without a spark.

I experienced a similar problem decades ago, using rollers with poly rollers. I would stop and grab on to a steel support beam in the basement and practically blow my finger off! My solution was to wrap a piece of cardboard around the support beam. It acted like a resistor and bled off the charge without a spark.

[Louis]

Sounds like you need a grounding strap.

https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/i3/T1QjlqFpxkXXXXXXXX_!!0-item_pic.jpg

[vqdriver]

that's interesting because that was specifically a problem i was concerned about when i put my trainer on carpet. wasn't a problem for me but i'm glad to know i wasn't completely paranoid.
in regards to grounding, what exactly needs to make contact? the roller drum? trainer frame? bike frame?

on a tangential note, why the resistor? why not just connect the grounding wire/strap directly with no resistor?

[bianchi10]

I'm not incredibly familiar with stuff like this, so I need someone to dumb it down for me lol. How do I create a resister or how do I go about grounding it so that the charge bleeds off?

[tctyres]

I'm not incredibly familiar with stuff like this, so I need someone to dumb it down for me lol. How do I create a resister or how do I go about grounding it so that the charge bleeds off?

The easiest thing to do is take a bare wire, wrap it around your frame someplace, and have it touch the floor when you're on the rollers. Your bike is building up charge, and it's isolated from the rollers and floor. The wire delivers any spare charge to the floor. I'm thinking you could just put a loop around your downtube ahead of the crankset but out of the way of the pedals. It sounds like your rollers are grounded but not your bike.

It should solve your problem.

[mj_michigan]

An old plastic shower curtain under the rollers completely removed any static electricity discharge for me.

I certainly did not use Tubolitos. Don't think I had heard about them before.

[Louis]

I say don't fix it - turn the bike + rollers into a homemade Van De Graaff Generator:

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Van-De-Graaff-Generator/

https://cdn.instructables.com/FHX/GODU/IUIZ0VZ1/FHXGODUIUIZ0VZ1.LARGE.jpg?auto=webp&frame=1&fit=bounds

https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/zkdN2ElC299xONwMPig_Ug/o.jpg

[DWColiins]

I had a similar issue years ago. Used to ride my rollers with headphones on watching a movie. Went from tile floor to carpet and electrocuted myself (just a tingle) through my ears. Thought about grounding the bike, but usigng speakers was easier.

[zap]

Many many years ago when I completed the build of my Look aero bike with Mavic ZAP I tested the shifting on my rollers.....it was winter.

Shortly after I started rolling and completed a few shifts nothing. I thought ZAP died. Dismounted and tested the shifting and all worked as advertised. Static from nylon rollers on berber put ZAP to sleep.

[Gpmrntz]

I know I'm late to this thread, but I found it via a google search as I am having the same issue, re static elec on rollers.

I've been using rollers for roughly 10 years and never exp static electricity. I recently switched to Schwalbe's Areothan tubes, which are similar to the Tuboitos and believe the issue began to surface then. Although I am not sure.

Like the original poster, I use Conti GP 5000s.