Constantly popping tires on trainer
 

I was on Zwift today, and there's nothing worse than being in the zen state climbing and a nice steady cadence and then your tire pops. I may be fitting the tube in the channel of the rim wrong but I swear I can't use a trainer for more than 500 miles without a tube blowing.

My question, are there any tips on tube replacement to keep this from happening? I assume it's from chaffing on the inside.
Also, would a tubeless setup be more appropriate for this situation?

Any other advice is more than welcome.

What tire are you using? Regular? Trainer Tire? Are you just popping them on the trainer?

Take a picture of the part of the tube where it blew out, if you can. The "wound" so to speak. Might help ID the cause.

I'm using a regular road tire, and I do most of my riding on the trainer... probably a good 90% As for a picture I have to finish cooking and I need to be up at 2:50 AM so my enthusiasum for removing the wheel tonight is little to none. plus I still have laundry to finish :mad:

Just wondering whether it was a tear, or one of the classic double-holed "snakebite" punctures. The latter of which are considered the classic symptom of a pinched tube.

I would recommend using a trainer specific tire which is designed to handle the heat of a trainer and also make sure your tires are properly pumped up. You won't get any punctures from glass or potholes or things like that but from heat build up and under pressured tires also it can happen from highly over pressured tires as well but most folks aren't doing that.

You would be surprised by the amount of heat generated by a trainer.

Aim a small fan directly at the contact point between the tire and roller.

I checked the tire, and I couldn't find any sign of penetration. I squeezed it and it held pressure, although there wasn't much left, but I could not find a leak in the tube.. It deflated twice on me, and I can't fathom why (during that one ride)

If you almost always ride on a trainer, why don't you buy a specific trainer tire? Used as directed they are much more reliable on your trainer. For the few times you ride on the road you can install a road tire

So are you saying that the tire deflated or popped (as in puncture)? If deflated (as in you can re-inflate it and it will still hold air)...my question would be are you using a particular brand of tube? If so try changing the brand of tube you are using.

a Captive air foam plastic-rubber airless no flat tire would be perfect on a trainer for a work-out focused rider

They have a bit more rolling resistance , but you want a workout, right?

if the tube doesn't have a hole then maybe the valve is damaged ,

if the tire is worn and old it might have a micro tear around the side wall , change the tire

tubeless would basically be the same thing you will have to even get a new wheel tape and maybe sealant

soooo pick one :)

To bring back this topic, maybe I'm installing them wrong, I've gone through 3 in 3 weeks, and I'm only cycling on weekends :troll:. That said, I inspected the rim and couldn't find anything that would cause the tire to go flat. Couple that with the fact that I only managed to put 30 miles on the tube, the whole situation has me thinking of buying a direct drive trainer! (it's that bad) I did give some thought to the foam tire inserts, though I'd need to research those more before committing to the idea.

As far as tire installation, I remove the old tube, leaving the one side of the tires sidewall sitting inside the rim. I lightly fill the tube to ambient air pressure, at least enough for it to hold its own shape. I work the tube and tire back onto the rim making sure to push the valve portion of the tube through the rim to seat the valve deep into the tire so the tire will seat firmly onto the rim with no bulges. Other than that, I work the tire back on and I'm still coming up with issues. Oh and someone Hi-jacked my Eve Online account.

Try heavy duty thorn proof tubes. Get the right size. No more problems.

Sigh...

Another advertisement for "wheel off" trainers. I never popped a tire, but, for some reason, the spokes started to detach from the wheel. Yes, the metal of the rim started splitting at each spoke's connection point. I suspect that those sprints on Zwift may have accelerated the problem.

I'm moving to a wheel off trainer next season.

It could be heat due to friction.

Might try putting more air in the tires so that it rolls better.

What pressure are you running now?

On my old dumb trainer (cyclops fluid) I just used old road tires that had worn out and they would last forever.

I went to a wheel-on smart trainer (wahoo kickr snap) and started going through tires about every other week.

What seemed to help:

• trainer specific tire (cyclops makes one that is yellow, that's what I got because it's what the LBS has).
• inflating only to 90 psi (wahoo recommended higher pressure but I popped tubes every time I went over 90)
• turning the knob two full rotations after contact (wahoo recommended more but again I kept popping tubes).

This seemed to help, I haven't popped a tube in a while. There's yellow dust everywhere from the yellow trainer tire so you can tell it's really wearing through the tire.

As others have mentioned the direct drive trainers are probably a better option but I can't justify spending that much more on something I hate.

Couple years ago I was getting lots of flats on my trainer (CycleOps Fluid 2) because I was using too much tension. Loosened the resistance unit and shifted to a bigger gear. It completely solved my problem. Good luck!

Have you tried a trainer-specific tire yet? :rolleyes:

If you're "popping" a tire and there's no penetration, then it's one of two things:
1. the tube is getting pinched between bead and rim, or
2. the bead on your tire is broken.

You're pushing the valve stem up into the tire, but are you going around the tire on both sides checking for the tube being under the bead?

OK,I'll add a third possibility. If you're running low pressure, the tube can slip inside the rim, and the valve stem can get ripped off. I think you would have mentioned that if it were happening though.

I’m no expert because I don’t use a trainer, but I’ve a few mates that do, and have rub into similar issues. So I’ll throw my hat into the ring for heat stress. That seems the most likely, and it can cause a lot of different issues. There’s two main reasons for this: 1. Rollers generate a lot of friction, friction generates a lot of heat. And 2. When you’re on a trainer, there is no wind. Out on the road, the faster you go, the more wind resistance you create. That has a huge cooling effect on your wheels and tires, that simply isn’t there on a trainer. So that heat stress is going to have the biggest impact on whatever the weakest part of your setup happens to be. Could be tires, tubes, spokes, rims, or all of the above at once.

the suggestion of a fan pointed down at the contact point, particularly for your rear wheel, could completely eliminate the problem be reducing the heat build up. That’s what I would recommend first. If that doesn’t do the trick, heavier duty tubes, or trainer specific tires would be my next option. If that doesn’t work, it could be that your rims aren’t playing nice, but that seems unlikely. I’d place all my bets on heat stress. Reduce the heat, problem solved.

Im surprised nobody mentioned rim size. I bought 2 airless tires and finally figured out my rim width was a mere 12mm. The smallest Tannus tire available was a 13-15mm wide "bead". A quick glance online netted a lot of 15mm +/- 2mm rims. That seems awfully small for a 25c tire, let alone a 19c ( I think that's a retail size).

12mm seems awfully small to be a normal size. Does anyone have any input on "normal" rim width would be? I understand studies are showing wider is better for the footprint of the tire as far as rolling resistance goes.

edit: when I was first starting out using a Cycleops Powerbeam, I never had tire issues. So with a grain of salt, I guess I haven't completely sold myself on the rim size, although for now it seems the most plausible.

Twelve millimeters is off Sheldon Brown's chart, which only goes to 13 mm. Yes, it's narrow; but you don't need a 12 mm tire to go on it.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

On the trainer, I use 10-15% more pressure than I'd use on the road.