HCB

I've been looking at the Cycleops and Vittoria options so far. What do you guys recommend?

Thanks!

rpenmanparker 

A used tire from your road bike. You don't need special model tires for trainers, only tires that you don't care how they wear or discolor from the aluminum spindle. Just save your old road tires and use them on the trainer. If you don't have any old tires lying around, either buy any cheap road tire or buy a new, good tire for your bike and take off the one that is most worn for the trainer. I'm assuming you have an extra rear wheel to use on the trainer. Otherwise using a different tire on the trainer than you ride on the road is just a PITA involving changing it back and forth.

Smokehouse

I bought a Conti trainer tire back in 2012...I have put a ton (and I mean a ton) of hours on that thing in my Kurt trainer. Still in great shape.

I understand its a bit of an expense, but I landed up getting spare rear wheel just for my trainer. It makes simply swapping between the trainer/road much easier.

MagicHour

This. I've done more than half my mileage this year on my trainer (with zwift) and only have my one set of wheels for now. I get decent wear from Vittoria Rubino Pro III tires, occasionally rotating back to front. I'm sure this is not ideal and may be a bit of a compromise for ultra performance oriented riders, but is a better option than using a trainer-only model tire, which would be unsafe on the road. The Rubinos are cost effective vs performance, as well, ie I'm not "wasting" $70 tires on a trainer.

If you have a spare wheel though, you could go for a proper dedicated trainer tire if you want.

rpenmanparker 

These days on the 41 it is generally acknowledged to be better to run the rear tire until it is shot, then put a new tire on the front and the front tire on the rear. Never go back the other way. This keeps your best tire up front for best steering and control. Total tire usage is the same. The only problem would be if you wanted to change both tires to a different brand/model at the same time.

cleansheet

Any old tire.

RPK79

I use a trainer specific tire made by Cyclops.

Dan333SP

I have a travel trac fluid trainer. I just use my normal road tires since I don't spend that much time on the trainer, but with winter approaching I've been eyeing a trainer tire of some sort. Mainly I'd be seeking a quieter trainer experience, since with the GP4000s on my normal rear wheel it makes a lot of noise.

The reviews of trainer tires generally mention that they are quieter than normal road tires, and I've got a spare rear wheel/cassette, so I think it might be worth the $40 plunge to see if I can quiet things down and not wake up my wife when I'm sitting on the trainer at 6 AM in January.

Any of you guys have back to back experience with trainer tires/regular road tires as far as noise?

myqlj

I run the Vittoria trainer on my Fluid 2. Little wear showing yet, compared to quick wear when I ran a regular tire. It is quieter.

mvnsnd

I just use the current tire when the weather is transitional and I'm both outdoors and inside. Then when solely inside, I'll put on an old road tire.

Kopsis

If you don't have any end-of-life road tires, the Nashbar Prima 2 Plus is $15 and holds up extremely well to trainer duty.