Tire rollers

Dear Lennard,
I've a question that I cannot discover the response to everywhere. I've been after you for years, have actually two of the publications, and I simply read your VeloNews article, “where plastic meets the street.” Which means you tend to be eminently competent to resolve this question. I really hope you can easily.

I recently bought a set of Elite Arion Mag Rollers, and I also love all of them. They are the best rollers I’ve ever used, definitely. One problem Im having, though, is that I’m getting some bumpiness. I’m relatively certain it is due to my tires, and possibly the tubes. The tires, without a doubt, tend to be fairly old while having imperfections included. I’d always correct this issue making my roller experience as smooth as you possibly can, but i recently don’t understand the easiest way to go about this.

TAKE NOTE: The tires and tubes would be utilized on the rollers JUST; no road or turbo instructor use.

What qualities do I need to look for in a tire? Weight, puncture resistance, and dealing with tend to be obviously perhaps not a concern, so what does matter? TPI? Suppleness? External products? Casing materials? Does tire width matter? (Ex 700×23 or 700×25?) Will utilizing a latex pipe change lives? Think about tire stress?

There is such written about these problems in regards to turbo trainers, but we can’t get a hold of an individual term about them for rollers. I simply need to get the very best knowledge away from all of them as I can, additionally without spending countless extra bucks.
— Adam

Dear Adam,
In the late 1970s, before turbo trainers, any interior instruction I did was on rollers. The drums back at my Cinelli rollers were not machined; they were made from large-diameter, thin-wall metallic tubing, and had open cup-and-cone bearings, in the place of cartridge bearings. Consequently, I had couple of objectives for smoothness (or quietness). My roomie, but had some early Kreitler rollers with machined drums, and his were great and smooth (and so I had a tendency to utilize his!). There have been no decent clincher rims or tires during the time, therefore we rode tubulars for training and for racing. A great race tubular glued on right onto a real (especially a radially-true) wheel-made for a smooth ride regarding Kreitlers, however device stem had been cocked or if perhaps there is a bulge inside tire, it designed for harsh roller riding.

Inside rolling-resistance article you cite, I didn't publish the test outcomes performed in the (really large-diameter) smooth roller surface at Wheel Energy Oy as it was unrealistically smooth, making the rolling weight figures unrealistically low and showing only that moving weight continues to decrease as tire pressure rises. (into the real world, even small defects inside roadway area can cause moving resistance to boost after a particular tire force with a given tire was surpassed, so I as an alternative only published the outcome of this diamond-tread area on the roller, which revealed this result.) Despite smooth rollers, but as the roller diameter reduces, the tire’s rolling weight increases, because of the much deeper deflection of this tread and casing. Even though the drums on your own Elite Arion Mag rollers are smooth, they are reasonably little in diameter, so they really will press more deeply into the the tires than bigger drums. This may tend to compound any rolling issues because of inconsistencies within the tires.

Kreitler solution supervisor Billie Uriguen states, “Any tire may be used regarding the rollers. However, the smoother the tire, the quieter the ride. The knobbier the tire, the louder the trip. We Advice a collection of made use of tires, while they seem to have less rubberized buildup than brand-new tires.”

So, you will end up looking for an used tire with an extremely smooth tread, and my contention is you also needs to seek one with a consistent, supple casing. This generally speaking means a higher-quality tire, due to the fact building can not only will be more constant, but the thread diameter inside casing can also be smaller, allowing the casing to deflect easier while the roller pushes profoundly involved with it. To answer one of the concerns, yes, what this means is higher TPI (threads per inches). And indeed, better-quality inner tubes, particularly latex ones, boost the suppleness of tire and hence, the smoothness of the ride.

To resolve another of one's concerns, a larger tire dimensions will even result in a smoother ride, because it will distribute force over a broader location. Therefore decide on that 700x25c, rather than the 700x23c tire.

In terms of tire pressure, you demonstrably are interested high enough which you won’t have the device area since it rolls on the roller. Nevertheless, lower pressures provides smoother cycling, and, as I talked about above, the rolling resistance increase with diminished inflation pressure. If tire had been entirely smooth, you might run super-high pressures, along with your moving opposition is at or near its least expensive. But no tire and wheel may be entirely smooth and circular. Also, nobody pedals totally efficiently, and less rider-induced bouncing are going to be consumed in a harder tire, so that the quantity of jumping on rollers increase with greater tire stress. Therefore don’t desire the tire to-be so very hard that one could exposure surge aided by the added temperature of friction regarding the rollers.