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Trainer Tire Tension
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So I have a fluid trainer (not electronic or anything) and have been using it for years. Trying to get more accuracy out of my rides between indoors and outdoors. I can go hours outside but seems like it's so much harder on the trainer. I look at my power and it's registering way below my threshold and I'm getting fatigued pretty quickly.

I figured if I'm putting the tire on too tight it'd show up on the power meter. Am I putting the tire too tight? Any ideas for getting better accuracy on the real mileage/power i'm doing?
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Re: Trainer Tire Tension [carosemena] [ In reply to ]
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You are probably barking up the wrong tree. Your powermeter will be measuring what you're actually outputting, barring some sort of strange circumstance that your trainer configuration influences your powermeter's reading. What's far more likely is that you're trying to output the same power in summer, while stationary without any airflow cooling you. So you overheat and fatigue quicker than normal. So if you want to fix it, I'd look at better cooling. First measure would be more/better fans. Second might be icewater to drink while you ride. Ice packs to put on your back.

Or you could just go train in the great outdoors like god intended.
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Re: Trainer Tire Tension [carosemena] [ In reply to ]
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The trainer is always harder because there are no breaks in the tempo. But, I have a solution for you regarding getting consistent tension on the rear tire. Look up your manufacturer's manual, and see how many rotations they recommend to do on the knob. Make a mark with a silver Sharpie at the top once your tire is *just* touching the drum, and then turn the knob keeping track of rotations past the mark to get a consistent pressure.
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Re: Trainer Tire Tension [carosemena] [ In reply to ]
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What is tyre tension? Do you mean tyre compression? i.e. clamping pressure at the roller? That will make a difference to the power required to reach a given wheel rpm. If you're using resistance curves to estimate power based on roller speed, then this is important to keep consistent but if you are using a power meter or basing effort on hear rate then it is irrelevant.

Since you mention comparison of indoor and outdoor effort difficulties when way below threshold so I expect you have a power meter and you're using power in both cases? If so, the thread title has nothing to do with the actual issue.
This would IMO narrow the difference you're experiencing down to one or more of a small number of factors.
  1. Ventilation and heat. Do you seem to sweat a lot indoors compared to outdoors? It's not just that the temperature may be different indoors, it's also the lack of ventilation. Without airflow, heat transfer including that due to evaporation of sweat is massively reduced. This can make a huge difference to your ability to produce power and your perception of the effort.
  2. Psychology - Stimulation, motivation and distraction. If you sit alone in a room on your bike and simply stare at a number and try to maintain it, that makes it considerably more difficult, especially for prolonged periods, than getting outside and experiencing external physical and visual feedback from your efforts and your environment. I find using Zwift definitely helps massively but it's still nowhere near as good as getting outside. I'm sure my best efforts have all been out on the roads, though I am more consistent on the trainer with sufficient cooling and a plan.
  3. Different mechanics/feel of static bike versus the road. Pedal resistance from a fluid trainer feels much better than magnetic resistance IMO and it's better than the electronic feedback I've tried in my very limited experience with these, however it still feels different from what you feel on the road. Size of flywheel, rpm/resistance properties, your cadence, your pedalling technique and power levels all effect the similarities or otherwise of pedaling on a static trainer compared to the road. Going up a steep hill with low cadence and low speed is very different than pedaling at low cadence but high speed on the flat using the same power. This undoubtedly impacts your perception of difficulty and your muscle usage and fatigue. Furthermore, your body probably moves quite differently relative to the bike when it's locked in place. I know I genreally find the saddle less comfortable on a trainer. This alone used to be enough to limit the length of my trainer sessions but I seem to have gotten used to it!

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Re: Trainer Tire Tension [Ai_1] [ In reply to ]
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Thank you for the responses. Unfortunately I don't have a clamp on this one. It's one of the older versions:

http://www.220triathlon.com/gear/bike/turbo-trainers/cycleops-jet-fluid-pro/7827.html


Ai_1 - thank you for the tips. Yes, I mean tire compression and sorry didn't use right terminology (tire tension - though could easily be understood either way). And yes sorry for misnaming the title to your standards - in this instance I did not happen to know the relevance of a few factors which is precisely why I posted something on here. I could do a good amount of mileage outside so some things like ventilation wasn't something I thought would have affected me that much.


Although I do have a power meter, I was struggling to understand why I was at 50% of threshold, well rested, and gassed at 30 minutes into workout. Just didn't have the power to get even near FTP. Will try the fan on the next go.
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