“For my indoor bike trainer, do I use my old road tire or get a trainer specific tire?” was a dilemma I was in last weekend. I love riding my bike. Outside. I was riding till a couple of weeks ago when I went on a grave ride (might have been the last ride for the year I think). But we got rains for 2 days straight, and the weather has been cold. So winter has set in finally this year.

Even though I try to ride throughout the year outside even in cold weather, very cold days are not as enjoyable. So anticipating some of these days, and not wanting to keep my legs in no-bike mode during the winter months, I decided to dust off my old CycleOps fluid indoor bike trainer I bought a few years ago.

The question of tires jumped into my head. I had always used regular road tires on the trainer in the past, But I got a few flats this year, the most ever I can remember, for some reason. So I wanted a indoor bike trainer specific tire to remove any unease of using a road tire. Google and reddit searches led me to one made by Tacx. it had very good reviews, with some users riding over 5k miles on 1 tire. For abut $40, it was not a bad choice. It came in a cool blue color as well, a unique color to lighten things up.

Installing the trainer tire

I wanted to put this on my Cannondale road bike since that is the only one with the wheels to match. So I go to work on removing the old tire and putting this in.

Removing the tube from the road bike wheel

Reviews for the Tacx tire warned of how tight it was to put on. And it was true! It was not easy to mount the new tires. I ended up with a small hole on the inner tube in my first attempt. So I had to patch that up and then go for my second attempt.

A quick tip for those trying – remove the old tire AND tube first, then mount the new tires without the tube. I found this helped the tube retain its shape better and my second attempt was much faster and easier than my first try.

Stubborn bead refusing to get over the wheel rim.

Almost there – this tire took the longest to push over the rim..

Installing on the trainer

I had an old CycleOps fluid trainer that saw little use. An excellent and still functioning trainer, this. I dusted it off and put it to use.

Mounting it was easy – line up the trainer skewer into the trainer support legs, and you are good to go.

All set on the trainer.

Finally set and ready to go. Can’t wait to get on these and start riding indoors!

Hope you found this helpful. Check out my other cycling posts as well.