- Enough cooling (fans) to prevent or minimize dripping sweat.
- Towels, bike thongs and other protective measures to prevent contact between sweat and bike parts.
- Regular wipe down after workouts to remove any sweat from bike parts.
- Regular cleaning schedule to wash and inspect bike.
1 Like
Trainers will put a stress on the seatstays (and other parts) that they were not designed to hold up to. Iāve seen bike brake from trainers. Its rare, but it happens. Most manufacturers wonāt give you a warranty replacement but will most likely offer a crash replacement.
Iāve also seen bikes that spend a considerable amount of time on a trainer, develop cracks (again usually chainstays) once the bike is back out on the road, and the owner will have no idea how they got there.
Safe bet is to have a dedicated trainer bike.
I wouldnāt worry about a carbon frame, itās the metal parts that corrode. I sweat a ton and over the years Iāve ruined the frame on a pair of Kreitler rollers, my old steel frame, bottle cages, front wheels and corroded handlebars all the way through where the shifter hit the bars. I donāt ride my good bike on the trainer/rollers any more because Iām afraid its not structurally sound after even one winter.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5RV4cU1c8bLa21ZMG81X0ZuWk9Nd041Y3daMUVkQXpqQlVr/view
1 Like
I bought a really cheap aluminum bike for my Taxc Neo because most carbon bikes nowadays have carbon dropouts and using it on a trainer that does not give, like the Wahoo Kickr, may cause micro fractures in the carbon fiber. The Taxc Neo is well design as it rocks a little from side to side.
A tip, carbon bike or not, is to place a towel on top your front wheel if you know sweat will dripp there.
I ride a MTB, so my head is never infront of my stem on the trainer, but I do cover up my stem, headset bearings and toptube with a small towel for the same reasons.
2 Likes
A friend just had his Conalgo carbon road bike diagnosed with a cracked rear triangle. He uses a Kickr and uses it a lot. Not a beefy guy at all, but nevertheless it was cracked so it can happen.
Last weekend I had to bring my Canyon Ultimate CF SLX carbon frame to the bike repair shop. The week before I did a sprint training on my Tacx T2. Iām a heavy guy 92 kg, did multiple standing sprints of about 1200 watts for ten seconds. Heard some sound during one of the sprints but never gave it a good thought. Last weekend I went out for a ride with some friends, 2kmās into the ride I took a minor bump in the road, back triangle said snap. Didnāt crash or anything. Apparently I broke it during the sprints and it snapped in my first ride.
Worst thing was that I had thought about it, that a normal road cycle never sees such lateral forces since the bike is free to move laterally in normal conditions. When it is restrained by the Tacx the lateral forces are enormous during a sprint. Iāll continue to use my bike after the repair, but Iām never throwing my bike around anymore in a heavy sprint when itās on a trainer.
You are likely to see my comment related to your other post, but this might be worth linking for others related to potential bike failures on trainers.
shane miller (@GPLama ) has tackled this a few times and i think heās got a really reasonable take on it: Sprinting Indoors on a Carbon Frame Bike // It's OK! - YouTube
Bicycles on Indoor Trainers: Warranty Issues (ZwiftCast recording) - YouTube
Canyon Officially Approves Bikes for Turbo Trainer Usage - YouTube
the tl;dw is that if this were an issue then weād be seeing an epidemic of cracked frames because so, so many people are using carbon bikes on indoor bike trainers.
the even shorter tl;dr is that youāre fine
1 Like
Well, like any statistics related issue, a low percentage of failures is totally irrelevantā¦ until you land in that percentage range.
I do believe that the potential and reality for failures exists. We have seen more than single digit examples over the last 5+ years. Some cases are not clear cut examples, but itās reasonable to link the failures to the trainer use.
It seems entirely correct that the problem is not far reaching, as Shane covers. But that is cold comfort for those few that do happen upon one of these failures. Breaking stuff sucks, and killing a frame can be expensive and even dangerous if it happens at an inopportune moment, even inside.
I think it is not necessarily worthy of massive concern generally speaking, but I do think more attention could be paid to it as a ābest practiceā aspect since people can either limit these all-out efforts, or consider trainer motion to potentially reduce the risk of overloading the frame.
1 Like