MTB Roller Users - What Tyre?

Hi All,

I’ve just bought a set of cheap secondhand Minoura Rollers (with resistance) for use at work. I will exclusively use my mountain bike on them and I’m sorting out an alternative, piecemeal wheelset to use for commuting/roller work.

Those of you that use rollers (or wheel on trainers) with your mountain bikes, what is the noise like with the knobbles? Or what tyres can you recommend?

I can pick up cheap CST Jack Rabbit tyres locally which have a reasonably close packed XC tread pattern, or alternatively I can spend a bit more and get something more like a slick.

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I just plop my cross country hardtail on the rollers and go with my regular tires : schwalbe thunder burt on rear and schwalbe racing ray up front.

Then I put on earbuds and turn on music really loud. Lol. It’s a little noisy. My husband watches TV in a different room now and my dog usually retreats with him.

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Having used mine for race warm ups on the MTB (usually ride mine on road bike), with pretty much any knobbly tyre they are LOUD, even with relatively small tread. It’s tolerable for a warm up at 20 minutes but don’t think I’d do it for a real TR workout.

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Do you think the Schwalbe G-Ones would still be too knobby?

They’ll be a lot better than a full on knobbly, G One speed has smaller tread if you’re wanting something for commuting that still needs tread of some form. If you’re only commuting on road I’d probably go for a road tyre or at least as slick as one.

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Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 1.6 are probably the best rolling MTB tyres I’ve ever had, they just look a bit skinny on an MTB. I think there is a 2.0 but they’re not easy to find.
I’m currently using Continental SpeedKing Race Sport. They’re quick and quiet and I would probably use them ok on my rollers. They do puncture easy tho and I have Kevlar strips in them.
I’m pretty sure that popular rolling resistance site compared the Race Sports to the GP4000 road tyres…

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“What’s interesting is that if you use the Speed King in a tubeless configuration, rolling resistance at 55 psi will be close to 12.0 watts. 12.0 watts means it would have less rolling resistance than a Continental Grand Prix 4000S II road bike tire at 120 psi.”

Thought so…

How about the Tacx trainer MTB Tire? Have not tried it yet, but considering it.
https://tacx.com/product/trainer-tyre/

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Another point to consider is depending on what resistance (if any) the rollers have you may struggle to put out high wattage workloads above ftp on MTB gearing (esp if it’s 1x). Thus having extra knobbly tyres might help increase resistance. Maybe some noise cancelling headphones!

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Lol. All I hear is Linkin Park when I am training. :joy:. But to be honest, I probably wouldn’t ride my setup (even with my fairly tame xc tires) in my office.

I have been wondering this. The resistance unit has about six or eight steps and the top setting feels like something at least. I’ve only got a 32T front ring as I’m still running 10 speed.

I’ve just ordered some Schwalbe Big Apple 29x2.35 so I hope they are good for the purpose. Otherwise knobbles and noise it is.

I don’t need a massive amount of resistance. Sweet Spot and below will be fine for sessions at work. If we get a call out I don’t want to be over the limit before getting on the truck :joy:.

We have a gym at work to use. I’m just cognisant of the fact the rest of my crew could all be in there at the same time. Otherwise yeah, music for sure.

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I have 25mm internal rims and used a 28mm slick tyre on a wheel on trainer with no issues at all.