During that winter I used an old, slick, road tire (Forte Kevlar) on my RealAxiom trainer to prevent me from swapping out wheels/tires between the trainer bike and computrainer/road bike. While the old tire worked fine, after a while I noticed fine black particles collecting all around the trainer (i.e. - floor, roller, resistance unit). This does not happen with the Continental tire (unless, of course, the yellow flooring hides the yellow dust). It is constructed from a special hard rubber compound that prevents it from breaking down and heating up, thus preventing it from falling apart. But beware, I noticed a difference in power produced when using this tire. With the old road tire my threshold power resulting from the RealAxiom Training Test was 460 Watts. When I began using the Continental Ultra Sport my threshold power from the same test was 410 watts. I believe this is due to the lower coefficient of friction of the special hard rubber compound of the Continental tire. While the "drop" in power bummed me out at first, I have decided that it doesn't matter for this year's baseline test as long as it gives me good workout parameters and I can show improvement over the course of the winter.
http://www.biketiresdirect.com/ info below:
With a modern roller and the UltraSport Hometrainer in the house, winter can set in when it wants to. Thanks to its special cold-running compound, the UltraSport Hometrainer won't experience the heat buildup of a road tire, nor does it suffer the tread separation that the road tire is prone to under the special loads occurring when cycling and braking on the revolving drums of the roller. The UltraSport Hometrainer has been designed explicitly for trainers and rollers and is not suitable for on road use. All Conti yellow (orange). Size 700x23. 120psi max. Weight 240g.
