I tend to use an old road bike on the trainer for most of the offseason, and will switch over to my TT bike as the season approaches, but I always keep the training wheels on it when on the trainer.

One piece of advice for the trainer. Get a seperate training wheel (old and cheep) and not just a training tire. I've blown about a dozen tubes from switching the tire from trainer to road constantly. I finally broke down and bought a new wheel ($45). Funny thing is I spent more on tubes this season because of the flats instead of just buying another wheel.

The trainer will be a love hate relationship for sure. You'll love the results, but hate the training.

I use my TT bike with a dedicated rear wheel, cassette and tire.

Tip: use some small towels to cover your stem and top cap bolts as well as a fan to help with the unbelievable amount of sweat you will generate. Those bolts corrode quickly if you sweat on them all winter. A big towel for the floor or a floor mat wouldn't hurt either, if you care about your floor.

Get some trainer videos like Spinervals to help keep your sessions focused. Look for base-building workouts for the next couple months, then start to add high-intensity workouts a couple times a week as spring approaches. It will hurt like hell, but you will be amazed at the difference in your biking by next summer.

Once you get outdoors, look to join a weekly group ride that will challenge your abilities.

+1 Jarhead. I use an old road bike (1979 Trek) with cheap tires I don't feel bad about replacing relatively often. It also has a much more comfortable saddle than my tri bike. Perhaps most important, I'd go nuts if I couldn't watch films on Netflix (streaming) while on the trainer. I prefer movies to TV because most TV is so bad that changing stations often is necessary but inconvenient on the bike.

[quote=PJT]I use my TT bike with a dedicated rear wheel, cassette and tire.

Tip: use some small towels to cover your stem and top cap bolts as well as a fan to help with the unbelievable amount of sweat you will generate. Those bolts corrode quickly if you sweat on them all winter. A big towel for the floor or a floor mat wouldn't hurt either, if you care about your floor.

Get some trainer videos like Spinervals to help keep your sessions focused. Look for base-building workouts for the next couple months, then start to add high-intensity workouts a couple times a week as spring approaches. It will hurt like hell, but you will be amazed at the difference in your biking by next summer.

Once you get outdoors, look to join a weekly group ride that will challenge your abilities. [/quote]

+1 this is what I do if and when I use a trainer. I try not to as much as possible....

I use my commuter bike, a steel Bianchi with clip-on aero bars, on the trainer. It has 27" wheels and heavy duty rubber so one tire lasts all winter.

I attach my bike computer to the rear wheel with an extended wire so I can use that as an additional motivator: with a set resistance and the same gear I can maintain a given average speed until the hour is up or I pass out. I spread newspapers under the bike and they dry out overnight then can be recycled.

I have a VCR and an old 27" TV set in front of the bike (in the carport) the remote is at hand as well as water and a towel. I use VHS tapes of the TdF from 2001 onwards as training tapes because movies, sitcoms, etc. are too slow to keep my interest. BB sometimes works if I can FF through the freethrows and timeouts.

PoC

Try a tire with a kevlar inlay, it might solve the problem on the trainer.