I recently bought a Kinetic Kurt trainer- I wanted to buy a training tire so it would be quieter and not wear out my good rear tire. The guy at REI told me I might as well go with a regular tire, use my normal tube and just buy a cheepo tire. Is he right? Is there a reason why I might want a trainer specific tire?
Interesting question but I believe that if you consider the physics of a trainer you'll find that there will be little wear on the tire when you're using the trainer. What causes wear on a tire is the rubbing together of the road surface and the tire as it rolls, leans in turns and reduces your speed when braking. Remember that the only points of contact between your bike and the road surface are the tires. Of course, the rougher the surface of the road the more wear will occur. When you're on a trainer the tire is in constant contact with the generally smooth surface of the trainer and there's minimal friction between the two round objects turning at the same speed so tire wear is minimal. In a trainer there's no leaning in the turns, no braking, and no rubbing between a rolling tire and a static road surface. The biggest single reason for using a different tire would be the noise issue. The more aggressive the tread design the more noise it'll make on the trainer or on the road. I think that for the most part, if your good tire were a smoother tread, any wear occurring while it was in the trainer would be negligible over the long haul.
