Hi
Please help. I need a really really quiet trainer. I am on the second floor of a condo. I have no other preference except to minimize the noise and vibrations. Does anyone know if the mats work? Any noise reduction secrets would be appreciated.Thanks for the help.
Kelly
Fluid trainer and get some carpet offcuts to put under the supports and insulate the floor… should sort it out…?
Ditto, as stated above. A fluid trainer will be about the best you can do in terms of generating noise.
With respect to transmitting through the floor, as stated above as well, a carpet piece will help allot, assuming you are not already on carpet. Better would be a vinyl mat that is specifically engineered for acoustics that is used in subflooring installations for hardwood and tile floors. Whether or not you need this level of isolation or if you can get a 3’ x 6’ piece, I dont know.
Kurt Kinetic trainer with one of their rubber trainer mats plus a Conti indoor trainer tyre. Should get the noise and vibration down to tolerable levels.
Thanks guys. This helps.
One more ques. Does anyone know if they make a 650c indoor trainer tire? I didn’t think conti did.
Thanks
kelly
To answer your question directly, I think Elite makes the quietest trainer.
Is the problem the airbourne noise or vibration through the floor?
If your challenge is floor vibration, you need to look at increasing mass, stiffness & decouple the bike/trainer from the floor.
Try making a sandwich with one of those heavy, resilient gym mats made from recycled tires, then a layer of carpet under padding with a final stiff layer of 3/4" plywood on top.
Cheers,
Paul
Least we forget
I have no idea why this question seems to baffle people, are we apt. dwellers in the minority?
Anyway, I had a cycleops2 fluid trainer (5 years ago?) and it definitely made some noise & vibrations. From what I’ve read its possible some are quieter than others, but I didn’t feel confident enough to ride it at 6am on a Sunday morning.
That said, my friend’s 1upusa is incredibly quiet. http://www.1upusa.com/
I tried it in my old apt (carpetted) and I didn’t even have to raise the tv volume. Its amazing. I’ve been told the blackburn ultra is the same thing but I have not tried it.
Tom Demerly says the Kurt is just as quiet so I’ve been on the fence about if I should one or not. The 1up’s plus is its ability to actually fold up small (and not take up space). The Kurt and cycleops fold but not compactly. On the other hand, the 1up uses two knobs to adjust the resistance to the tire…
To be honest, I think a thick piece of cardboard (like the ones ikea furniture come in) will dampen the vibrations more than a floppy mat. (Not to mention cheaper.)
As long as the cardboard does not smash down.
Now if you want quiet, hang a sheet of ply wood from the ceiling and put the trainer on that.
Or Easier more money, go buy some rubber machine isolators (get the right weight rating) and put the plywood or mdf on those.
Good call on the isolators
I’d stay away from the MDF. It has excellent mass & is the stuff they make home speakers out of, but it will take on moisture/sweat. Plywood is more “Lively” but more imune to moisture.
Least we forget
I’ll second the 1UP Usa trainer. It is considerably quieter than the Cycleops Fluid trainer I had before.
I have a Cyclops and it is quite enough that my wife doesn’t mind talking on the phone or watching tv in the same room while I’m riding. There may be quieter trainers but keep in mind that no matter what you ride, you still will have the sound of the drive train and the spinning rear wheel. When I ride indoors, the order of noise produing items is: TV if I am not wearing headphones; the fan I have in front of me; rear wheel/drive train and then trainer itself. I’m sure that any quality fluid trainer is quiet enough that you won’t actually hear the trainer itself if you are riding at any decent level of effort. Probably the biggest determiner of volume once you get into fluid trainer is how much resistance the unit produces. The higher the resisance, the slower your rear wheel will be spinning and the quieter it will be.
For your downstaris neighbors, its not the sound itself but the vibrations from riding that will bother them and how bothersome that is probably has more to do with how your apartment building is constructed, where you are riding in relation to where your neighbors are hanging out in there apartment and what you have under the trainer to isolate it from the floor. When I was an apartment dweller, I did have a neighbor complain (nicely). The vibriation was enough to make hanging lights in his apartment sway. I moved my bike away from the middle of the room (to where the floor was a little more solid), put a thick pad under the trainer and tried to be a little more in tune with his schedule. (He was letting me use his washer and drier so I was willing to go the extra mile - I had other neighbors whose complaints would have just spurred me to ride more 
“one of those heavy, resilient gym mats made from recycled tires,”
Go to your local feed and tack store and look at “stall mats”.
Google: 1upusa
.
I have the 1up and am really satisfied. It is quiet for me but unfortunatly not for the neighbors under me.
While training for IM Lanzarote, I did a lot of rides indoor and had several complaints. I’ve tried a lot of different things but nothing worked in the end. I haven’t been downstair though so I dont know the difference it made and how much noise it was making and if they were complaining for nothing.
I’m more than satisfied with the 1up though!
Good luck
Conti does make a 650 indoor trainer tire. I have one on my bike. Works great and I’m not killing a good road tire in the process.
Where did you get the tire? Is it the hometrainer? Just wondering before my LBS closes for the winter…
One more ques. Does anyone know if they make a 650c indoor trainer tire? I didn’t think conti did.
Thanks
kelly
look for sales:
http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=21043&subcategory_ID=5420
http://www.nashbar.com/results.cfm?category=121&subcategory=1257&storetype=&estoreid=&init=y&pagename=Category%3A%20Tires
I got the conti wire beads for like $12 on sale last year. They last forever.
Hi
Please help. I need a really really quiet trainer. I am on the second floor of a condo. I have no other preference except to minimize the noise and vibrations. Does anyone know if the mats work? Any noise reduction secrets would be appreciated.Thanks for the help.
Kelly
Below my bike is a) an old piece of carpet + 2 old yoga mats. My neighbors have never complained.
Oops. It’s the wirebead ultrasport. We got them through the team. I just ordered the least expensive tire for the trainer and assumed it was the hometrainer.