Rollers are quiet, me likey.
Tires are squeaky, me no likey.
Anybody have any tips to clean the drums or what tires will run silent? obviously not that big a deal, it’s jsut a little annoying watching TV at near max volume because of the tire squeak.
make sure you have good psi, then remove the glaze from the tires with alcohol or citrus solvent
the rollers tend to glaze the tires, not sure why
I use big cup style headphones so I don’t have to listen to any of that noise
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Are you using trainer tires?
High psi is your friend on the rollers … 120 psi. Vittoria open corsa evo CX or Cont GP 4000s are quiet.
Make sure you have the trainer tightened enough to. My bikes squeak on the Kurt Kinetic unless I have it tightened more than 2.5x (I ride at 3 turns).
The OP used the words ‘rollers’ and ‘tires’ leading me to conclude that this is in regards to rollers lime Krietler and not a stationary (rear wheel only) type trainer. Going to echo previous comment about higher psi as depending on the size of the roller drums, the contact patch will be smaller for each wheel than on the road. Dedicated trainer wheels/tires are also an option but not a requirement as it may not make a difference. I have ridden rollers on my cyclocross bike with file treads inflated under 35 psI and the noise level did not require any increaase in volume for the ipod/earbuds.
Use fine grit sand paper to lightly scrub the noise inducing crud off the rollers.
Done.
I’m using Aluminum drum rollers (nashbar i think) 3.5" drum IIRC
Currently i’m running an ancient set of Mich. Pro 2 race tires just because they were around and need to be used up. I have a new set of GP 4000s II in the box ready to go, but that seems a bit of a waste for the rollers.
Running about 110 psi so i don’t spin out the rollers.
I guess i’ll try some alcohol to clean the tire and the roller and see if they quiet down. Otherwise I’ll throw the new rubber on and see if it helps.
FWIW I was using ear buds last night and could not hear the rollers at all. it’s more for the people around me (my wife watching whatever) that I’d like them to be quiet.
I have the nashbar rollers as well. I have better luck noise-wise with smoother tires.
That being said, for everything I have tried, once I get above ~200w a really loud deep vibrating hum starts to come off of these, which prevents me from using them more often. This occurs even when on the foam puzzlepiece mats.
Vibration seems to echo through the floor (ground floor apartment) and shake things up a bit. I would use my rollers a lot more if I could get the noise down.
Vittoria open corsa evo CX or Cont GP 4000s are quiet.
Vittoria open corsa evo CX tends to squeak for me on the rollers. Schwalbe Ultremo ZX is very quiet.
I use the Continental Ultra Sport Hometrainer Tire on my Nashbar rollers and they don’t make a squeak. Regular road tires are too soft and will “erase” quickly from the friction and heat from roller use. The trainer tire also keeps the roller drums free of tire marks/residue.