General Cycling Discussion - Question for trainer riders.

Hey Guys,

Bought a CycleOps Mag + trainer recently. Have a few hours on it now and have one question.

Why would one bike be noisier on the trainer than another?

If I put my '05 Trek 1200 with Vittoria Rubino tires on the trainer, it is much noiser than my vintage Falcon Europa with Vreddstein Corsas.

Any thoughts? I much prefer the Trek, as I have the fit dialed in and the bike is like a glove. The Falcon does not fit quite as well and I find myself "searching" for a comfortable position.

Any and all thoughts would be appreciated.

Tire contact patch, tread pattern, if any.

Are you using a smoother tread tire on one than the other? Is the pressure = with either bike on the roller?

Tire contact patch, tread pattern, if any.

Are you using a smoother tread tire on one than the other? Is the pressure = with either bike on the roller?
Both tires are road tires, with a slick center section and a bit of a different sidewall pattern. Roller does not contact sidewall. Both run at 120 psi. Both attached with the trainer supplied skewer. Both with roughly same amount of pressure applied with hand knob on resisitance unit (4 half turns). I was wondering if the stiffer aluminum frame was noisier than the steel frame.

Swap rear wheels and try it out to confirm your hypothesis. I'm guessing it's the tires. (You could also turn the music up just that much louder, too)

Swap rear wheels and try it out to confirm your hypothesis. I'm guessing it's the tires. (You could also turn the music up just that much louder, too)
Gonna try this, but the Falcon is old 7 speed and the Trek is 9 speed, so not sure they are compatible. Turning up music or TV is not an option, as I ride after the 2 and 5 year old boys go to sleep.

Both tires are road tires, with a slick center section and a bit of a different sidewall pattern. Roller does not contact sidewall. Both run at 120 psi. Both attached with the trainer supplied skewer. Both with roughly same amount of pressure applied with hand knob on resisitance unit (4 half turns). I was wondering if the stiffer aluminum frame was noisier than the steel frame.
I don't know! It could well be the case, as Al is stiffer than steel. The steel would tend to absorb the torsional vibration and damp it a bit from the resistance being applied to the wheel under torque. Best suggestion I would have is that you have the solution already, in that while the Falcon is quieter on the trainer, the Trek is more comfortable. I'd use the bike that is dialed in and most comfortable to ride on the trainer.

Noise is an issue with a mag trainer anyway, and even worse with a wind trainer. It's just the nature of the beast. The quietest is a Fluid trainer or a set of rollers. I use a fluid trainer, myself. There is still some noise, but a whole lot less, which is the reason I recommended a fluid in the first place. Best answer to the noise issue is background noise like music, or a movie, or whatever you like to use in form of a Spinnerval vid!

Bought a CycleOps Mag + trainer recently. Have a few hours on it now and have one question.

Why would one bike be noisier on the trainer than another?
My last aluminum frame bike was noisier than my ti bike. Go figure. :rolleyes:


BTW: You're riding way too hard and fast. If I get going too fast I can't hear the movie I'm watching. :lol:

Yeah, I rode them in the store several times, even made the store move the bikes around so I could ride a trek on all the cycleops. In the store, I could not tell a difference in noise of the trainers. In my den, the trainer is loud, but it is bought, so I am gonna live with it. Just trying to minimize noise. I really did not have $300 to spend, the $200 was at the top end of my budget. But thanks for pointing out that you told me so!!!!:D

I like it when you run the Trek. That way you can't hear me sneaking up behind you with a knife...

If you stab me and try to take pictures, i swear by all that is holy that I will force my body to squirt every drop of blood that I possess onto your camera. And I will haunt you for the rest of you natural days and every third day of your unnatural ones regardless if you take pictures or not.

Swap rear wheels and try it out to confirm your hypothesis. I'm guessing it's the tires. (You could also turn the music up just that much louder, too)

I was thinking same............you may be surprised with what you discover. Then again...........you may not. Oh well, life goes on.

I use a Travel Trac mag trainer with adj. tension........fairly quite. I may someday opt for a fluid if I find any real benefit.

If you stab me and try to take pictures, i swear by all that is holy that I will force my body to squirt every drop of blood that I possess onto your camera. And I will haunt you for the rest of you natural days and every third day of your unnatural ones regardless if you take pictures or not.

But will you at least smile and not close your eyes?

If you stab me and try to take pictures, i swear by all that is holy that I will force my body to squirt every drop of blood that I possess onto your camera. And I will haunt you for the rest of you natural days and every third day of your unnatural ones regardless if you take pictures or not.
Oh my, do you promise?

If the noise is an issue, try placing a rubber mat under the trainer. Sometimes that quiets things a bit.

I use a fluid trainer myself...some things to consider:

tire tread: no tread is the best tread....true slicks. Even "semi slicks" (like my Numbus EX I use on my MTB) will cause tremendous noise on any trainer.

Wheel alignment: an untrue wheel will create noise.

too much/little contact: this will again either result in chatter, or in noise, as the tire is deforming and reforming as it rolls.

I suspect the TPI of the tire may have osmething to do with it as wll, since a higher TPI tire has a smoother belt surface, which may alter the way the tread reacts with the roller....but I don't have the cash right nwo to buy a bunch of tires to verify this.

Yeah, I rode them in the store several times, even made the store move the bikes around so I could ride a trek on all the cycleops. In the store, I could not tell a difference in noise of the trainers. In my den, the trainer is loud, but it is bought, so I am gonna live with it. Just trying to minimize noise. I really did not have $300 to spend, the $200 was at the top end of my budget. But thanks for pointing out that you told me so!!!!:D
I wasn't trying to say "I told you so"! Sorry if you got that impression, Bro!

Hey Jeff, try varying the pressure to the rear wheel if you have not done this already. I found a little less pressure reduced the noise on my trainer. Increasing the pressure increases the resistance, but excess pressure will wear the rear bearings prematurely.

Tire noise has already been covered, but try putting those philippine mystery envelpes I sent you under the trainer. The noise will mysteriously change.

Never got them, but when they show up, I will shove them in, as I love pushing the envelope! I know you sent them, as you would not joke around with me, just as i would not joke around with you! :D
Thanks for the tip on pressure, will play with that aspect and see what it does.

I wasn't trying to say "I told you so"! Sorry if you got that impression, Bro!
I know you were'nt, it was yet another of my feeble attempts at humour! As usual, it failed.:D No bad impressions here, thanks as always for your advice. As usual it was correct.

I know you were'nt, it was yet another of my feeble attempts at humour! As usual, it failed.:D No bad impressions here, thanks as always for your advice. As usual it was correct.
Ay lrast you didn't get the $99.00 Dick's cheap Mag trainer! You've really hated it!:eek: Actually, your neighbors would have as well!:p

Oh, and if nothing else works, you could always get a cheap used wheel off ebay and put a trainer tire (http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=121&subcategory=1254&brand=&sku=16574&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=Shop%20by%20Subcat%3A%20700x18c%20to%20700x28c) on it.

EDIT: And then I read it's not a tire issue. So... yeah... nevermind.

Pup, once and I mean this JUST THIS ONCE, I am going to ignore the fact that you made a helpful and informative post without mention of stalking or killing me. I am going to put it down to your brain being a bit addled by the polonium 210 I put into your suppository.

And thanks, I have been considering a trainer tire actually.

:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

jsharr, I would have thought it'd be the tires, much like the difference you hear in a car if differernt tires are put on. But it could well be your frames. I got the CycleOps Fluid 2, as you may recall, and it seems to be pretty quiet, though I only have a steel frame bike at this time, so I have no real comparison.

I did notice a strange sound last night while on my trainer, though. I was about 6 miles into my ride, going about 20mph, and started hearing what sounds like a train wheel on a track. Imagine sitting near a track, and you hear the wheel on the track, gettin' louder as it approaches, then it gets relatively quiet again, then the next wheel is coming by and it gets louder, and so on. Kinda freaked me out! I mean, is it my bike, or the trainer? I stopped, then started pedaling, very slowly increasing my speed. Again, about 18-20mph, same thing. I stopped for the night. Strange this is, I was doing intervals over that six miles, and hit over 20mph several times, and never heard that sound 'til about 6 miles. <curious Vega look>

I'm gonna play around with it this afternoon and see if I can determine what the problem is. Anyone else have that kind of experience at higher speeds on a trainer?
Yep, the fluid trainer has a magnetically rotated rare earth magnet driven impeller and at high rpm you get turbulence and cavitation pockets in the oil. The sound you are hearing is the cav pockets collapsing because nature abhors a vacuum!

Even on my mag trainer, if I am in big ring front, little ring back, and at high cadence, i get some sort of stranger harmonic noise. Very much louder on the Trek than the Falcon. Need to get and see what gears I am turning on the two bikes to see if wheel speed is similar in top gear.

jsharr, I would have thought it'd be the tires, much like the difference you hear in a car if differernt tires are put on. But it could well be your frames. I got the CycleOps Fluid 2, as you may recall, and it seems to be pretty quiet, though I only have a steel frame bike at this time, so I have no real comparison.

I did notice a strange sound last night while on my trainer, though. I was about 6 miles into my ride, going about 20mph, and started hearing what sounds like a train wheel on a track. Imagine sitting near a track, and you hear the wheel on the track, gettin' louder as it approaches, then it gets relatively quiet again, then the next wheel is coming by and it gets louder, and so on. Kinda freaked me out! I mean, is it my bike, or the trainer? I stopped, then started pedaling, very slowly increasing my speed. Again, about 18-20mph, same thing. I stopped for the night. Strange this is, I was doing intervals over that six miles, and hit over 20mph several times, and never heard that sound 'til about 6 miles. <curious Vega look>

I'm gonna play around with it this afternoon and see if I can determine what the problem is. Anyone else have that kind of experience at higher speeds on a trainer?

vega, do not ride your trainer in circles. doing so will make your posts appear multiple times.:D

I'm gonna play around with it this afternoon and see if I can determine what the problem is. Anyone else have that kind of experience at higher speeds on a trainer?

Only when it turns out to be something touching the rotating parts....

Yep, the fluid trainer has a magnetically rotated rare earth magnet driven impeller and at high rpm you get turbulence and cavitation pockets in the oil. The sound you are hearing is the cav pockets collapsing because nature abhors a vacuum!
I dunno, Tom, I hit 20mph several times and held that speed, and never heard it, not 'til I'd been ridin' for six miles. I'm gonna play around with it. Just want to make sure it's not my wheel or something that could kill me on the road. :eek:

vega, do not ride your trainer in circles. doing so will make your posts appear multiple times.:D
Thanks. Didn't notice. Must be my shaky trigger finger since I still haven't yet eaten anything today. But I have a huge pot of fiery chili simmering on the stove. Great for a day like today, when the ground is one slick sheet of ice. :)

Only when it turns out to be something touching the rotating parts....
Hmmm. Maybe I'm going so fast, the old-school shag under the wheel is gettin' whipped around by the air turbulence. :eek:

Seriously, it does disturb me that this didn't happen earlier in the ride at the same speed.

Thanks. Didn't notice. Must be my shaky trigger finger since I still haven't yet eaten anything today. But I have a huge pot of fiery chili simmering on the stove. Great for a day like today, when the ground is one slick sheet of ice. :)
More likely it is DT from not drinking today!!:D

jsharr, I would have thought it'd be the tires, much like the difference you hear in a car if differernt tires are put on. But it could well be your frames. I got the CycleOps Fluid 2, as you may recall, and it seems to be pretty quiet, though I only have a steel frame bike at this time, so I have no real comparison.

I did notice a strange sound last night while on my trainer, though. I was about 6 miles into my ride, going about 20mph, and started hearing what sounds like a train wheel on a track. Imagine sitting near a track, and you hear the wheel on the track, gettin' louder as it approaches, then it gets relatively quiet again, then the next wheel is coming by and it gets louder, and so on. Kinda freaked me out! I mean, is it my bike, or the trainer? I stopped, then started pedaling, very slowly increasing my speed. Again, about 18-20mph, same thing. I stopped for the night. Strange this is, I was doing intervals over that six miles, and hit over 20mph several times, and never heard that sound 'til about 6 miles. <curious Vega look>

I'm gonna play around with it this afternoon and see if I can determine what the problem is. Anyone else have that kind of experience at higher speeds on a trainer?
The other thing I'd check is that the bike isn't shifting in the clamp. That would be my next line of investigation.

Third line would be to check the rear wheel for being true, and next would be the bearings in the rear hub.

Jeff, I just picked up a trainer myself but I have only had the Flyte with Rubino Pros so it would be very simular to your Trek. Since I haven't had anything to compare against yet though I can't comment on what may be causing additional noise. I do notice it gets a LOT louder after I hit about 25-30mph on the back wheel. I'll try to pull down the Gazelle and put it on the trainer and see if I can tell a difference.

re: TPI, pretty sure your louder Rubinso have a higher TPI than the cheaper tires on the Falcon.

More likely it is DT from not drinking today!!:D
Well we know how to fix that, don't we Jack? :p

The other thing I'd check is that the bike isn't shifting in the clamp. That would be my next line of investigation.

Third line would be to check the rear wheel for being true, and next would be the bearings in the rear hub.
Yeah, these are along my line of investigation. I'm concerned that it's actually my bike, and that I'm gonna suddenly discover the problem next time I'm splayed out on the road. :eek: I don't doubt there are some parts reaching their life.... Bike's 23 years old, and was ridden quite a bit the first four or five years I had it, then again every day for two years when I was in grad school. Very little since '94 until this past November when I started riding seriously again.

I'm gonna eat first, (and have some Jack, jsharr!), then take the bike out, check the skewer, check wheel alignment in the forks, though I kept looking down last night while spinning, and that didn't seem to be so, then reattach and try it again.

There is a lot of paper lying around. Makes me wonder if air turbulence wasn't periodically moving through the looser piles, causing noise. I'll check that, too. That'd be easy to fix if that's it. :D

Bike's 23 years old, and was ridden quite a bit the first four or five years I had it, then again every day for two years when I was in grad school. Very little since '94 until this past November when I started riding seriously again.

when was the last time the bearings in your hubs were serviced? You may be plumb outta grease in thar....

Yeah, these are along my line of investigation. I'm concerned that it's actually my bike, and that I'm gonna suddenly discover the problem next time I'm splayed out on the road. :eek: I don't doubt there are some parts reaching their life.... Bike's 23 years old, and was ridden quite a bit the first four or five years I had it, then again every day for two years when I was in grad school. Very little since '94 until this past November when I started riding seriously again.

I'm gonna eat first, (and have some Jack, jsharr!), then take the bike out, check the skewer, check wheel alignment in the forks, though I kept looking down last night while spinning, and that didn't seem to be so, then reattach and try it again.

There is a lot of paper lying around. Makes me wonder if air turbulence wasn't periodically moving through the looser piles, causing noise. I'll check that, too. That'd be easy to fix if that's it. :D
I don't really think it's going to be a bike frame issue. Steel has a Lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng fatigue lifetime.

when was the last time the bearings in your hubs were serviced? You may be plumb outta grease in thar....
I'm gettin' ready to pull the trigger on a new roadbike, and make this my dedicated trainer. Got a roadie friend who's probably got the tools I need to do some servicing on the beater.

So since my trainer question that I wanted FOO input on got moved to general cycling, I thought I would post an update. I isolated my high cadence noise. It was caused by the wooden TV table that I keep next to the trainer. At high rpms, the trainer must start to vibrate. The table was sitting on the mat I ride on. The mat was transmitting the vibrations to the table and the TV remote was rattling on the table top!!!! Still do not know why the Trek is louder than the Falcon, but I will try the wheel swap during the next trainer session.

[Waits a least a few hours till I merge this thread with your Gen Cycling Trainer thread]

That said, glad that you cut down the sound some. :)

hehe...swallows :rolleyes:

I love it when you two fight.

The kissing and making up...not so much.

I love it when you two fight.

The kissing and making up...not so much.
So dipper, care to go a few rounds so that we can make up too? ;)

So dipper, care to go a few rounds so that we can make up too? ;)

You're making stuff up fine all by yourself, bubba!

"The Swallows have Flown from Capistrano by Night "

That's al qwaedah's code work for attack! I gotta contact homeland security.
Enjoy your stay at gitmo!

i would like to stab somebody really hard please.

Congrats, jsharr. Hope it's something as simple as tires. I managed to isolated my problem, too. Upon closer inspection, the actual resistance device was trying to torque a little at higher speed because my wheel was off-center. The information that came with the trainer said this shouldn't be a problem. Well, I centered the tire anyway. No more trains running through my house. :D

And a fantastic ride tonight. I think this is really gonna help me improve on the road. I can already see the difference during intervals. :)

Hope you're loving yours as much as I loves me mine. :love: <shuffling off to get a midnight snack of chili and Stella>

UPDATE:

Finally got my steel bike down and rode it on the trainer. I did find it to be a lot quieter than my aluminum Flyte. Granted, the tires on the Gazelle are Pro 2 Race's which are pure slicks where the Flyte is currently running Rubino Pros which has a little texture even in the center tread. Jsharr is also running Rubinos on his aluminum Trek, which I think is where more of the noise is coming from than anywhere else (ie: frame material).