jrhii

As I understand it, air turbine trainers are really loud. How bad is it? would it be louder than a loud graphics card fan? I just need to find out if I want to spend the extra $110 for a fluid trainer from craigslist.

martianone

My partner and I each have a kinetic cyclone. The units work well, my partner has a mountain bike (with touring tires) attached. I have a recumbent connected to it for the winter- we often "ride" together in the eve. Not sure how to describe the sound it makes, perhaps more of a buzzing noise- at 20 kph, about the same volume as a three speed box type house fan, set on high. I don' fine the sound objectionable, when we had TV - we would watch the evening news while riding.

Rhodabike

I don't know how noisy a loud graphics card fan is, but I had one years ago and found it a bit louder than a mag trainer. Not to the point where I couldn't hear myself think, but enough that I wouldn't have ridden early in the morning while my better half was trying to sleep. If you don't live in an apartment with thin walls, you may find it meets your needs, provided you have headphones to listen to music.

jrhii

This Guy has the same card as me, that gives you an idea of how loud it can get at its loudest (mine generally doesn't spin that high during normal use).

Another question: how high does resistance get? I just want to spin in my spare time while I'm inside during the winter. I ride pretty regularly (I do Jimmy John's work) and was logging 200 good miles a week during the peak of the summer, so I would say I am a fairly good rider, will using a fan in comparison to a fluid trainer be ineffective?

chaadster

I've not had one for many years, so if they're still making them (which is surprising to me), then I may be out of touch with their development, but back in the '90s, they were very loud, and not just sonically, but they actually vibrated the air, so you could feel the buzzing, too. It was impossible for me to ride in the same room if someone wanted to watch TV; it was too distracting and annoying. Even riding upstairs in an apartment would annoy the folks below. Not good. I switched to magnetic and then fluid, with a bout of rollers in there, too, and it made things a lot better.

Again, I may have had old, cheap fan trainers (Vetta and...Nashbar, maybe?) and newer ones may be more quiet.

fishymamba

Definitely louder than a GTX 480. I had a cheap one and it vibrated a ton in addition to the noise.

cradom

They're not too bad unless you bump the fan and get it out of round (like I did moving). Then they vibrate like all get-out and are noisy as heck.