Indoor Trainers seem loud in YouTube reviews (Kurt Kinetic owners, in particular, please read)



an0nymous

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Oct 13, 2010
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Hi everyone!

So... I've been looking into buying an indoor trainer, and a lot of places seem to suggest the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine.

Now, one of my top priorities is not too much noise. There are many other rooms around my one-room apartment, and I can't be bothering them. My hours also often result in me having to exercise later at night (part of the reason why a trainer is good--so I don't need to be out in the pitch black), and I don't want to be a pain. From what I'd read in reviews, it seemed like the Road Machine could handle this since practically every review I've read mentioned how quiet it is (one even said you could pedal without waking a baby in the next room, which I presumed to be an exaggeration, but it got the point across).

However, I recently started checking YouTube, and I found videos like this, and it made me realize that maybe when people say "quiet", they mean "quiet relative to other trainers". For this reason, I'd like to ask: Are the videos on YouTube representative of the noise level of your Kinetic Road Machine? I'm hoping that it's just the microphone placement or something, but I don't want to get one home and then find out. Also, if it is that loud, does anyone have any quieter recommendations?

I saw this video comparison series between the Kinetic Road Machine and the Minoura Mag M80, and the latter does seem to be quieter, but I worry about things like durability with a trainer like this. I also dislike the fact that there seems to be so little information otherwise available about it except that I hear it's confusing as heck to put together. Additionally, I have read about some resistance issues with the Minoura brand in general. Does anyone else have experience with them? I would prefer to get a trainer that is good overall and not just quiet, but unfortunately, given where I live, noise control is a top priority, and if the Kinetic Road Machine is that loud, I probably cannot get one.

Thanks! I'd appreciate any feedback people can give!
 
That's not loud.

You can hear the guy talking over top of the trainer noise.
 
Really? My initial reaction was more like the people in the comments section who also found it loud. I guess that's a good point, though. Perhaps my volume was up too loud on the whole. Regardless, would you say this is a good representation, then? Is it like a hairdryer, perhaps? I ask that because I can still talk over it, but I can also hear it down the hall. Is it perhaps even less than that, and the sound just seems more overpowering (to some) when isolated through a computer?
 
I find that the fan that I use for cooling is louder than my KK trainer. When I am warming up and the fan is off I can hear the TV at normal volume. My wife says that my breathing during set of L4 is louder than the TV, the fan and the trainer.

The more intensity applied the trainer will get incrementally louder. The cooling fan is highly important in the equation of hard training and may be another source of noise to consider.

You used hairdryer as a comparison.

Warm up = hairdryer on low
L3 = hairdryer on medium
L5+ = almost a hairdryer on high

But since I have been shaving my head for many years and therefore have not used a hairdryer in a long time you may want to take my opinion lightly. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif
 
Thank you very much. That hairdryer analogy helped a lot. Unfortunately, this might pose a problem because I tried turning on a hairdryer and after leaving my room, I could definitely still hear it, even on low. Fortunately, my fans are fairly quiet (I just have a bunch of them strung along a power cord), but perhaps my walls are just really thin. I'm guessing that's why I thought of it as "loud" because in my place, it really might be. Does anyone know of any quieter trainers?

EDIT: Also, how much of a difference does the tire make? I know how in that video, the person is using Kenda Kalientes. If I invested in a slick tire (like a Fat Boy or Bontrager Road Warrior), does anyone think that might make a significant difference?
 
Originally Posted by Felt_Rider .

I find that the fan that I use for cooling is louder than my KK trainer. When I am warming up and the fan is off I can hear the TV at normal volume. My wife says that my breathing during set of L4 is louder than the TV, the fan and the trainer.

The more intensity applied the trainer will get incrementally louder. The cooling fan is highly important in the equation of hard training and may be another source of noise to consider.

You used hairdryer as a comparison.

Warm up = hairdryer on low
L3 = hairdryer on medium
L5+ = almost a hairdryer on high

But since I have been shaving my head for many years and therefore have not used a hairdryer in a long time you may want to take my opinion lightly. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif
My experience is pretty much the same. The fan and my breathing during a threshold interval are both louder than the trainer noise.

You aren't going to get absolute silence.
 
Wow; I didn't realize that you guys meant your breathing was literally louder. If that's the case, maybe things just seem louder via the computer, which I was hoping was a possibility. As I mentioned, though, I can still hear the hairdryer a decent distance out of my room, but again, perhaps I just have a cheap hairdryer. I would still be interested to hear about peoples' experiences with other models, though, unless it is pretty much unanimous that this model is the way to go when it comes to noise? (Obviously, I've already heard that it is the way to go in lots of other ways.)
 
I have a 1UP, which is quiet, stable, and has a lifetime warranty. (http://www.1upusa.com/bike_trainer.html) No fluid to leak, weighted flywheel. I put about 2000 miles on it last winter, it held up admirably. Still would rather be outside than on a trainer, but only 8 rideable months here.
 
Hi everyone. I wanted to thank all of you for your help. I don't like to thread-bump in any forum, but I thought I should give some closure to this thread in case anyone ever does a search and finds it. I looked into the different options; the 1UP was not sold anywhere around me, and after hearing people's assurances about the Kurt Kinetic, I decided to give it a go. It turns out that, at least in my perception, it was much quieter than the Youtube video and, in fact, not loud at all. I'd say it's quieter than a large hairdryer, which can be heard through the walls where I live at almost any level (low, medium or high). This sound does not seem to carry in the same way, which is great. It is true that higher speeds equals greater noise, but I was picturing the baseline level to be much louder than it truly was. Thanks again to everyone.
 
and I thank you for getting back on that, as I have had very similar questions

was good to hear some info, first hand stuff

tks
 
It's interesting to know your final thoughts on this now that you have some experience to go on.

But....when you're working hard is the fan noise and your breathing louder than the trainer like we said a few posts up?