I recently purchased a Cycleops Fluid 2 trainer. Assembled it per the instructions and tried it out. I immediately noticed a substantial vibration (kind of a rumbling sound) while pedaling. I checked everything I could think of and couldn't find the problem so I called customer service. The (very kind and helpful) service fella instructed me to check several things and together we determined the fly wheel on my trainer must be out of balance. The rep thought this was odd as they balance each of these individually, but he had me send it back and they immediately sent a replacement. Customer service was excellent!
Received the replacement (resistance unit only) and tried it out only to find the same problem! I thought it was highly unlikely to have the same problem with 2 different units so tonight I borrowed an identical trainer from a friend at work. He's not using it since the weather's nice so didn't mind me borrowing it. Yep, same nasty vibration!
I considered every possibility I could think of. Because the floor in my living room isn't quite level (old house) I moved the trainer around to several different spots and adjusted the feet on the trainer frame to make it level. No improvement.
My rear wheel is true. Not a precise test I know, but I simply eye balled it relative to the rear brake pads. It may not be perfect but I really couldn't detect any wobble.
As far as I can tell there are no flat spots on the rim. Riding on the road seems absolutely fine and I can't detect any flat spots visually. Also, important to note is that the frequency of the vibration appears to exceed the rpms of my rear wheel so I don't believe that a minor flat spot could cause this.
Tires are properly inflated.
Played around with the tension of the fly wheel against the tire and it makes little difference whether tighter or looser.
Otherwise the bike is tip top over all, less than a year old and rides beautifully on the road.
At this point I've ruled out the trainer itself, no way 3 different units act the same way. I think that it must be my bike. Is it possible for bike wheels to be out of balance the way a car's rim can be? Might it be something in the hub?
As mentioned, it rides just fine on the road but because of all the bumps and road vibration perhaps I just don't notice anything being off. Maybe it's only noticeable on the trainer at home because it's so much easier to observe every little squeak from the drive train etc in such a quiet environment.
So please, if you can think of any variables on the trainer itself that I haven't thought of please let me know. Also I would appreciate any input on what part of my bike could be causing this. It's very frustrating!
Hope this all makes sense. I'll be happy to clarify anything that doesn't.
(oh and btw, I'm running road slicks, not knobbies. It's a road bike)
Received the replacement (resistance unit only) and tried it out only to find the same problem! I thought it was highly unlikely to have the same problem with 2 different units so tonight I borrowed an identical trainer from a friend at work. He's not using it since the weather's nice so didn't mind me borrowing it. Yep, same nasty vibration!
I considered every possibility I could think of. Because the floor in my living room isn't quite level (old house) I moved the trainer around to several different spots and adjusted the feet on the trainer frame to make it level. No improvement.
My rear wheel is true. Not a precise test I know, but I simply eye balled it relative to the rear brake pads. It may not be perfect but I really couldn't detect any wobble.
As far as I can tell there are no flat spots on the rim. Riding on the road seems absolutely fine and I can't detect any flat spots visually. Also, important to note is that the frequency of the vibration appears to exceed the rpms of my rear wheel so I don't believe that a minor flat spot could cause this.
Tires are properly inflated.
Played around with the tension of the fly wheel against the tire and it makes little difference whether tighter or looser.
Otherwise the bike is tip top over all, less than a year old and rides beautifully on the road.
At this point I've ruled out the trainer itself, no way 3 different units act the same way. I think that it must be my bike. Is it possible for bike wheels to be out of balance the way a car's rim can be? Might it be something in the hub?
As mentioned, it rides just fine on the road but because of all the bumps and road vibration perhaps I just don't notice anything being off. Maybe it's only noticeable on the trainer at home because it's so much easier to observe every little squeak from the drive train etc in such a quiet environment.
So please, if you can think of any variables on the trainer itself that I haven't thought of please let me know. Also I would appreciate any input on what part of my bike could be causing this. It's very frustrating!
Hope this all makes sense. I'll be happy to clarify anything that doesn't.
(oh and btw, I'm running road slicks, not knobbies. It's a road bike)
