I’ve just finished my first session on my newly acquired (second hand hardly used from stepdad) turbo trainer. On the whole it was good but the level of vibration coming up through my saddle was bordering on uncomfortable. I had a bit of ‘white finger syndrome’ in the prostate area when I got off the bike after 40 mins – is this normal?

I have my usual gatorskin tyre on, and I placed the bike and the TT on my wife’s exercise mat, on bare wooden floorboards. It did seem like the whole room was resonating at times…

Would a trainer-specific tyre make a big difference to the ‘buzz’ level? Have I put too much resistance on? Is it the floor boards? Answers please…

EDIT: Its just my cheap alu commuting bike, no fancy carbon involved anywhere.

The flywheel could be running out of true, this happened with my wife’s Tacx Flow turbo trainer, the vibration made it unusable.

Not at all normal. Is your tyre badly worn? have you got enough pressure against the wheel.
What model is it?

cycleops magneto (bottom of the range), tyres not badly worn, for pressure against the wheel I did as per the instructions: tighten until the wheel is just touching, then close the cam-lock (like a quick release), it took a reasonable effort for the cam-lock to close. I’ve got 100psi in the tyre. How would i tell if the flywheel is out of true?

Is the wheel absolutely true/round? Tyre mounted properly?
Turn the wheel by hand and see if the resistance changes

bit awkward this, bike in one room computer in other…

…I think I might have identified a problem. I was just doing what Pickers said, turning the wheel by hand and i noticed that the flywheel is not running true in its housing – good shout specky – so how do I fix that? Tighten up the bolt in the middle of it I presume?

Sadly the wife’s turbo had to be sent back to Tackx to have the flywheel re-centred, I don’t know the cycleops turbos, but you could post on Timetriallingforum, there’s plenty of geeks there who will know the answer.

Hmmm…why is nothing ever simple? Will check out cycleops’ site and elsewhere for guidance. Cheers.

If you have wooden floors and people below, and want to do it at some ungodly hour of the morning, your neighbours will kill you. The floor will act as a sounding board.[/i] Do you have a balcony?

I found the above on a triathlon site, I think it might have a ‘normal’ level of vibration for a cheap turbo trainer that is then magnified by the floorboards. Thankfully I don’t live in a flat. Will have to set it up in the front room then, rather than the spare room. I’m sure the SO won’t mind 😐

I’ve just got a Tacx Flow and it’s doing the same thing – lots of vibration but mainly through the handlebars, noticeable at low revs then more so when I put some effort it. It’s on a yoga mat on a concrete floor in the garage so little reason for it otherwise. Scarily my knackered old hypermag is lots quieter and smoother! Oh well – happy days and back to Wiggle I think . . . .