Exercise Bike or Elliptical in Apt?
Want to be considerate of my downstairs neighbor. Want to know anyone’s experience with using an elliptical machine or exercise bike when they want to keep from making a lot of noise. Really don’t want to make our neighbors nuts. Any thoughts on doing this and/or how to minimize noise. tks!
Want to be considerate of my downstairs neighbor. Want to know anyone’s experience with using an elliptical machine or exercise bike when they want to keep from making a lot of noise. Really don’t want to make our neighbors nuts. Any thoughts on doing this and/or how to minimize noise. tks!
I used to have a bike on the parlor floor and the noise wasn’t a problem, but the vibration was. It traveled to the floor below and possibly created some cracks (but not sure it was that.) I the had it moved to the lowest floor (cement) and have had no problem since.
You may want to consider what your floors are made out of, and possibly study how much vibration they can absorb.
thanks for the thoughts. anyone ever live downstairs from someone they knew to be using a bike or elliptical?
I had an elliptical in my single family house and put the foam interlocking squares under it so I wouldn’t damage the floor.
our elliptical (a precor) doesn’t make any noise that I can hear. but if you have very squeaky floors, that might be a problem, or your floors aren’t level and the weight of the equipment can shift around.
Can’t say what’s generated by ellipticals, but there are mats to place under indoor road bike trainers (google CycleOps mats). They’ll prevent your bike from travelling across the floor, and also reduce noise and vibration. Depending on your circumstances, though, floorboards might still squeak, or vibration carry through. I doubt that a rug would dampen any of that sufficiently.
I bet those interlocking thick foam squares would be helpful underneath. the kind people use for kids play rooms.
Definately place it on a thick rug. And tell your neighbors. Knowing that you may hear some noise from 6 till 6:30 every day places it in a context that will make it easier to deal with.