Coffey Indoor Rower

[Boombloom]

I've recently purchased a Coffey Indoor Rower. I am scouring the internet to find information regarding this machine and figure that the Concept 2 Forum would be a great resource. The rower is very similar to an early Concept 2 except that the wind resistance is created by a bicycle wheel mounted horizontally behind and beneath the rower's posterior. This is a very well built and handsome machine.

I have learned that the manufacturer was in Painted Post New York. They primarily created shells but did enter into the indoor rower market. Can someone please provide additional information? Thanks.

[c2jonw]

I remember them. Calvin Coffey was a Olympic medalist and boatbuilder. In the early 80s he basically reconfigured our Model A (bicycle flywheel) design into the horizontal unit that he sold. I don't recall how long he made them for....C2JonW

[Boombloom]

Is there a rowing museum somewhere or anyone who would want a fine example of this machine? It's pretty darn cool. I'm using something else now....

[scribewicz]

I had one of these for a short time as well. It was actually a sculling simulator too. The "cam/outrigger" design was very similar to the sculling simulator sold by these guys (http://www.row-right.com/) that uses the concept 2 erg as the base - instead of sitting on/over the flywheel.

Has anyone tried this new sculling simulator? Is it worth the price of a whole other erg?

[Boombloom]

If this is really like the Model A is there some way for me to install a monitor? I really don't need anything fancy at all. I was even considering attaching a bike computer.

[titanium667]

I just picked one up also, really cheap. Mine looks like it had a monitor that was removed. I'm wondering if there is a way to adjust the tension, being it seems very easy to row.

[luckylindy]

Anyone have a picture? Would be neat to see one of these old devices, Google didn't show up a thing.

[Slidewinder]

I didn't know the Coffey indoor rower was ever produced. It was granted a patent in 1988 (U.S.Patent#4743011). Visit the patent office website to view drawings and read text of document. Rowright has very obviously used the Coffey design in their C2 conversion. The Coffey patent would now be expired. On the Rowright website Gary Piantedosi is named as the designer (which he is for the adaptation, but not the entire concept. No credit is given to Calvin Coffey. In some ways I think it is a better design than the Oartec sculling machine.

[muskiedog]

I bought a Coffey Indoor Rowing machine back in the late '80's. I had seen it advertised, don't remember where. Contacted the company through a letter. Pre Internet days. There was a sports and fitness expo at McCormick place in Chicago and I was sent a pass to the show. Met with the Sales Rep, a Silver Olympic Medalist Rower that was selling the rowing equipment. He had both the traditional and the one with the sculling attachments. Tried it out under his guidance. Bought the standard model that he had at the show and he delivered it to my house. Did not have the foresight to ask him to sign it. Was and still am not big into the autographgh thing.
Used it extensively for a number of years especially in the winter to train for cycling. It is easy to pull initially but try a 30 minute time with a tempo increase or reps of 25 hard and fast as you can pulls. Made Spring biking easier.
It had a bicycle monitor that was a timer, speed and mileage indicator so you could track your progress and improvements over time.
I did replace the cable to handle as the cable popped through the aluminum handle at one point while excercising. I took it to a yacht store and had the rigger wire up a new cable with the ended wrapped and attached around the handle. Never had a problem after that.
Eddy Bauer sold them for a short time in the late '80's early '90's.
Looking for my brochure information that I got along with the machine. I still have it but it has gone un-used do to unrelated back strain.
A nice machine that was a workout and fun to use .

[c2jonw]

Just came across this ad and remembered this thread.
http://nwct.craigslist.org/spo/3152984814.html
Note this unit was a straight pull design. I know there was at least a production prototype of a unit with pivoting handles, like this patent: http://www.google.com/patents?id=SYYyAA ... &q&f=false
C2JonW

[Bob S.]

Just came across this ad and remembered this thread.
http://nwct.craigslist.org/spo/3152984814.html
Note this unit was a straight pull design. I know there was at least a production prototype of a unit with pivoting handles, like this patent: http://www.google.com/patents?id=SYYyAA ... &q&f=false
C2JonW

Jon,

Did you notice that the seat was in backwards? The cut out side was toward the stretcher - check the second of the 4 thumbnails shown to the right of the picture on that first URL.

Bob S.

[c2jonw]

Jon,

Did you notice that the seat was in backwards? The cut out side was toward the stretcher - check the second of the 4 thumbnails shown to the right of the picture on that first URL.

Bob S.

Ha, good eye Bob. That was a frequent problem with earlier C2 ergs as well when the customer had to install the seat.....C2JonW

[muskiedog]

Anyone want to buy mine? Western Chicago suburbs

[glucks1]

Here is some information about the coffey sculling simulatoar. He is current manufacturing this product.
www.coffeycorporation.com/SimulatOAR_S2TI.php cheers, lg

[Oarin]

This is my original Coffey SimulatOar. It's a beast, built like a tank. I think the rug it's sitting on measures 9'x6' and it must weigh well over 100 lbs. But I've used it for years, training through long Maine winters and I still marvel at how well it does indeed simulate the position and feel of my shell. The resistance comes from a large, heavily weighted bicycle wheel with fan blades attached, just visible through the grid behind the seat. It's relatively slow-turning and very quiet. You'll see a bicycle computer to the right of the slide which I installed to measures my rate, distance, speed, and workout time.
I've no doubt Coffey discovered that as heavy and over-built as this model was, it was simply too expensive to produce. I don't know what the original retail price was, as I bought it used for a song.

I'd love to hear from other owners of these wonderful machines to compare notes on maintenance, modifications, etc.

Oarin