Hi guys.. *damper settings query*

[withnail69]

In gyms I've always rowed with the damper setting on 10. About a month ago I bought my own model d rower and purchased a new pm5.
I bought the pm5 specifically because I LOVE the darts and fish games.. (I know sad!) Noticed with the damper on 10 the games would be a total nightmare.. Fish I would have to row flat out to get the fish to the top of the screen and then it wouldn't stay there.. Darts... Even though I was doing pretty much the same stroke and tempo throughout it would go all over the place.. One dart bullseye the next not even on the board. As an experiment I moved the damper to 5 and all of a sudden it seemed to 'calibrate' itself.. Even though still have to row very hard to get the fish to the top the darts is a lot more accurate. Happy staying with damper below 10. Just was curious as to why this was?

[Citroen]

See viewtopic.php?f=10&t=189989

I'll merge this thread with that one after you've seen that.

[withnail69]

Yeah I read that but it doesn't appear to be the same problem.
Are you sure it is? My rower is fine at damper 5 but that guys isn't.. Its more like how the PM5 reacts to my rowing. Apologies if you think my rower is correct but it really doesn't feel that way.

[Citroen]

Yeah I read that but it doesn't appear to be the same problem.
Are you sure it is? My rower is fine at damper 5 but that guys isn't.. Its more like how the PM5 reacts to my rowing. Apologies if you think my rower is correct but it really doesn't feel that way.

It always is. Get the PM5 to show you the drag factor (lever position is irrelevant if a machine is full of dust, cruft & crud).

[Dangerscouse]

Yeah I read that but it doesn't appear to be the same problem.
Are you sure it is? My rower is fine at damper 5 but that guys isn't.. Its more like how the PM5 reacts to my rowing. Apologies if you think my rower is correct but it really doesn't feel that way.

The only relevant information is the drag factor as the damper setting can vary so much from rower to rower.

I'm 99% sure your gym rower will not have been cleaned so your damper setting of 10 will have almost certainly correlate to a setting of 5 on a new rower. As an example my rower when I got it had a max drag of 242 (damper 10) but on a typical gym rower this would have been circa 150-180, at best, on damper 10. I have heard stories of people seeing a max drag of circa 100 on gym rowers.

Don't worry about lowering the damper setting as it's a massive fallacy that you need to row with it on maximum and the elite rowers row with it on circa 130 (a damper of circa 5 on a clean, properly maintained rower)

[withnail69]

Thanks so much both of you I will checkout the drag factor tonight and report back

[withnail69]

Hi all.
So at the start and end of my session last night I checked the drag factor.. The first few strokes it was 130 then settled down to about 120 thats with damper at 6. Felt quite tough last night. I did 4466m in 20 mins. Pace boat was 2:15/500m and that felt hard to keep up with.

[Dangerscouse]

Hi all.
So at the start and end of my session last night I checked the drag factor.. The first few strokes it was 130 then settled down to about 120 thats with damper at 6. Felt quite tough last night. I did 4466m in 20 mins. Pace boat was 2:15/500m and that felt hard to keep up with.

Knock it down to 110 drag factor and see how that feels

[lindsayh]

you are in the right range at 110-125 so just find a sweet spot and stick with it

[withnail69]

Thanks guys

[Dangerscouse]

You're welcome, and don't ever think it's a bad thing if you prefer to row at any drag factor. It's all a means to an end, and all that really matters is that you maximise the result.

[CJOttawa]

A rowing coach posted a video on drag factor via YouTube. If I'm allowed to post that here...

https://youtu.be/ALe3rHBIp7g

The TL;DR: a lot of people default to WAY too high a drag factor - it'd be like trying to ride a bike 100km in top gear. (read: inefficient)

C2 posted a great article: https://www.concept2.com/news/damper-and-drag-olympians

From that, Olympian Gevvie Stone mentions using a DF of 112-115 and a damper of 10 being a recipe for injury.

[thr1961]

Here's a strange side question: After testing DF at several damper settings, I ended up at perhaps 5.75. I use the ergdata app during rowing to monitor DF and it was right around 110 (which was my goal)

Yet when I look at my uploaded log data, I am seeing DF numbers nearing 200, even though I never see that during a row.

Any ideas?

[Dangerscouse]

Here's a strange side question: After testing DF at several damper settings, I ended up at perhaps 5.75. I use the ergdata app during rowing to monitor DF and it was right around 110 (which was my goal)

Yet when I look at my uploaded log data, I am seeing DF numbers nearing 200, even though I never see that during a row.

Any ideas?

That is odd, and I haven't ever heard of that before, but I'm certain that it was 110.

A drag of 200 would be around 8-9 on any rowing machine, no matter how clean it is. My rower after a good clean has a max drag of 218, but when it was new it was 242.

[philjoakley]

The general advice on here to ignore damper and get the C2 to display drag is a good one. 120-130 will suit most people.