Drag factor on new machines

[H2O]

What is the drag factor at damper settings 1-6 on new machines?
I am asking since at races you cannot display the drag factor and I seem to never be able to get the damper setting right.

[Ombrax]

since at races you cannot display the drag factor

I'm not a racer, so I have no first hand experience, but I've never heard that before.

[JaapvanE]

I have a script that marks my workout titles with damper setting based on the dragfactor recorded, which I validated when the machine was new. I have the following ranges:

• Damper 1: dragfactor below 77
• Damper 2: dragfactor between 77 and 88
• Damper 3: dragfactor between 88 and 100
• Damper 4: dragfactor between 100 and 113
• Damper 5: dragfactor between 113 and 129
• Damper 6: dragfactor between 129 and 148
• Damper 7: dragfactor between 148 and 165
• Damper 8: dragfactor between 165 and 187
• Damper 9: dragfactor between 187 and 205
• Damper 10: dragfactor above 205

Please note: based on temperature and humidity changes, the damper value moves a bit. For example, my normal setting is 148ish, but some days I get see a 146 in the logbooks, and sometimes a 150. So this isn't a true exact science....

[nick rockliff]

What is the drag factor at damper settings 1-6 on new machines?
I am asking since at races you cannot display the drag factor and I seem to never be able to get the damper setting right.

All the races I have done, which is quite a lot, you can warm up and set the df before you are told to stop rowing.

[JaapvanE]

I'm not a racer, so I have no first hand experience, but I've never heard that before.

I believe you normally are allowed to set your damper and check your dragfactor. Although DF tends to fluctuate a bit, getting it way off will kill a race for sure.

[H2O]

All the races I have done, which is quite a lot, you can warm up and set the df before you are told to stop rowing.

Thanks, that's good to know! Last time I tried it must have been too late and I had no control over the monitor, so I have never tried again.

[H2O]

I have a script that marks my workout titles with damper setting based on the dragfactor recorded, which I validated when the machine was new. I have the following ranges:

• Damper 1: dragfactor below 77
• Damper 2: dragfactor between 77 and 88
• Damper 3: dragfactor between 88 and 100
• Damper 4: dragfactor between 100 and 113
• Damper 5: dragfactor between 113 and 129
• Damper 6: dragfactor between 129 and 148
• Damper 7: dragfactor between 148 and 165
• Damper 8: dragfactor between 165 and 187
• Damper 9: dragfactor between 187 and 205
• Damper 10: dragfactor above 205

Please note: based on temperature and humidity changes, the damper value moves a bit. For example, my normal setting is 148ish, but some days I get see a 146 in the logbooks, and sometimes a 150. So this isn't a true exact science....

That's extremely interesting. I wanted to row on DF 115 and set it to that level in warmup and did a race start where I saw 2:08 - 1:51 - 1:49 and rowed for 40 secs keeping it at 1:53 and this felt not very heavy. Then to check what would happen if the DF is even lower, I set it to 107 and did the same with a similar result. Now on my machine I have to set it to level 5.8 (close to the marker between 5 and 6) to get DF 115. Since my machine is not very dirty (DF 205 all the way open) I first set the race machine to level 4.5. This felt too heavy and I pushed it down to slightly below 4.
When I pulled off, I saw 2.20 - 1:56 -1:55 and it still felt too heavy. This is baffling, as I did all my time trials (except the 30 min test) at DF 123 - 130, so I should be somewhat tolerant of a slightly higher drag factor. The 30 min test one week before the race I did at DF 115 and this worked very well that's why I wanted to hit this DF at the race.

Now the first stroke at 2:20 (of which I am not totally certain) can be explained by reacting a little slow. But the next two (of which I am certain) should have been in the ball park anyway.

[Sakly]

What is the drag factor at damper settings 1-6 on new machines?
I am asking since at races you cannot display the drag factor and I seem to never be able to get the damper setting right.

On my last race (which was my first at all btw) I could see the drag factor displayed on the bottom right corner during warmup phase. Didn't need to touch any button at all.
Set it up to my desired value and then the race already started. Pretty sure the race display didn't show the drag factor.