A couple of (sort of) newbie questions!

APM · Post by **APM** » November 5th, 2009, 5:47 am

Good morning one and all;

to cut a long story short, I am a experienced erg user, but until now that has solely been on the Model D (and C before that) in the gym. However, as of last week I finally took the plunge and bought my own Model D, which so far I am delighted with.

Consequently I have two, somewhat unrelated questions regarding a, my machine, and b, a fundamental rowing question that has been bugging me for a while.

a) When the machine is new, out of the box, is the resistance higher than that of machines that have been 'warn in?' I am sure that the pull back was neevr this difficult! And also, do you have to oil the chain straight away?

b) When people race and set their pb's in terms of races, is the resistance level on 10?

Thanks!

SirWired · Post by **SirWired** » November 5th, 2009, 10:46 am

a) Yes, a new machine will have higher drag at a given damper setting. That is because a new machine is clean, while a used one often has dust plugging the damper holes (the dust reduces drag.)

b) 2k resistance varies from 2-6 or so, assuming a clean machine. The best race setting is the one that enables you to get your fastest time. This will be different for everybody. All other factors being equal, tall, light athletes will perform better on lower settings and squat, muscular athletes will perform better on higher settings.

Read up on "drag factor" for more information. Drag Factor is the "secret sauce" that enables C2 results to be directly compared with each other, no matter the age of the machine, or how the damper is set.

SirWired