D Handle Blue Rubber Stuff

[[old] seat5]

My model C has a D handle that seems ok as far as the ergonomic shape (not straight like the C handle, which seemed comfy to me too). The problem is that the blue rubber stuff on the handle is disintegrating in finger tip shaped wear spots. I had been feeling this icky gritty feeling for a while but hadn't really investigated it. The other day I looked at the handle from a different angle than usual and discovered the wear spots. The left hand wear spots are much deeper, and strangely enough, the deepest one is under the little finger. It's probably about 1/8" deep. The right hand ones are similar in that way, but aren't as badly worn down as the left. The strangest part of it is that on my hands, I tend to get more uncomfortable callouses/blisters than I do on the left hand. <br /><br />I usually row with my thumbs on top of the handle to help make sure I don't hold it with a death grip and because I've found it seems to help prevent some pain problems with the base of the thumb/wrist that crop up now and then. <br /><br />I don't remember getting any of this with the old C handle. It got more slippery with sweat, I think, but I don't remember as many blister problems.<br /><br />Is this happening to anyone else? Is the blue stuff defective or do I just have really caustic sweat or something?

[[old] nysaag]

Carla- <br /> <br /> I have had a similiar problem with my blue D handle. When I posted a message like yours last year C2Jon responded:<br /><br /> "When we came out with the D in July of 2003, we thought we had the hardness of the grip material right. We tested it in-house and in the field and it seemed to work well. but wearing was recognized to be an issue after we started production. In December of 2003. we started shipping machines with a slightly harder material, which was better but still had some premature wear issues. We bumped the durometer up a notch again, and since August of 2004 we have been using this harder (87A, if you're interested) material.<br />So if you are having wear issues and the handle is older than Augst 04, the new handle might help. or you could remove the blue material entirely and put on a grip of your own choosing.<br />Grips, like seating, are a very personal issue, and it's hard to get it right for everyone all of the time. We have a couple dozen employees who row our fleet of eight ergs, and we see very little grip wear. The stock grip works fine for me, but I also have one of the company ergs set up with bike handlebar tape, which is easy on the hands for longer rows. I would not, however, suggest that this would be a good production solution as it isn't very durable and being open cell it gets damp and can be a bacteria harbor....Jon"<br /><br />

[[old] seat5]

Thanks, I sort of remembered someone else posting about this but couldn't find it. Maybe I'll take this stuff off and try the bike tape. It's nasty when the little crumby crumbs are sliming around in your sweat. Ick.

[[old] Godfried]

see <a href='http://concept2.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=27&hl=' target='_blank'>old post</a> or <a href='http://concept2.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=262&hl=' target='_blank'>old post</a> or <a href='http://concept2.ipbhost.com/index.php?s ... c=3053&hl=' target='_blank'>old post</a>

[[old] seat5]

I took off the D handle and put the C handle back on. It was brand new, because when I got this erg, it had the D handle on it & I don't think it had ever been rowed with this C handle. <br /><br />It feels so much better than the blue one. I've only rowed one piece with it, so time will tell if the straightness of it will give me any wrist problems--it didn't before, so I don't see why it should. As a matter of fact, I've had a few wrist problems since rowing with the blue handle, so this is probably going to be better.<br /><br />I feel like I pull more evenly and even push more evenly with my legs with the wooden handle, though that doesn't make very much sense. Hopefully I'll have fewer and smaller callouses and blisters.

[[old] derm]

<!--QuoteBegin-seat5+Jan 15 2006, 01:48 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(seat5 @ Jan 15 2006, 01:48 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I took off the D handle and put the C handle back on.  It was brand new, because when I got this erg, it had the D handle on it & I don't think it had ever been rowed with this C handle. <br /><br />It feels so much better than the blue one.  I've only rowed one piece with it, so time will tell if the straightness of it will give me any wrist problems--it didn't before, so I don't see why it should.  As a matter of fact, I've had a few wrist problems since rowing with the blue handle, so this is probably going to be better.<br /><br />I feel like I pull more evenly and even push more evenly with my legs with the wooden handle, though that doesn't make very much sense.  Hopefully I'll have fewer and smaller callouses and blisters. <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Interesting. I have blisters and calluses with the blue angled handle on our new D and never had them with the handle on the B or C at the gym which are well worn and at least 20million meters old.<br />Hank