Importance of a clean machine and DF

[2001rotax800]

Hello everyone. I have been rowing on and off for the last year and have recently been pretty serious. I have been educating myself with videos on youtube(Dark Horse) mainly. I began with 2 separate rows of 5000M to set a base line, to my surprise they were within .6 seconds of each other(19:33.6 and 19:33.0) Not the best but it is a start.

I quickly realized that I have a lot of work to do (conditioning and form) to get where I want to be. The machine I am using is part of a Public Gym, so needless to say it has not been maintained very well.

I tried to adjust the damper setting from 1 all the way to 10 and there was not much change. in hind sight I could not get the flywheel to engage during my leg drive. I didn't think anything of it, but then I watched the maintenance videos by Dark Horse. I asked the owner of the gym if I could clean the machine, and if we could upgrade the PM3 to a PM5. The machine was horrifically DIRTY!! I took drag factor readings before cleaning and they were for damper position setting 1,5,and 10- 63,83,101 respectively. After a thorough cleaning the drag factor increased to 80,129,208 for the same damper positions. A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!

I then adjusted the damper setting to a Drag Factor of what felt comfortable to me(104) and rowed a 5000m workout. I shaved 33 Seconds off my time coming in at 19:01.2.

Keep this in mind if you have plateaued and just don't feel like your Drag Factor is right. Clean your machine and experiment with the damper settings.

I hope this helps someone.

[Ripples]

That's quite an improvement thanks to your work (and cleaning).

That Dark Horse video on cleaning and maintenance is quite thorough. I guess that's another benefit of having a C2 at home; I clean it before and after each use and keep it covered with a sheet when not in use - at least in the winter when the furnace is running.

Hope your gym upgrades to the PM5.

[Ombrax]

Completely random comment for the OP:

I have a 2001 Aprilia Futura, which of course has a Rotax engine. (but not an 800)

I need to do some work to improve the charging system, but it still runs very well.

Back to rowing: it's amazing how much the HP / weight ratio is for those engines compared a puny human's output...

[hjs]

Very common problem, have seen this often, certainly in hotel gyms, those are often the most clueless.

[2001rotax800]

They did upgrade, I guess I forgot to add that. It sure is nice to have all that data recorded and available to review. I have ordered a C2 for home as well, with the PM5 of course!!!!

Yes Rotax builds some incredible machines, from leisure fun toys to high end aircraft!

[Carl Watts]

Completely random comment for the OP:

I have a 2001 Aprilia Futura, which of course has a Rotax engine. (but not an 800)

I need to do some work to improve the charging system, but it still runs very well.

Start a new bike post, getting back on one myself in August this year. Would be interesting to see how many rowers also have bikes.

[Ombrax]

Are Off Topic threads allowed? I can't even remember the last time I saw an OT thread here.

[jackarabit]

Good job finding out for yourself about the influence of df, rotax, and of conveying the message to your gym owner.

OT posts have their uses. I find them most useful for breaking up page-long, defeat-in-detail screeds by members whose vast expertise entitles them to battle to the death over every jot of what they did or didn’t say and every tittle of what they meant or didn’t mean. Also good for putting folks together who share interests besides rowing/erging.

[Citroen]

Are Off Topic threads allowed? I can't even remember the last time I saw an OT thread here.

We don't get enough OT threads to even think about them let alone worry about them.

Doing OT things in this subforum viewforum.php?f=7 won't trigger any action.