Concept2 Forum

I have owned my row machine since late 1992 and the only issue I have had was that the u bolt which supports the front legs underneath the foot pedals snapped in two. I called the support people here at concept 2 and they sent me the part for free. That was several years ago. Today I was rowing and my machine started lurching back and forth with each pull of the handle. I thought the u bolt was either lose or broke, but upon further inspection I was shocked to see that the steel or aluminum frame which houses the chain and bungee cord was cracked along both bottom corners surrounding the u-bolt and extended about an 1 1/2 inches inches up the track. The crack gaps were about 1/8 to 1/4 inches thick. In other words the metal was fatiqued and was to the point where the machine was about to buckle at that spot.

My question is this: Can this be fixed with a weld job? Or is the damage too unfixable? Should I just bite the bullet and buy a new concept 2? Are there used ones out there that are in good shape that I could save a couple of hundred bucks? I noticed these later models have the front legs under the fly wheel. Do these tend to buckle underneath the foot pedals after a certain period of use? It just looks like if someone sat towards the midpoint of the machine that it would buckle.

Any answers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Disassemble it and take it to a good weld shop and see what they think- I bet it could be fixed pretty cheaply. Note that depending on its vintage the monorail will be made of either carbon steel with chrome plating or stainless steel- the welder should be able to tell the difference. We can sell you a new one for about $175. This is an unusual failure and may be the result of using it with the fasteners loose. C2JonW

c2jonw wrote:Disassemble it and take it to a good weld shop and see what they think- I bet it could be fixed pretty cheaply. Note that depending on its vintage the monorail will be made of either carbon steel with chrome plating or stainless steel- the welder should be able to tell the difference. We can sell you a new one for about $175. This is an unusual failure and may be the result of using it with the fasteners loose. C2JonW

Thanks for the response. I would be willing to bet money that the fasteners were loose as I believe that was the reason the u-bolt failed years ago.

I will first take your suggestion and take it to a welder and see what he thinks. If I end up buying the monorail what would it cost to ship it. UPS ground is incredidbly expensive to ship to Alaska. Would you be able to send it via U.S. postal service? Also since I am disassembling it, do you think I need to replace the shock cord. I still have the original one on it even though I have put on nearly 8 million meters on it. What do I need to look for in a possibly failing shock cord?

Lastly, I thought I saw a blurb on this website last week that you had a limited amount of used rowing machines for sale that were used in competitive races. Did they all sell out?

try the ads in this place I bought two singles off of here years ago.

http://www.row2k.com/classifieds/

Hal,

Just what I was looking for. Thanks for the link!

Best to just call our customer service line for a price on shipping. If you have the machine apart anyway you might as well put a new shock cord in it. Typically a cord will show signs of wear first in the areas where it's running over pulleys. This will start as a fuzziness of the cord surface and will eventually progress to the point where the internal rubber fibers are visible. If you can see rubber fibers it's definitely time to replace. C2JonW

Well I got the mono rail welded and I put it back together. Now I have an annoying problem. Now when I use the machine, there is a rythmic ting or a tock sound inside the monorail with every stroke and it is driving me nuts. If I pull the handle slightly right of center during a full stroke then it doesn't ting but if I pull it to the center of my body or to the left of center then I hear that annoying ting with each pull. Any suggestions of what may be causing this? Evidently, I reinstalled the skew assembly incorrectly into the monorail. What do I need to do to correct the problem? I do indeed own the model B type.

I solved the problem of the annoying ting inside the mono rail. Instead of putting the chain on the large sprocket of the fly wheel, I instead put it on the smaller sprocket and now the noise is gone. It does feel heavier to row as if I am rowing a large boat but I can deal with it. Best news is that I am back in business and not a moment too soon as minus 40 degree weather is upon us! Thanks for all that responded!

AlaskaCat wrote:I solved the problem of the annoying ting inside the mono rail. Instead of putting the chain on the large sprocket of the fly wheel, I instead put it on the smaller sprocket and now the noise is gone. It does feel heavier to row as if I am rowing a large boat but I can deal with it. Best news is that I am back in business and not a moment too soon as minus 40 degree weather is upon us! Thanks for all that responded!

With the B, it is easy to lower the drag factor by enclosing part of that open cage. That will make it like a much lighter boat. The problem with the B is that it came with the old PM (i.e. "PM1") which doesn't display the drag factor, so you can't compare it with other machines or get an accurate idea of the effect of any air flow shielding that you might add. If you have a later PM or install one, it is no problem.

Bob S.