Concept2 Forum

The fitness center at my apartment complex just added a Stairmaster HIIT Rower. Basically it is knock-off Concept 2.

I have a Concept 2 Model D with PM5 that I use at home. I like it, I spend a lot of time on it. I wish they would have gotten the C2, but they didn't.

I sync my workouts with Ergdata, which then syncs them to Strava, which tracks my combined totals on erg and on the water and credits the meters against my goals.

The fitness center is in a nice location, with a nice view, and is more social than my lonely C2 in my apartment. But there is no way I'm using the Stairmaster erg unless the meters can sync with Strava.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I saw an older thread where someone was asking about connecting a PM5 to a Stairmaster Rower (which does have a bluetooth function BTW), but I haven't seen anything about using Ergdata or another app with the Stairmaster to capture the workouts and sync them with Strava.

And, just to be clear, I'm not a fan of the Stairmaster. The only thing I like about it is its location.

Thanks for any suggestions.

What I see on-line is that the Stairmaster comes with bluetooth connection to sync data with your phone. Probably you could send it directly to Strava, or upoad it as a file to Strava. Another alternative is to use RowsAndAl, and let them do the heavy lifting of dataconversion.

Steeps wrote: ↑

June 1st, 2022, 6:34 pm

The fitness center is in a nice location, with a nice view, and is more social than my lonely C2 in my apartment.

We're all different, but the only thing I look at while erging is the PM display, and I certainly can't carry on a conversation with anyone else.

Maybe you could continue to use your C2, and use the fitness center for the rest of your workout.

My gym used to have Concept 2's and they recently replaced them with the Stairmaster HIIT Rowers. Why, I don't know. I don't see this as an upgrade in any way. The look and feel is very similar to the C2, but I don't get how to use the monitor. Every time I look at the monitor to evaluate data, It shuts off for inactivity. Its not very user friendly.

My experience with knockoffs is that they don't get the details right. Concept 2 was designed by rowers, they know how a rower should feel and what it did on the water. The knockoffs I encountered typically had heavy flywheels (thus quite an abrupt catch) and the metrics were total BS, they simply counted pulses without acceleration etc.

I find the Stairmaster to be unusable.

I have a Stairmaster HIIT rower (SMH) and a C2, WaterRower, Whipr, Bodycraft VR500 and an FDF Apollo. The SMH's data is close to the C2 since the manufacturer did try hard to match their software algorithm by testing with C2's PM5. I use the Regatta app to sync with the SMH and get the data directly from the Stairmaster HIIT, as the app also then syncs and loads it to Strava, Apple Health for all machines, and for C2's to the C2 Logbook. I've found the pace and distance comparable to within 5%-10% of the C2, while the Watts is more like 20% difference. The SMH is a decent last resort stunt double for the C2 in terms of comparable mechanical function (form & feel). If you use a C2 a lot you can probably self calibrate to the SMH and mentally adjust the numbers. I'd suggest using a separate HR monitor to improve that self-calibration - I find my HR tracks consistently across all machines depending on my perceived rate of exertion.

Aquaman wrote: ↑

August 2nd, 2022, 1:16 pm

I've found the pace and distance comparable to within 5%-10% of the C2, while the Watts is more like 20% difference.

That is kind of odd: the Power (in Watts) is equal to a constant (2.8 for C2) times the cube of the boat speed. So if you get the boat speed near to Concept2's, you should easily be able to display the correct watts.

Do you collect rowing machines?

Hey JaapvanE - Your equation may be true for Concept2 Watts calculation, but I was making a comparison between what a Concept2 shows and what a StairMaster HIIT rower shows for relatively equivalent perceived effort. We don't have the formulas for how Stairmaster calculates the Power so we're left to guess or extrapolate from console reported data points. I don't think they are using boat speed for their ergs, but I could be wrong. They've never mentioned it in their algorithm development.

I've found the pace and distance comparable to within 5%-10% of the C2, while the Watts is more like 20% difference.

That's consistent with the cube law: 1.05³ = 1.158.

Whatever the machine if it's mechanically reliable, it should be usable. There's always HR to use as a proxy for power; or has it suddenly gone out of favor? Even that was probably accurate to +/- 10% at worst.

Aquaman wrote: ↑

August 2nd, 2022, 1:16 pm

I have a Stairmaster HIIT rower (SMH) and a C2, WaterRower, Whipr, Bodycraft VR500 and an FDF Apollo. The SMH's data is close to the C2 since the manufacturer did try hard to match their software algorithm by testing with C2's PM5. I use the Regatta app to sync with the SMH and get the data directly from the Stairmaster HIIT, as the app also then syncs and loads it to Strava, Apple Health for all machines, and for C2's to the C2 Logbook. I've found the pace and distance comparable to within 5%-10% of the C2, while the Watts is more like 20% difference. The SMH is a decent last resort stunt double for the C2 in terms of comparable mechanical function (form & feel). If you use a C2 a lot you can probably self calibrate to the SMH and mentally adjust the numbers. I'd suggest using a separate HR monitor to improve that self-calibration - I find my HR tracks consistently across all machines depending on my perceived rate of exertion.

May I ask you how did you manage to connect the Bluetooth of the Stairmaster Rower to anything? Is there a ritual. A YouTube video or something anywhere online to guide through the steps? I’d really appreciate any kind of help to try to get logs out of this Stairmaster HIIT Rower Machine

Sorry - Just saw this response, but will admit I no longer use the Stairmaster HIIT rower. I recall that it had a Bluetooth button in the top right of the console. When you press that, a Bluetooth icon would flash on the screen at the top. You would then have to go into the Bluetooth connection menu of whatever app you were using to see if it:

(a) Could recognize the signal and machine
(b) Make a connection to it
(c) Receive the transmitted data and format it for use in the app.

To my knowledge it transmitted in FTMS format for rowing machine data, so your app needs to be able to decode and use that. Also, it only did real-time transmission of the in-workout data and did also offer log or previous workout record downloads.

I did not try using Ergdata with it, but it worked with other apps in the C2 store that have FTMS connectivity.

Manual I could find: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/14946 ... =12#manual