I did it

Heifer · Post by **Heifer** » January 14th, 2009, 10:33 am

I caved and bought a C2 for home. I just can't get to the gym often enough and deal with the baby - I have her alone every morning and that is when I have time to work out. This morning while she napped, I rowed. After rowing the C2s at my gym, and my 15-year-old one at my beach house, this one was like rowing the best, newest boat on the best flat-water-like-glass day in the fall. Heaven. Yay.....

Question: Do people have advice about where to put the damper setting (I think it is called that - the thing on the side of the flywheel that you can set from 1 to 10?). My college crew brain says, of course it should always be on 10.

Thoughts?

Cazneau · Post by **Cazneau** » January 14th, 2009, 11:23 am

A damper setting of 3-5 seems to be the standard. It may feel easy, but as you get faster, it will give you plenty of resistance.

pmacaula · Post by **pmacaula** » January 14th, 2009, 11:34 am

Heifer wrote:Question: Do people have advice about where to put the damper setting

H - What Cazneau says is right, though there is more to it.

The numbers on the side of the flywheel can be hard to compare from machine to machine. The number you are searching for is Drag Factor (DF) - which is what determines the 'feel' of the stroke. Its relationship to the Damper Lever number varies based on machine age, cleanliness, etc.

You can get your PM3 or PM4 to show Drag Factor (DF). On a PM3/4, from the Main Menu select More Options > Display Drag Factor & then take a few strokes.

There is a fair bit of detail on this topic at this link http://www.concept2.com/us/training/adv ... factor.asp, but the general thinking is that a Drag factor in the 110-140 range is the right answer for most people. It is calculated based on the rate of deceleration of the flywheel after the finish.

If you want opinions, there are a number of threads on this topic (search on Drag Factor).

Assuming you have a PM2/3/4 on your older machine, you should be able to set it up for the same DF as the new one. May still feel like driving on a gravel road vs a newly paved superhighway !

Cheers. Patrick.

nchasan · Post by **nchasan** » January 14th, 2009, 1:25 pm

Heifer wrote: Question: Do people have advice about where to put the damper setting (I think it is called that - the thing on the side of the flywheel that you can set from 1 to 10?). My college crew brain says, of course it should always be on 10. Thoughts?

Great news! My rowing pals tell me that they all train on level 3 - I have found that to be a good level for me too.

As an aside, based on my calculations, if it took me 17,000 m to lose 3 pounds, then I have to row 283,000 m to hit my goal weight!

N

nchasan · Post by **nchasan** » January 14th, 2009, 1:30 pm

pmacaula wrote: Assuming you have a PM2/3/4 on your older machine, you should be able to set it up for the same DF as the new one. May still feel like driving on a gravel road vs a newly paved superhighway !

Cheers. Patrick.

Patrick, I have an older machine with the PM 2 - I am thinking about an upgrade since the new computers seem so much more sophisticated. do you have strong feelings about PM 3 vs PM 4?

Thanks

Neil

Nomugie · Post by **Nomugie** » January 14th, 2009, 9:21 pm

Ms. H,

Congratulations and enjoy!

I agree that a damper setting usually between 3-5, and if you can display the drag factor a DF 110-140. I use a DF of 115. I started out a 120, but my back dictated I change to a lower one.

Emily

pmacaula · Post by **pmacaula** » January 15th, 2009, 4:13 pm

H - The advice above is good. Seems like the limiting factor on high drag for a lot of people is strain on their back & the limit on the low end is the feeling that you need to racie up & down the slide to get a decent level of intensity in your workout.

Sorry about the hijack below.

nchasan wrote:I have an older machine with the PM 2 - I am thinking about an upgrade since the new computers seem so much more sophisticated. do you have strong feelings about PM 3 vs PM 4?

Neil - I have a Model C with PM2, so likely we are in a similar situation.

Asked for & got a PM3 for Christmas. Unfortunately, some confusion about model (was sent the Model A upgrade kit), so just got the right PM3 kit today. A breeze to set up both in standalone mode & with a trial copy of RowPro.

Motivation for upgrade was to upload workout results to my PC (I do it all by hand right now) and to enable RowPro. I don't think there is really a difference btw the PM3 and PM4 in that regard.

Before deciding on PM3, I trawled the forums & I looked at the C2 comparison http://www.concept2.com/us/indoorrowers ... ompare.asp. Seems like the key differences are:
- wireless for HR monitors (I don't use one),
- wireless for machine-machine racing (I only have one machine at home)
- additional memory & upgradeability (I will upload to the PC, so memory is not an issue & future upgrade would more likely be to a whole new machine - a Model D or whatever is then current for home use).

Given the PM4 is about 2x the price of a PM3, I thought the money would be better spent on a RowPro license & possible a handle replacement (mine is the wood one) and a maintenance kit.

Cheers. Patrick.

nchasan · Post by **nchasan** » January 16th, 2009, 11:00 am

pmacaula wrote:
Neil - I have a Model C with PM2, so likely we are in a similar situation.

Cheers. Patrick.

Thanks Patrick, It seems to me that you can "play more games" on the PM4, looks like the PM3 is the way to go.

Also, thanks for the heads up in identifying the correct model.

Cheers,

Neil

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