reducing friction on the slide

[Rvanvoris]

when I ERG i dislike having any resistance on the slide. It bothers me when there is that black build up that I see on so many ERG slides and I can't stand that bumpy feeling under my backside as I go up and down the slide. So I have begun to clean and treat the slide in a three step protocol.
1- I scrub it down with a very light abrasive pad, fine scotchbright, and a little bit of mineral spirits as a solvent.
2- wipe it all down with a rag
3- rub the whole slide down with wax paper.
This is the same way I maintain the tops of my stationary power tools, table saw, planer, and it seems to work very well. I no longer feel as if part of my workout is being taken up fighting the grit on the slide and it feels like I get better times on my pieces, not that at 61 I am any speed king.
Any feed back on this process?

[Citroen]

You may want to replace your seat rollers.

Do not use abrasives on the rail, a cleaner like Windex is good enough.

[jackarabit]

Ditto Windex a cappella. Lubes and wax give the dust a binder to work with. Think about this a minute and you'll notice that most of what consolidates and adheres is fine dust that settles all the time. Makes sense to wipe the rail before you sit down but no one does to my knowledge. Occasionally a small, hard particle or hair will stick to or embed in one of the rollers. Clean them also. Jack

[Cyclist2]

I clean my rail and rollers after every row. I still sometimes got some roughness until I noticed the edges, not just the top, get dirty, too. So now I use my rag-covered fingernail to clean the crease where the rollers hang over the edge, and wipe down the edges of the rail.

Regarding abrasives on the rail, I agree to not use them routinely. However, when I bought my Model C used, the rail was in really bad condition. I used cleaners to get most of it off, but found to get it back to near new smoothness, rubbing compound like they use on car finishes, worked really well. I now use a non-abrasive Scotchbrite pad on both the rollers and rail (and my slide rollers and rails) when the buildup gets beyond routine wipedown.

[Hollywood_Kuma]

Nobody likes a bumpy bottom.

I find water on a cloth is sufficient to remove the black from the monorail, even in gyms where the rails are invariably scummy. Some people use Windowlene (and C2 recommend this), but I've always found a damp cloth is sufficient.

For this reason, I always take a small second towel to the gym with me to de-scum the rail.

You shouldn't need to use abrasives and these will harm your machine.

If you are still having problems, it is possible the rollers are shot. They are cheap and simple to replace and available from the online C2 shop.

[rowbike]

I think you may be achieving a similar result with the wax paper that I do with baby oil.

The best thing I have found for keeping the rail clean is to use baby oil to clean and polish it. I know people have mentioned to not use lubricants, but that is not the purpose of putting the baby oil on the rail to clean/polish. Polishing the rail is similar to what you might do when applying WD-40 to tools and an machinery you want to protect from dirt and grime, or waxing your car to help keep it clean.

The baby oil breaks down whatever gunk is already on the rail making it easy to wipe off the first time you do this. You want to wipe off any excess oil so that you are effectively polishing the rail. That does not leave enough to cause any roller slippage when rowing, but it does leave enough to create a barrier so that any dust gets encapsulated in the thin film of oil, and prevents it from sticking to either the rail or rollers, so you should not have the black gunk issue in the future.

I have not had any buildup on either the rail or rollers since I began doing this. I only need to clean the rail every week or so using this method rather than daily before. I stopped using windex since all it does is create a surface that seems to attract and allows dirt and dust to adhere.

The key is to polish and clean the rail with the baby oil, not lubricate it. You don't want excess oil or anything more than what is left after buffing it down. I suppose you could use WD-40 and achieve the same thing, but the baby oil is cheap and safe.

[Carl Watts]

The black stuff is water based and comes off better with a damp cloth than anything else.

The slide & rollers need nothing to clean it other than the cloth. Quick regular cleaning before every row keeps the roller surface smooth and you never need to replace them. The bearings I have replaced with double rubber shielded rollers, these keep out any dust and water and a good quality Japanese bearing here will last forever.

You don't want oil or wax on the slide, it needs to be smooth but have enough grip for the rollers to turn not to skid.

[rowbike]

The seat rollers effectively act as a bearing on the rail. The surface that makes contact with the bearing should be lubricated to a proper degree to reduce friction. You don't want to over lubricate (i.e. standing oil on rail), but a light buffed film of oil provides the best surface environment for the rollers which are under 100+ pounds of pressure. They will not slide or slip due to the weight, friction and minimal oil involved. This engineering principle has been proven over the centuries.

My rationale for using baby oil on the rail is to ease cleaning of the rail, but it also doubles to reduce unnecessary friction between the rollers and rail. Reduced friction should also lengthen the life of the rollers by reducing wear.

After constantly needing to clean the rails during the first 250K meters on my erg I switched to cleaning with baby oil and have 2 million meters with zero buildup on the rail and much less frequent cleanings. Bottom line, it has worked well for me.

[Carl Watts]

From an engineering point of view the hard nylon rollers are not ideal. A better set-up would be the right hardness grade of Nolathane over an alloy bearing holder. This would have some give to foreign objects on the rail and would therefore not pit the roller, would provide more grip and be quieter. This however would be significantly more expensive.

The current set-up works if you keep it really clean, the black is minute wear from the stainless slide and dust. Failure to keep the slide clean results in a very rough ride which is extremely distracting, pitting of the rollers and possible cracking of the stainless slide cover on the rail.

[rowbike]

The idea for a roller with more give makes sense. Too bad an option is not available.

Regarding the use of mineral/baby oil on the rail, this was actually not my original idea, but something I found when searching for a solution to a constantly dirty rail. I got the idea from an earlier post on the forum where even a C2 representative suggested it as one alternative to maintaining the rail. Its certainly not necessary, I just feel strongly about it since it solved what was becoming a very frustrating problem in having to clean the rail sometimes multiple times during a workout.

http://www.c2forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10329

I believe the main reason was to eliminate squeaks, but I found it helped with cleaning and making a smoother stroke. One person even uses Pledge on the rail, which is kind of intriguing as well.

[jasontourt]

Thanks for the tip about applying a thin coating of mineral/baby oil.

I gave it a try, and it does seem that the black spots appearing on the rail has decreased.