Ever replaced the upper seat rollers on your rower?

[Ombrax]

I use a Model E (a relatively old one - it has a PM4) at the gym at work, and for the last two weeks or so it had a bump-bump-bump as the seat moved up and down the rail. Normally cleaning the rail and rollers fixes that, but this case it was due to a bit of metal (presumably from the nearby machine shop, where lots of metal work is done) embedded in the roller. I decided to swap out the existing ones for a new set I had ordered a while back from C2 just in case.

When I had the old rollers out and could better compare them to the new ones it was obvious that on the new ones the width of the section that actually contacts and rolls along the rail is about half the width on the original roller.

Has anyone else noticed this difference? I hope it doesn't affect anything.

Thanks

[Carl Watts]

The biggest problem I had is with the stainless monorail cap strip.

In the factory they use two strips of double sided tape when really the entire strip needed to be covered in tape. The gap up the centre allows capillary action of sweat up the entire length of the monorail and the corrosion is a nightmare once it gets into the aluminium.

I have never needed to replace a roller but in my opinion the old grey ones are better than the white ones. The standard shielded bearings are useless and need to be replaced with 2RS rubber sealed bearings to keep the sweat out.

If you had a lathe the old rollers could easily be refurbished, I would just machine off the surface until it was like new again, probably only 0.1 to 0.2mm would have it come up clean.

If you keep the monorail clean the rollers last a lifetime, they just need new bearings.

[Ombrax]

I was hoping the problem was the bearings - when purchased on Amazon they're a lot cheaper than the rollers, and I have 10 brand new ones just sitting there. The rollers I removed were white, not gray.

I found an image on the web showing both types of rollers together. You can see that the upper (and obviously used) roller has a much wider contact section compared to the lower replacement.

[Sakly]

I was hoping the problem was the bearings - when purchased on Amazon they're a lot cheaper than the rollers, and I have 10 brand new ones just sitting there. The rollers I removed were white, not gray.

I found an image on the web showing both types of rollers together. You can see that the upper (and obviously used) roller has a much wider contact section compared to the lower replacement.

New RowErgs habe the white ones installed, mine has over 5mm now (purchased Jan 2022) and looking like new.

[Tsnor]

... mine has over 5mm now (purchased Jan 2022) and looking like new.

Hope you got your long sleeve shirt. They look nice.

When you reach your million milestone (1 million, 5 million, 10 million etc.) for any given type of Concept2 equipment, go into your Online Logbook account, click Challenges, and scroll down until you see the Million Meter Club area. A section will appear for each ergometer type that you use.

[Sakly]

... mine has over 5mm now (purchased Jan 2022) and looking like new.

Hope you got your long sleeve shirt. They look nice.

As well as the pin