heard a bang whilst rowing

[Tonyg]

Hi Folks,
hoping I can some some pointers of where to look or investigate.

I was doing an easy steady row, when I suddenly heard a bang, not a massive catastrophic bang but loud enough for me to think "what on earth was that!".
The chain returned as normal but initially it somehow didn't feel the normal amount of resistance on the pull, but after rested seemed to get more resistant to being pulled, hope that makes sense.
Underneath where the plastic cover is, i can feel something resting on the plastic, unfortunately i've never paid enough attention to the underneath to know if that's always been the case.

The rower has done just under 2 million meters, never dropped a beat until now, any thoughts, ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Best wishes
Tony

[Ombrax]

I'd remove the plastic piece that closes out the long slot at the bottom of the rail and take a look. I would guess that there's a problem with the chain retract / bungee system.

The information and images at the link below should help:

https://cms.concept2.com/sites/default/ ... stment.pdf

[Tonyg]

Thank you, i will have a look at it. Thank you for the documant.

[Tsnor]

sometimes a video helps. The first few seconds show sliding the plastic piece out of the erg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeC7NLcGnFw

If you grabbed the erg to move it sometimes the plastic piece gets pushed up - it's right where you want to put your hand.

good luck

[stevegaspars]

Or a video from Concept2 on how to replace practically everything that is part of the drivetrain on the erg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVn3VgKatXM

By far the best repair howto video i have ever found for RowErg.

[Tonyg]

Thanks ever so much folks!

I had a look underneath and couldn't see anything concerning, in fact it all looked in amazing condition, tiny bit of fluff off the shock cord, etc.
I intend on doing another row tomorrow so will assess again and hope it was just a random pop / bang; fingers crossed

[Ombrax]

Tony,

One test is to see how the chain and handle behave at both very slow and very high handle speeds & stroke rates.

1) Sit on the erg, near the "back" end (away from the flywheel) with your feet on the ground and slowly pull out and return the handle and see if you feel or hear anything strange or different.

2) Do a few hundred meters of actual rowing, start at a stroke rate of say, 15 spm and watch how the chain retracts. Increase the stroke rate to 20 spm, then 22, 24, 26, etc. up to the highest spm you typically do, plus a bit more if you can. While doing so watch carefully to see how well the bungee retracts the chain. You can sort of tell at high stroke rates by watching the dip in the chain as the handle moves back to flywheel faster than the bungee typically wants to retract.

If everything seems fine in both tests it's probably safe to assume that there isn't anything obviously wrong.

Good Luck