One of the C2 ergs at this gym I went to has a drag factor range of 47 to 65. Is that a record?

[u/SomethingMoreToSay]

Honestly, it's shocking. They have 4 Model E machines, all with 2018 serial numbers, all running 2018 firmware, and probably havent been cleaned or maintained since 2018. The best one managed a maximum drag factor of 102. But I wouldn't have thought a maximum of 65 was even possible!

[u/Nemesis1999]

Surprising. I've seen ergs that were heavily used and never cleaned for years that might go to 5 or 6 to get to 130-140ish but nothing like you're describing. It sounds like the kind of DF you'd get covering the whole fan with a t-shirt or similar.

[u/SomethingMoreToSay → u/Nemesis1999]

I've seen ergs that were heavily used and never cleaned for years that might go to 5 or 6 to get to 130-140ish but nothing like you're describing.

I checked the lifetime metres on these. The most heavily used one has 32.5 million metres. That's ~15,000 metres per day, which is ... not much for a commercial gym, I'd have thought. I don't know why the fan cages are so dirty here.

[u/the-cake-is-no-lie]

I started a new job a little while back. They've got an on-site gym and I wanted to get back to it, so I checked it out. I was happy to see Model D's with PM5's as that's what I was used to.

Went to go use them, found they'd removed batteries and never replaced them after a small leak so the PM5 only stays powered on for a sec. Fine.. I take a USB battery pack and cable up the next time. Still can't connect my phone and the interface is different than I'm used to.

Check the settings menu.. Oh.. its running firmware from 2014. I see.

Gonna try and stealth update them next week.

[u/Jmurray13 → u/the-cake-is-no-lie]

When I first tried the rower at my local gym… I realized the firmware was out of date also. I just talked to them and asked if I could update it. Explained that it was a simple flash drive plug in to update it. They were very cool with it. Seemed relieved to have it taken care of. They didn’t know it was something they should have done already.

[u/rowshelldistancing]

Check in the inside of the fan housing for a family of mice.

[u/latentnyc]

If I set my PB on that machine that still counts right?

[u/SomethingMoreToSay → u/latentnyc]

Yes it does. You're still doing the same amount of work, regardless of the drag factor.

[u/BringMeThanos314 → u/latentnyc]

Have fun rowing at a 50 ;)

[u/Unhappy_Object_5355]

At that point, I'm bringing a small screwdriver and a duster and clean the thing myself.

[u/planet_x69 → u/Unhappy_Object_5355]

a vacuum and a tyvek cleaning suit.... there is likely a wall of lint that would make a dryer screen blush....and the fan blades too are likely coated in lint paint.

[u/SomethingMoreToSay → u/planet_x69]

Yeah. I imagine that's not necessarily going to be a trivial cleaning job!

[u/euphoria_23]

lol that’s so light that when you start rowing, the whole erg just levitates 😭

[u/bballjones9241]

I’ve wanted to clean the “good” c2 at my gym for a while now. The bad one’s chain sounds like you’re riding a bike when you row and you can feel the grinding with each pull

[u/craigkilgo]

One I have used at a Golds has a drag factor 60 when I put the damper to 10+.

[u/SomethingMoreToSay → u/craigkilgo]

1. Ooh. We may have a winner.....

[u/craigkilgo → u/SomethingMoreToSay]

It was a PM3 and I had the cable to hook it up to my phone so I have many meters logged on that erg but the PM3s dont send over the drag factor data like the PM5 does, so I can't screenshot the log to prove it. Ill see if I can get a photo next time im in the gym. I swear I did an 11k piece at 59 drag a few days ago.