March 19, 2023
Educational 5 Ways You Are Destroying Your Chain
The chain on your rower is fundamental; maintaining it correctly will last a long time and make your rowing stroke feel buttery smooth.
However, it’s really easy to forget some essential maintenance for such an innocuous piece of the machine.
In this blog, we’re dispelling a few myths and adequately explaining what you are doing by maintaining the chain.
- Applying new chain oil on top of existing oil
As easy as it is to slap on a bit of new oil and assume you are doing your maintenance, however, by applying new on top of old, you are effectively creating a grinding paste that will wear away the inner surfaces (links, pins and rollers).
New oils are great, but don’t replace what is already there. So we need to remove the old and reapply the new before we start cranking the meters.
Like your road or mountain bike, when your chain looks dirty, it’s time to break out that rag and warm water and give it a bit of TLC. We highly recommend having a friend help hold the chain out at full length, then use your rag to clean the actual chain, dry it off and then reapply one drop per link of new oil to your chain before working it through the system a few times.
Et Voila!! One clean and oiled chain.
- Over/under tensioning the bungee cords.
Getting into the belly of the beast might not be your thing, but if you start to notice the chain not returning as smoothly, it might be time to find your sword and shield and figure out how much tension you need on the bungees under that frame.
As scary as that may sound, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered with this awesome video and musical rendition of Spice Girls from Shane.
- Too much chain lubricant.
A good rule in life goes, “if it isn’t broken, don’t try and fix it.”
Coating that chain in expensive chain oils is a quick way of creating a nice sticky mess that magnetises dirt and dust.
Back to point 1. Once you’ve done your big maintenance on your chain once every 12 months, you only need to add oil once a quarter or every six months to refresh it.
Regular oiling won’t help the machine, and it’s going to keep some pennies in your pocket for other more exciting additions to your machine, like these seat pads and phone holders from Vapor Fitness
- Using the wrong product.
This one hurts me deeply, but I understand we all eat soup with a fork sometimes, right?
Okay, it’s easy to grab whatever is on the shelf in the DIY store, but thick grease or super thin aerosol spray isn’t what we should be using on your $900 rowing machine.
A 3 in 1 chain lubricant is what you are looking for.
However, not all 3 in 1’s are the same so spend some time researching and then head to the bike store and get one that will give your chain all the love for a long time.
- Too little chain lubrication.
If you are still reading this blog, then by this point, you get the idea that too much of a good thing is never a good idea, but so, on the other hand, is not enough.
If you are someone who loves your machine and puts hour after hour weekly on it, then you know that those rattles and squeaks are never a good sound.
Simply put, if your chain is running with fresh air between the links, pins and rollers, you are accelerating that wear and tear even faster.
If those meters are racking up, don’t be afraid to assemble a maintenance schedule. Print it out and put it somewhere you see regularly. Concept 2 recommends every 50 hours adding more oil to the chain so if you are adding those hours up, remember to mark your calendar and get that chain back up and running pronto!
There you have it, five ways to avoid destroying your chain and simple step-by-step maintenance on keeping it well maintained for a long time.