Those with Concept 2's, where did u purchase

Do they sell it on Amazon? I bought my waterrower on Amazon - price was the same as manufacturer but saved a good amount on the shipping cost (Prime: free shipping). I usually just wear my padded bicycle shorts for my longer endurance rows (45 minutes+). Shorter rows, seems to be fine.

Seconded on the Model D still being fine.
Isn't the E the one that's slightly higher off the floor? That can be handy for people with more limited mobility, but that's about it.

Personally, I'm still happy with a Model C, but that's probably just me.
Whichever model, oiling the chain, replacing the bungee and hoovering the dust out of the fan cage will make a huge difference to even the oldest machine! Oh, and cleaning the slide and the seat wheels.

I'm anti seat pads for relative beginners, as feeling your sit bones on the seat helps make it more obvious if you're getting your weight transfer right at different parts of the stroke, but if I ever went nuts enough to want to do more than 5k then I'd probably dig mine out. I prefer the seat pads from Godfrey (UK based, as am I).

I'd like to expand - probably unnecessarily and tediously - on what I said about seat pads, given some other comments (I'm not disagreeing with them, just broadening the topic).

Background: I've been a rower, boats & machines, for 15 years. I've rowed lots of different boats. I belong to a rowing club and a separate rowing team, the latter of which does group rowing machine workouts in Winter. I'm connected with a couple of big collegiate teams, and have done occasional machine workouts with them. I've been to rowing camps (which often use machines a bit) and a couple of big machine races. I even machine rowed once (on a dynamic configured as a double, even) in the workout room at the C2 factory.

Net result: I've seen hundreds of people machine row on C2s. I've talked to a few dozen about their machine rowing.

Almost no one, statistically speaking, uses seat pads.

A few people find particular rowing seat types problematic. A tiny, tiny number find all rowing seats problematic. The seats are shaped, with recesses for sit bones and coccyx. Some seats hit pressure points or cause chafing in particular spots for a minority of users. Most people are fine.

Myself, I've never had a major problem with any boat seat, and minor pressure-point problems with only a couple, of dozens of boats I've rowed. For some reason, the C2 seats, and some rowing-barge seats that are just like them, chafe me just above my coccyx - to rawness, with volume. So I use a seat pad (which reduces but doesn't prevent the problem). I've talked to one or two people who get numbness or radiating pain from pressure points, so they use a pad. Those things are rare, rare, rare.

Some people use a pad just because they like cushy. I wouldn't. I agree with the point above about the usefulness of feeling weight transfer.

Try going without one. That works for most people. If you find you need one, get one.

mabearof6 wrote: »

Thanks everyone

you're welcome.

Not answering your question OP, but that's one machine i love to hate. Really makes my heart beat go up and feel sick at the same time. If i was getting a home-gym, it probably would be one of the first piece of equipment i would buy

Bought mine in July 2016 direct from Concept 2. It was a Model D w/PM5.

No reason to do otherwise based on price; no price discount from other vendors like Amazon or Rogue. No problems w/vendor intermediary issue either. Just contact Concept 2 customer service direct for any problems w/delivery or product.

However, if you want a black one, as someone above did, you can only get it from Rogue or used.

Almost all of the used Concept 2's I've seen on Craigslist are overpriced regardless of the model, which generally are older versions of the rower and PM.

Most are in the $700-800 range for a Model D/PM3 and even Model Cs. Why pay that when you can get a brand new one for $900? Shipping is just $45 more.

Also bear in mind that if you have to upgrade to a PM5 from a PM4 or earlier that it will cost you about $160-180 more.

I tried a variety of pads, including Concept 2's which is just a stick-on foam pad. It only costs a few bucks. If you buy the rower from Concept 2, just add it to the package. No big deal in terms of cost if it doesn't help you.

Actually created my own custom made pad by putting 3 of the Concept 2 pads together and using a dremel to fit it to my butt. Didn't help. I even tried a very expensive erg sculpted pad that cost about $200; didn't help either, I returned it.

Ended up just using a towel to sit on and limiting my rowing sessions to just 5k/30 min sessions. Any longer and it just gets too painful for me. I usually do two 5k/30 min sessions w/a short break in between.

People say that you will get use to it and that your butt will "toughen" up. Never happened for me and I currently row 10k meters (a total of an hour) a day.

I burn about 550 cals a day rowing and it allows me to eat more and maintain my weight. Gross cals are about 2200 and estimated net cals are about 1650/day which is my current maintenance level.

If I didn't eat back the cals, there's no doubt that I would lose weight as I did when I bought the rower 18 months ago when I lost 38# in 6 months before I switched to maintenance.

Direct from C2, Rogue or others are fine. I actually got mine from G&G Fitness (owned by the Gronkowski's, as in "Gronk" from the Patriots). It was on sale in the fall for the same price that C2 sold it for and they shipped for free. I got the black Model D. So happy with the purchase.

I agree with others, you rarely see one for sale. I have done a search on Craigslist through IFTTT. IFTTT is a site that will send you email notices when anything you specify goes on sale on Craigslist. I did see a C2 on sale for $700 through using this. My price was $500 I would have paid used and never found one that cheap. Like others have said, I bought a new one because why pay near full price for a used one?

brennanf3 wrote: »

Rowingmachinesale.com is a scam.. Google and Paypal are investigating them as of now.. took 30 days to get my money back..

Really is better to just buy new from Concept or authorized vendors like Rogue and Amazon.