This rowing machine is around 25 years old. I recently replaced the hydraulics, the seat rollers, and the arm bushings with parts from a similar — but seemingly unused — rower that I found out on the curb with the trash on Greenwich Street in New York City. The rescued machine did not have the electronic counter and timer like the machine in the picture.
Recumbent stationary bike, 30:37 minutes, 8.8 miles, 244 calories
Hydraulic rowing machine, 30:39 minutes, 1491 strokes
The situation is such that most men in modern society have been reduced willy-nilly to the status of spectators. And such are the stresses of our modern world, getting worse each day, that the marks of age already begin to appear upon more and more men when they are no more than 30. Excess weight brings on cholesterol disorders and weakens the heart of modern urban man. Too much drinking ravages his liver. The pressure of nervous tension gives him stomach ulcers. And how pitiful a spectacle is the thriving business our drugstores do, crowded as they are with men seeking some alleviation for their ills.
Yukio Mishima
Twitter #bikenyc
I bought the hydraulic rowing machine back in the mid-’80s — yes, some quarter-century ago. Around ’95 one of the hydraulic units started to leak and I replaced it. I should have replaced both, for with one new and one old the tension was unequal.
Last year, as I started to use this rowing machine extensively again, I noticed that the seals were not in good condition on the hydraulics. After rowing for some time, there was a noticeable hydrocarbon odor. Also, there was excessive “play” in the arms. The final failure was one of the vinyl rollers on the seat fraying. The manufacturer no longer supplied replacement parts for this legacy product.
As luck would have it, I found a similar hydraulic rowing machine out on the curb on Greenwich Street in NYC. Though of comparable vintage, this machine appeared unused. (It was a bit of a workout to carry the rower to the Christopher Street PATH station, down the stairs, up the stairs at the Journal Square PATH station, and then, finally, the one mile or so to my home in Jersey City.)
My rower has an electronic timer / stroke counter / strokes per minute calculator that the discarded unit lacked. I removed the hydraulics, bushings, and seat rollers from the rescued machine and then used these parts to rebuild the original unit.
Unless the replacement hydraulics just are made of tougher stuff, the old ones must have been in even worse shape than I realized. I had the original pair at the hardest setting — 6. For the new ones, I had to notch that down to 4.