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Draw for the Olympic Regatta

 BBC Webstream for Rowing Heats

Womens singles.  Progression: first 3 go to Quarter Finals.  China wins heat 1 easily.  Emma Twigg for NZ wins heat 2.  Karsten wins heat 3.  Neykova wins heat 4 (Cuba second!). Bascelli of Italy easily beats Australia into second place in heat 5.  Knapova leads easily in heat 6.

Mens singles.  Progression: first 4 go to Quarter Finals. Maeyens from Belgium leads heat 1. Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand easily leads head 2.  [Shock the Chinese sculler didn't show and was disqualified], Karonen from Sweden beats Hacker from Germany in heat 3. Synek commanding in heat 4 for Czech Republic.  Heat 5 toughest yet: USA, Australia (Peter Hardcastle), USA (Jurkowski) and Alan Campbell of GB.  Campbell sculls a mature race and wins by clear water.  Heat 6 includes Rod Ideus fron Tideway Scullers who is a lightweight U23 and qualified to row for Colombia. Tufte of Norway and Hamburger of Netherlands pushing out in front.  Tufte has fabulous rhythm.

Maeyens and Synek use Magik Oarlocks . Alan Campbell and Peter Hardcastle are Rowperfect users.

Womens Pairs. Progression: first to final everyone else to Repecharge.  Heat 1 great line-up - could have been a final.  Three crews who have won world championship golds Belarus, NZ and Canada.  Belarus to the final.  NZ second.  Heat 2 Romania come through at 1500 to look so confident.  They took 3/4 length on Germany in about 25 strokes.

Mens Pairs.  Progression: First 3 go to Semi Finals; rest to Repecharge.  Heat 1 Canada, USA (the brothers who sued Facebook and won!), France - who win with a great finishing sprint; Canada almost seem to give up and get third.  Heat 2 Australia (Free, Ginn) have such a clear lead and dominate from the front.  Heat 2 includes New Zealand (Twaddle and Bridgewater) and Chalupa stroking the Czech crew who only qualified because the Austrians withdrew.   Skelin Brothers for Croatia don't look like they are in the same competition.  New Zealand win.

Womens Double Sculls. Progression: first to Final, rest to Repecharge.  Heat 1 the Kiwi twins are leading with confidence - 6 seconds ahead of the rest on the line.  Heat 2 the Chinese world champions (just) beat the Czechs into second.  GB third.  Wonderful challenge by the Czechs - should have gone a bit later, might have had the jump on the Chinese.  Wicked sprint from the Chinese after challenge from Czechs Antosova and Varekova.

Mens Double Sculls.  Progression: First three to Semi Finals, rest to Repecharge. Heat 1 Belarus lead out from New Zealand and USA (Coached by Tim McLaren).  Great race - if the Belarussians get their pace judgment right they could be very dangerous later in the regatta.  Kiwis win in the sprint to the line.  Heat 2 Estonia (Juri Janssen and Tonu Endrekson) lead out challenged later by Great Britain (Wells and Rowbotham) who win with Croatia second as Estonians fade.  Heat 3 Chinese don't show AGAIN.  No reason given, just DNS (did not start).  Slovenia, France, Australia the crews to watch.  Aussies win but it seems strange that the Slovenians backed off.

The British double have used Rowperfect this year for the first time and Estonians are also Rowperfect users (from WAY back) as are Dave Crawshaw from Australia, he's the hunk on the front page of the Rowperfect brochure - rowing by the ocean.

Mens Fours. Progression: first three to Semi Finals, rest to Repecharge.  Heat 1 Great Britain in the middle lane with the USA and Italians also in the hunt.  GB holding the Italians off nicely through the second half of the race.  Heat 2 the Dutch are strong.  Slovenians row really nicely.  Dutch hold off the Kiwi late challenge.  Same time as previous heat.  Nothing to learn from the times except it'll be a great semi final and final.  Heat 3 Ireland, Australia - rowing beautifully.  Poise at the finish keeping the body leaning back while the handle continues to move around and lead onto the recovery.  Ireland beat them in the sprint for the line.  Jonno Devlin formerly of GB switching to row for them probably in order to get this trip to race in the Olympics.

Irish use Magik Gates.  

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Colin Lawson has decided to sell his Rowperfect.  It has an interface.

Contact him direct for your own discussion and pricing. His number is 07886 922103

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We have several customers who are interested in buying second hand Rowperfect Rowing Simulators (with or without interfaces).

if you might consider selling, please reply to this post and hopefully we can match a buyer with a seller. 

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We have a couple of customers whose main bars from their Rowperfect Rowing Simulators have worn out.

The bars are for sale here and cost £95 plus postage.

Please note that you'll need to keep the bolt and 10mm nut that holds the bar onto the front and back leg from your previous bar because they aren't sold with the bar (but with the legs!)

Ed Green from Molesey BC asked

What is the likely reason for it splitting!?
 

The reason for splitting is just use, wear and tear.  From memory, the MBC Rowperfect is about 10 years old and this is normal for that length of use.   We are glad that it's still in good nick and being used by the club coaches and athletes.

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We have just received these photos of the new Rowperfect Indoor Sculler Cage.  Named the Lamiflow Cage, it has symmetrical intake and variably restricted outlet for air resistance.

From the photos you can see the lever that draws around the circumfrence to change the resistance, the six numerical settings for resistance levels and the lower positioning on the main frame.

The first units are now being produced and a full production run has been commissioned which should reach us in 6-8 weeks.  Pricing to follow.

Enjoy, it's been worth the wait! 

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Received this morning from Mark Campbell

Current Situation

We have finally taken delivery of the first complete main frame, and the first cage will be fitted next week as soon as the back cover template is finished. This should have been completed before Christmas, but thanks to the petty actions of a clerk at a transport depot, the parcel sent on 18 December was held up until I drove over an hour to pick it up on Tuesday.

There is some good news however – the appearance is excellent, with final artwork and the plastic & perforated metal cage added it will look very neat. The side rollers function beautifully, indistinguishable from the original and in fact it probably slides on the bar more smoothly with the flywheel positioned lower. So despite the setbacks we have made good progress and I hope to have some photographs to send out in about ten days.
 

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We had this email in on December 18th 2007 from Mark Campbell in answer to a customer enquiry about when the new RP will be ready.

Mark Campbell here, I’m one of the owners of Rowperfect.

I would love to give you a very clear answer, but the clearest is the most honest which is: we are still a few weeks from finishing this marathon. I am leaving after writing this email to drop in the template needed to finish the flywheel cage which is the last piece in the jigsaw for the new base unit. IF all goes well that means we have a trial ten units in say the first week of January. IF they work as they should (and I’ve been literally thrashing the last prototype, which includes the exact same drive mechanism, for several months so only the cage remains to be tested in fact) then we make fifty machines. We have nearly all parts for those 50 so that is a short lead-time.

There is an Email list  you can join to receive notification directly as soon as we have final unit, and with that hopefully final pricing. Email us to join the group.

[There is also a Facebook Rowperfect group which will get notifications.   If you are not a member of Facebook, the link given won't work.]

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Just in time for Christmas and after a little bit of work, we've got the Rowperfect UK Shop working!

 Please have a browse and send us your feedback.

Here';s what I love about the internet - before we even announced this, Jim Bamber, Paul Barham and James Coe had already found it and bought stuff!  Cheers, guys. 

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We had an enquiry from a customer about how to improve the recoil tension on the chain / elastic.

I have just moved and re-assembled my rowperfect.  The chain return is very slow.  How should I proceed in correcting this.
 
Regards
John Swift

Here is how to do it yourself.

1. Take the main frame part of the RP off the bar.
2. Turn it upside down and look at the bottom part between the foot stretcher rests where you can see inside.  There is a small horizontal bar around which the ends of the elastic bungee are wrapped.
3. Using a curled wire (coat hanger) hook out the two ends of the elastic so they are outside the main frame. 
4. Using a pair of pliers, take hold of the end of the elastic and pull it firmly towards you.  The looping is designed to grip back onto itself.  And so if the elastic tension is weak, you can pull a longer end out while still leaving the loop intact. 
5. Pull out the other side so it is symmetrical and the tail ends are the same length.
6. Cut off the surplus elastic and tuck the ends back inside the main frame.
7. Replace main frame on bar.
8. Row (perfect).
9. Repeat until tension is as you desire.

Having said all that, it is good practice for a frequently-used RP to replace the elastic about once every 1-2 years.  When we service RP in the UK we nearly always replace the elastic.

Now, replacing the elastic is a tricky job and best left to the local agent. 

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Are you interested in a second hand rowperfect rowing simulator?  Here are two possibilities:

This is a bit of a long-shot for most people based in the UK….. but given the strength of the £ versus US$ I thought I’d let you know about this one.

There's an Ebay auction on now for a Rowperfect indoor rower.  Located in Margate City, New Jersey, USA.
Opening bid is US$ 1,000.

Now if you were VERY KEEN, you could buy it, find a nice local to take it to the Head of the Charles in Boston next weekend and get one of the many British Crews to bring it home (hand luggage excess) for you….  
Auction ends  Oct-11-07 07:06:54 PDT

I also have a second hand Rowperfect with an interface for sale here in the UK.  £600 plus shipping £50 to UK addresses.
This has a bar that has been repaired with two welds (but it works fine) it has an interface and DOS software,
It has been serviced by us and has had new bearings throughout.

Please use the contact form to express interest.

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