Raising a Concept 2 Model B ergometer
I made a set of platform legs for it that raised it 13" off the ground,
because getting down and back up from it so low to the ground was
unhappy-making. Initially I made this:
But I hadn't allowed for the surge of my inertial momentum...this
lashup parallelogrammed. I had to do this and then that to keep
it square as weaknesses of what I'd done surfaced.
I ended up with this ridiculous kludge upon kludge:
If I was to do it all over again, it would be much
simpler:
- Go to the lumber yard, have them cut a piece of 3/4" thick
AC plywood into two pieces, 68" by 24" (if you don't have a model B
adjust the dimensions for the foot print of your ergo....note that it
will need to be slightly bigger than that as will become clear).
Also get two 12" concrete blocks (they are 12x16x8 inches), a caulking
gun tube of construction adhesive like PL9000 and a caulking gun if you
don't already have one.
- Test the layout: Place one sheet of plywood on the floor, put the
concrete blocks on it, and the second piece of plywood on top of
that. Put your erg on top and make sure everything is placed
well, with the blocks under the the erg's feet. and those feet
overhanging the block so a bolt can go through the feet and the
plywood. I've circled the bolt in red above
- Mark where everything goes on the plywood and remove the erg.
Separate all the pieces
- Liberally apply the construction adhesive to the bottom plywood
where the blocks will sit, put the blocks there, apply adhesive to the
blocks' tops and put the top plywood in place. Push down and wiggle the
top plywood to squish the adhesive. Check the alignment of
everything.
- Wait a few days so it sets hard
- Drill and bolt the ergometer to the plywood. Note that the
plywood and cement block placement needs to allow for the block NOT to
be under the feet of the erg...you need to put a bolt through the
plywood and you can't do that if the block is underneath the erg's
feet. You might use T-nuts, AKA Tinnerman nuts, for this.
You have to bolt the ergo to the plywood...it will slide around
otherwise.
I also got (see picture above right)
- a 1/2" floor flange
- a length of1/2" black iron pipe
- a PVC tee, glue socket run and 1/2" female pipe thread on the
side tee.
I hold onto the tee when getting on and off the erg.