Treadmill repair tips and spare parts supply.
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I’m
going to give you a top tip on how to maintain your spin bikes.
This
is the thing you might need to do after using your spin bike for 6 or
12 months. The problem that will occur is that the resistance will
change making it difficult for you to work on a pedal with only a
small amount of adjustment on the wheel.
As
a result, it becomes quite difficult to adjust the resolution to the
resistance you want. The reason for this is very simple. The brake,
which is this device here, can just get dirty over time, it picks up
dust from the house and the more dust and dirt that you get under
there, the more grippy it becomes.
However,
there’s an easy way to fix this problem, without changing the brake
itself, so I show you how to do that.
All
you need is just some silicon lubricant, this is the kind of thing
that you might use on a treadmill running belt for example, and a
couple of tissues just to clean up the remains.
All
you have to do is to pour a little bit onto your fingers and just
apply it to the outside of the wheel and turn it around putting some
silicon oil onto the outside and we just go all the way around like
that.
You
might also put a little bit underneath the brake itself onto the pad
and then use your cloths just to wipe out the remains of the oil and
then get back on the bike.
Give
it a quick pedal and the brake will then automatically pick up that
lubricant. It will soak into the brake pad and it would just provide
a little bit of slip between the brake and the wheel. As a result,
you will get back that nice control you the bike was new.
So
it means you’ve got much more control, if you give the adjuster a
quarter of turn here you can feel the difference, but the difference
doesn’t appear suddenly.
The
bike becomes much more controllable and pleasant to use. There’s a
top tip, hope that helps.
In
this post, I am going to tell you where to keep your machine and I
will do it using the example of a cross-trainer. I will try to
explain to you why it is not a good idea to keep your machine in a
place like a cold garage, a shed, an outhouse or some similar places.
Firstly,
it’s because LCD displays can start working slowly. When this
happens people may think that the problem is with the console. When
the actual problem is the temperature. The liquid crystal in the
display won’t react quickly enough until certain temperate. When
it’s too low it affects the performance and you start having these
problems.
Secondly,
in low temperature metal parts of the machine will be at the same
temperature as the surroundings. If that temperature happens to be,
let’s say, zero degrees or minus five degrees and you go into the
garage or shed and start working out. Or even worse you turn on a
heater on and suddenly heat the room, then all of the moisture and
humidity which is in the air is going to start to build up water
drops on the cold metal parts of your machine.
The
same as when you’re having a cold pint of beer and you can see the
condensation forming on the glass, the same happens with the machine.
The
same reaction will happen to electronics.
Every machine has
electronic parts, electronic
switches. All these things will be affected by that moisture what
will cause a short circuit and you will start having some problems in
the work. This is the very least what can happen.
Otherwise,
in some cases, it can cause a catastrophic failure and cause circuit
board failure and things like that are not particularly cheap to
replace. So, you need to watch out for that.
There
is an easy way to get rounded. I mean that I appreciate that
sometimes you have to keep it in a shed or garage, because that’s
the only space you’ve got and, if that’s the case, then it’s
worth investing in the products such as a treadmill heater, which
it’s effectively a low wattage heater which you position near the
machine.
I
get that in some cases you don’t have other choice and have to keep
your machine in a garage or a shed, for example, if it’s the only
space you have. In such cases, there is a way to avoid those
problems. Think about buying a treadmill heater. It’s a small
heater which you can place near your machine.
It works perfectly with
cross trainers, bikes, vibration plates and so on. This heater will
provide the machine with a temperature that is just high enough to
stop the condensation process on the frame and electronics. So that
would be one way to solve the problem, unfortunately, things like
putting a blanket over the machine are not going to make any
difference other than keeping the dust off.
Other
aspects if, let’s imagine, you were to keep this in a conservatory
where you’ve got bright sunshine, conservatives are generally
south-facing so they get a lot of bright sunshine, and the direct
sunshine on the machines can start to affect the glue on the membrane
keypads.
So
the membranes might peel off and the buttons may start to fail. And
you could also get fading on the plastic and on some of the buttons
here. So before placing your machine somewhere, you need to think
about the direct sunlight as well.
So
it isn’t much about you, it’s about the machine. But from an
engineer’s point of view hopefully, those aspects give you some
insight into where to place your machine in order to avoid possible
problems!
This is a rower and I’m just going to take you through some of the
basics that you can do to look after the machine.
Generally, make sure that you get the best life out of this product,
so a lot of rowing machines are very similar. You’ve got a fan and
the resistance assembly in the front, you’ve got a handle which is
attached to a cord or a chain and you’ve got a seat and foot straps
here and then some kind of console.
So with a console sometimes it’s a mains-powered so in which case
make sure your mains cords plugged in and rooted in such a way that
you’re not going to trip over the cord, because that can snag the
wire and damage the adapter and lead to all sort of problems.
And some machines also have batteries in the back of the console, so,
if that’s the case, periodically check those and check that they’re
not leaking and, when needed, replace them.
Normally they’re the D cells, which is the large round batteries,
so they’re quite easy to get hold of, just replace them.
On the foot straps here you’ve got adjusters, so you need to just
check these periodically. Check that the foot strap themselves aren’t
damaged and that the adjusters here are in a good shape and if
there’s any wear to the straps around, particularly around these
edges, it is usually where they start to fray, just replace them.
They’re relatively low cost items and the last thing you want to do
is be tumbling over backwards when your foot inadvertently pulls
through a fray footstrap.
So check those both sides. When it comes to the handle, you always
have some kind of interface, a connection between the handle and the
rower. In this case it’s a chain, sometimes it is a cord like a
rope, other times that is a belt. But they all want to be checked, so
pull them out and give them a visual inspection to make sure that
they’re straight and that they’re not damaged and particularly
check the connection here where it goes onto the handle and also the
handle grips themselves. They should be in good shape.
You really need to have grips on there because, if you don’t,
you’ll be on the bare metal of the handle which can be quite
slippy, especially when you start to perspire, so it’s always worth
checking that.
On the final assembly at the front, this is always worth given a
quick vacuum out, you don’t need to take anything apart, just get
the vacuum and vacuum around the vents here and also on the air
intake here, that will ensure that runs smoothly.
Finally on the seat the same mechanism here should be free and easy
to slide back. Sometimes you can get deposits spilled up on the
surface or in the end where the tracks where the wheels go and
they’re quite easy to clean.
If you can, get some wipes. Such as gym wipes, which are these,
antibacterial pre-lubricated wipes, which are designed to remove
fatty deposits and dirt and that kind of things. Just give it a wipe
over and that will take away any kind of mess and dirt that builds up
and you’ll feel it yourself as the wheel runs in that roller. If
you’ve got dirty buildups in there you actually feel it come
through the seat so it’s always worth cleaning out the tracks. Give
the wheels a little clean.
Just
drop the cloth on there, just like that and that will make sure
everything is really nice and smoothly and then your machine is in
good shape it means you’re going to be in a good shape and is going
to give you the best life it can. If you get the machine right for
the job and look after it, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t
give you 10/15 years of good service.
I
have an exercise bike here. Today I am going to show you how to get
rid of one very common problem for this kind of machines. This is a
wobbly seat. And this problem is very easy to fix.
First,
let’s check the seat itself. I am going to take it off and show you
what’s underneath it. In this particular seat we have three fixings
here. In this case, the whole cushion sits on this plate. So make
sure that all the fixings are nice and tight.
Just
use the spanner to tighten the loose fixings. You may use the spanner
that came with your machine or one from your own toolkit. Either one
will do the job well. One fixing here needs tightening.
The
others are nice and tight. So I can place the seat back in its place.
This
is actually a slide to adjust the seat forward and back and it’s
held in position with this tag here, which is a screw. Make sure
that’s nice and tight.
Once
you place it in the position you want you can tighten it up.
It’s
also got a ratchet on this, which is quite handy. Because if you
wanted it in the forward position, for example there, you won’t be
able to tighten it up. Because the seat stem gets in the way. In
this case, pull down on the lever and you can rotate it back and then
it latches backup and engages. And then you can tighten it just like
that makes the top bit nice and tight.
However,
it’s still a little bit wobbly so there are other places we need to
look. Let’s take a look at the height adjuster. We have the
instruction where to turn to loosen it . A couple of turns to loosen
it, pull it that withdraws a pin and I can set the height to what I
want to set it. Like this, for example, and just make sure that the
pin goes in. Just listen to the clicking sound. You know that the pin
is in the hole, so tighten it up. Now everything is nice and tight.
I’ve got a treadmill here and I’m just going to explain to you
about recalibrating treadmills, because it’s something that’s
quite useful to overcome problems.
If you have a fault for example, then quite often recalibrating the
machine is one of the first things you can try and it’s something
you can do yourself and it usually involves pressing certain buttons
whilst inserting the safety key.
So,
for example, some manufacturers might say “well, press the start
button and speed up button hold them pressed and put the safety key
on”. Then, that gets you into an end, what they call an engineering
mode or a recalibration
mode and then you can page through the
various aspects of that and set “press
start” or “press
enter”, those kind of things, to
actually initiate a recalibration sequence.
Basically, the recalibration sequence is the machine resetting itself
so it re-measures things like speed parameters and the incline or the
elevation heights and it sort of measures and resets that data and
store that data into memory.
Because it’s basically a computer in there, the data that’s
stored in there can sometimes get corrupt. There’s nothing you can
do about that. It’s the way computers are, so sometimes for example
if you were to inadvertently switch the machine off whilst the
computer here is trying to write the data to a particular memory
location and all of a sudden the power goes, well, that can give you
corrupt data which can lead to a problem, which a recalibration will
solve.
Also, things like lightning strikes nearby or power surges. Those
kind of things can also disrupt the electronics and cause data
corruption which can lead to this becoming and, you know, something
that’s worth trying.
So,
if you get anything like that, if it gets issues with speed, or the
inclines perhaps not working, or not going fully up, or the machine
is suggesting that you need to call an engineer or do something like
that, it is always worth looking in the instruction book to see
whether there is a recalibration sequence, or indeed talking to the
retailer or the manufacturer to say “look on my particular model,
is there a recalibration sequence I can do ?”. This will avoid me
having an engineer to come out and quite often you’ll find that
it’s always worth a go because, you know, you might get lucky and
that might fix the problem.