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| Treadmillectomy |
I know that treadmill delivery people will usually agree to take your old machine down to the curb if you offer them some cash. I'm hoping that will be the case for us. Even so, I decided to lighten the burden for whomever ends up hauling this metal monster down the stairs by disassembling the decommissioned machine. I discovered there's only so much you can do to reduce the weight of something that's mostly pieces of welded wrought iron.
My buddy SIOR and her teenage daughter assembled their new treadmill all by themselves on Saturday. Assembling a treadmill is not something I'd dare take on myself, but I thought that disassembling one would be fairly straightforward. In fact it was. I've replaced the console four times so I knew I could remove it easily. The motor was oily and dirty and it required some careful handling as I worked the bolts off the frame and worked the wiring from the logic board. Dropping this 40 lb unit would have resulted in a major grease stain on the carpet.
In all, I probably reduced the carrying weight of the machine by 50 lbs. If anyone needs a spare F63 console or a 3.0 CHP treadmill motor, feel free to make me an offer. I'll even throw in an incline motor. I'll be happy when we take delivery of our new FreeMotion 850 in the next couple of weeks. Out with the old and in with the new.
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We had a lot of problems getting our old treadmill out of our house and my husband had to take off the front door. Definitely worth paying someone else to do it :-)
ReplyDeleteStories like this only make me feel better about my decision : )
DeleteWhen I went to take sonny boy to basketball, Sanibel continued working on the TM. She skipped the part where she had to tighten the screws in the arms so that was why the console was loose. Luckily, my friend's husband fixed it. I was in no mood to unscrew and then screw everything back together again. It's doable. Just not something you want to do twice in one weekend.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my friend's husband is so patient. If I waited for Peter to come home, he probably would have deliberately broken it out of frustration.
DeleteHmmm. I thought I may have mentioned something about checking the tightness of the console screws but I must be imagining that. Did you go up and down the street knocking on doors until you found someone to do that?
DeleteI asked her if she tightened the screws and she said yes. I forgot to take into account that she is 13.
DeleteIn her defense, I'm sure she must have tightened a LOT of screws putting that treadmill together...
DeleteI brought my Sole F63 home in the back of the wife's old SUV and assembled it by myself in no time. Only problem was getting a neighbor to help me carry the monster to the basement before assembling it. I didn't like it much either btw, and I rarely use it. I probably use it about once a month. I'd rather drive to the gym and use a higher quality machine.
ReplyDeleteI actually liked running on the Sole until it started exhibiting bad behavior (tread slipping, console failure, increasingly loud noise from the rollers). I'll agree that the experience of running on fitness center treadmills is far better than most home units.
DeleteI have to say, I don't know how I feel about this treadmill. It's kind of torture running 3 miles. Maybe it's because I'm staring at a wall? Maybe because it's not gym quality? Maybe I need to get used to it? I'm thinking Savanna and Peter will be getting more use out of it than myself, unless we get a nice TV to hang on the wall in front of it.
DeleteI've written endless posts about treadmill tedium so can't tell you that you'll grow to like it more. But you should think about the convenience of having the treadmill available no matter the weather. You now have the option of running on days like today and you don't have to deal with driving to the gym.
DeleteYou might like it better if you use the built in programs. You can get a small flat LCD TV really cheap now, some for less than $200. Why not?