I bought the elliptical machine for my wife. It is a used Proform 545e elliptical trainer. I bought for $80 off of craigslist. To get it home, I had to disassemble it some to get it into my car. In the process of taking it apart I mangled some of the axle caps. The guy selling it to me said I could get them at Home Depot for almost nothing… not quite. The axle caps were 5/8″ and 3/4″. The biggest onces that Home Depot sells are 1/2″. I looked around online and had a hard time finding axle caps in the size I needed. I decided to order then from Proform. The 5/8″ axle cap cost $1.27 and the 3/4″ axle cap cost $2.13. I needed two of each. Okay…$6.80. No problem. But then they charged me over $12 for shipping! When I got the things, they were in a small padded mailer, and would have cost about a dollar to mail first class! So now I had another $20 into it.
n the process of putting it together, I noticed the resistance dial worked backwards from what it should. I took appart the control panel, and found the cable wrapped around the plastic wheel the wrong way. I corrected this. But when I put it back together, and tried it, there was snap. I opened it back up, and found the little plastic tab that held the cable to the plastic wheel had broken off. I looked up this plart on Proform’s site, and found it cost over $55. I don’t think so! I managed to fix it by drilling small hole into the side of the plastic wheel, and fixing the cable in place with a small wire. This worked and didn’t cost anything!
Now that I had the elliptical machine all put together and working, the question was whether or not my wife would use it. I had afterall bought the treadmill for her, and she only used it a few times. Good news! She has been using the elliptical! She likes the non-impact of the elliptical. I think it also helps that it is quiet as opposed to the treadmill motor.
I have since bought her a Polar heart rate monitor, and set her up with some zone numbers to work out in. I just hope she sticks to it.

Posted by Rob in Whatever on February 9th, 2007 | No Comments