Focused on finding my strong point and starting the leg drive from it.

Also set the damper all the way to “0”. The numerical value for this setting on my Dynamic Indoor Rower is DF=79.

What I found surprising in my workout this afternoon is that with the Drag Factor set at 79 the amount of force I have to apply to move peak force closer to the Y-axis and raise it higher felt identical to the amount of force I apply with a heavier damper setting. What’s more not only did it feel identical, but I was never able to attain the peak force I produce when I use a heavier Drag Factor.

In other words, with the drag factor at a low setting I have to pull just as hard as I pull when it is set higher, yet produce less peak force and go slower. How do I make sense of that?

Concept2 says, “Damper setting is similar to bicycle gearing: it affects how rowing feels but does not directly affect the resistance. A lower damper setting on the indoor rower is comparable to easier gears on a bike.”

My experience with bicycle gearing is that I could never make a bicycle go as fast in low gear as I could in high gear. Pedaling at a low rate in a heavy gear for sure requires more force to move the pedal and feels heavier. Raise the rate, however, and pedaling feels easier. Similarly pedaling at a low rate and low gear feels easy; but raise the rate and it feels harder.

To me this suggests that in high gear a bicycle decelerates faster. So in high gear as you increase the rate at which you pedal the bicycle has less time to decelerate. For this reason you do not have to accelerate as much to compensate for a loss in deceleration. I think this may explain why in high gear on a bicycle the faster I am able to pedal the easier pedaling feels.