Re: Schwinn Airdyne Failures?

Comments interspersed...

Cauley Felps said:

Jeff, (or anyone)

Could looseness in the cotter pins or other crank parts cause

failures

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like the ones I've experienced? I'm wondering if my neglecting to

keep

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all that stuff tight on all the bikes has created extra, abnormal
stress.

The type of "clunking" play that Zippy mentions is something I've
grown used to (maybe not that extreme). Toward the end of my last
Airdyne, you could pedal backward and forward for about a third of a
rotation before the wheel would catch. I thought about replacing

parts

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on that one and had inspected a bunch of them, but the wear was

pretty

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widespread. All the ring inserts in the "pedal to arm" brackets had
play and most of the crank parts were at the point where they

couldn't

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be tightened enough to compensate for the wear inside the crank arms.

Hmmm... the more I think about it, the less likely I think it's the
cotter pins. Loose cotters would show up as the crank arms not moving
with one another- what you're describing sounds more like one of the
drive sprockets has come loose from its spindle. With the Airdyne's
two-stage chain drive, it's tough to tell without removing all the
guards and cover plates and watching while the cranks are turned. There
might be something that's coming loose that you could tighten up- but I
don't know *what* without actually diving in, dissassembling, and
inspecting things. It sounds like yo've done a pretty good job of that
already.

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Is it possible that this bottom bracket (axle) part is still the same
standard type as any other common three piece cranks?

I don't think so. Without a picture I can't tell. Didn't you say you
had found a PDF parts list? Where did you find it?

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I'm still trying to figure out what to do. I feel like a fool to keep
buying these things if there's something better or more durable out
there. It also seems that there are a bunch of them out there which
probably got used for a month after new years and then end up in a
garage or something (that's where this last one came from), or as a
once in a while substitute for real bikes during bad weather. That

may

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account for why there aren't more worn out ones around, but the
fitness center Airdynes would still be getting burned up. (?)

-Thanks!
George

I don't think you're being foolish if you're buying them *cheap*. I'd
bet that there's plenty of low-mileage Airdynes out there that were
"New Year's resolutions" and are now gathering dust in the garage.

Possible strategy: find a fitness center ("health club", "gym", etc.)
that has an Airdyne or two. Ask a manager who services the machines-
and then track them down and ask about the Airdynes. I'll bet you'll
get a lot more good information from them than from my (educated)
guesswork.

Jeff