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Re: Buying treadmill. Advice on type and where to buy [T.Skelton] [ In reply to ]
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I kept my eye on Ebay waiting for a good Woodway to come up. I got one for $1.5k with no visible wear on the belt and no dust on the inside of the unit. I had a maintenance staffer from Virginia Tech who services the school's dozen or so Woodways come check it out. He offered to buy it off me for $8k. I declined. He showed me how to service it. I've put in hundreds of miles on it at this point and it's bombproof, quiet, sturdy, the slats make it super soft and they can easily be individually replaced if they get worn (mine show no sign of wear), it rolls on 116 steel ball bearings, the electronics are simple with no gimmicks, this is my one treadmill for life. I don't have a warranty, but I'm mechanically inclined and worse case, I have to replace the circuit board (less than $300 new) or the motor ($250); I'm more than ok with that out of pocket seeing that the likelihood of these parts going bad is very slim. The VT staffer pointed out that their Woodway's in the student gym are running at least 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, and they due minimal servicing every six months and they've had six of their Woodway treadmills for ten years, with only needing to replace a single motor and a handful of the belt-slats in all of this time. I used YRC freight shipping and had the treadmill shipped from St George, Utah to Blacksburg, VA for only $300 and the treadmill rails were not disassembled and they picked it up at the seller's home garage and delivered to my front door (UPS wanted to charge $2k, fully disassembled, and I would have had to pick up at at their warehouse).

So yes, as another poster wrote, go Woodway, all of the way. The difference in how the belts function is so much better on the Woodway that there is just absolutely no comparison. My Woodway goes to 12mph and inclines to something ridiculous that I'll never use. I put down two layers of commercial gym quality foam to go under the treadmill. It does not shake the house or rattle anything and the single box fan I have running is louder than the treadmill.

As for Google maps: I highly suggest waiting for Zwift running, instead. As for music, a nice bluetooth speaker (I run a Sony XR-55) and/or bluetooth headphones are better than anything that comes stock with a treadmill. Running on a decline? not sure how useful that is, honestly; I mean, I do it outdoors in the weeks leading up to hitting the track, Lasse Virin in Bogata style, but at 0% incline on the treadmill at a quicker speed, I'm definitely not concerned about that.

wovebike.com | Wove on instagram
Last edited by: milesthedog: Aug 3, 16 14:12
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Re: Buying treadmill. Advice on type and where to buy [pkawaoka] [ In reply to ]
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I got a commercial quality treadmill for a great price. Darn thing weighs like 300 lbs so getting downstairs was not easy. And I am going to have to move it again, but, ...

I see no reason to buy something like a treadmill new. You can find many refurb commercial units out there.

Since I go mine for $300 bucks, if you keep you eyes open, you do not need to spend a lot of money.

Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep
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Re: Buying treadmill. Advice on type and where to buy [h2ofun] [ In reply to ]
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Dave - do you do run stride analysis/advice? After the bike thread I was wondering.

Just to add some info... Under the hood, my "Sputnik" treadmill is a Dayco- which fronts a few of the brands.


I think the parts are kind of open market as the Chinese models seem to be very similar and they are all pretty solid. A treadmill is a variable speed drive, which is kind of cool.


http://www.dyaco.ca/treadmills-EN.html



If you pull the safety sensor and restart the machine, it will give you total miles & time (alternating) . So when looking at used "clothes hangers" you can check how much the machine was used. Mine is 8 years old and had less than ~175 miles. Sitting at over 300 now so I've averaged about 5km a day or so.

I spray silicone to keep the track to deck interface lubed up. You'll want to do that every few weeks otherwise the track will start to stick and load the motor down on stride impact.


There are a lot of used mills out there. Run on them and see how they feel. I tried a Nordic Track which was a nice machine. Moving it would have been hell and it was ~ $500 hardly used too. I got mine for a paltry $150 can't complain.


The Boston mill that Lionel uses is no doubt very sweet & fast!




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Last edited by: SharkFM: Aug 3, 16 16:44
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Re: Buying treadmill. Advice on type and where to buy [SharkFM] [ In reply to ]
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SharkFM wrote:

Dave - do you do run stride analysis/advice? After the bike thread I was wondering.

Just to add some info... Under the hood, my "Sputnik" treadmill is a Dayco- which fronts a few of the brands.


I think the parts are kind of open market as the Chinese models seem to be very similar and they are all pretty solid. A treadmill is a variable speed drive, which is kind of cool.


http://www.dyaco.ca/treadmills-EN.html



If you pull the safety sensor and restart the machine, it will give you total miles & time (alternating) . So when looking at used "clothes hangers" you can check how much the machine was used. Mine is 8 years old and had less than ~175 miles. Sitting at over 300 now so I've averaged about 5km a day or so.

I spray silicone to keep the track to deck interface lubed up. You'll want to do that every few weeks otherwise the track will start to stick and load the motor down on stride impact.


There are a lot of used mills out there. Run on them and see how they feel. I tried a Nordic Track which was a nice machine. Moving it would have been hell and it was ~ $500 hardly used too. I got mine for a paltry $150 can't complain.


The Boston mill that Lionel uses is no doubt very sweet & fast!



Whats that? Analysis, I just run. :)

I do feel running on the treadmill has helped me a lot being able to jump right from the bike to a full out run, both physically and mentally.

I just run 10 minute bricks on it, like 4 days a week at 1.5% grade, 6:30 pace.

The wife loves it but she "runs" a little slower. :)

I just keep things simple, in all the training. For most, they would say it is totally boring.

Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep
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Re: Buying treadmill. Advice on type and where to buy [Economist] [ In reply to ]
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Economist wrote:

I wouldn't spend more than $1100 on one. I bought one from Norditrack for $990 (Spring Sale 2015). I used that think 3-4 days a week until October, at which time my ex-wife took it in the divorce. She runs once a week and it still looks brand new. I now have a super old one that was given too me. It's a Nordictrack as well. Looks beat up but works really really well.

The best feature I've found is one that shows a 400m track on the display. My coach had me doing a lot of speed work last year, but the local track was being rebuilt. This feature worked amazingly well.

My cheap Norditrack that my wife took did have a feature where you could plug in a running route. I did love that, but at the lower end model I bought, you did have to pay a fee for that. I cold plug in the running route of my next race and the treadmill would show a map display of where I was at and would adjust to the elevation. It was glorious.

Wondering which Nordictrack models have you tried? I am also in the market for a treadmill and looking at Nordictrack C300. My budget is pretty low.
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