Horizon Oxford II CS Rower

Not being a very strong guy, I have enjoyed many hours of exercise on my Horizon Oxford, which I purchased at the beginning of 2010. It is certainly

a robust machine in relation to the stress I put it under. When pulling, I do

notice a slight upward motion of the front frame. The frame is very rigid,

so this must be due to some flex in the connection between it and the rail

on which the seat is mounted. I have not noticed the flex becoming more pronounced or the connection wearing out. The electronics, in particular

the heart rate monitoring, have been functioning. I find that commendable in and of itself.

Minor snags: 1) The display is clearly lacking a backlight. 2) When assembling the machine, I had to rework the metal plate that holds the footrest. Some hole in this plate did not properly line up with the corresponding hole in the rail -- so that I could not put the screw into place that was to fit into the two holes. I had to enlarge the hole in the

plate by rasping off a little metal. 3) Some unimportant plastic details have come loose over time. 4) When lowering the rail, there is

a danger that the cables running on its inside in between it and the front frame may become trapped. You have to be careful to avoid this.

5) The monitor intermittently seems to reset itself without any apparent reason a few minutes into an exercise session. 6) For several months, the reels underneath the seat gave a cracking noise. Now they run smoothly.

On the whole, I would certainly recommend the machine to those who are not

very athletic to begin with. These people will get good value for the money especially when compared to even more robust but significantly more expensive machines by other manufacturers. You

should probably be prepared to live with minor flaws of the aforementioned kind, though. Then again, they may have been fixed since I

purchased my machine.

Finally: Be very careful to avoid overextending yourself while exercising. I

used to overextend myself by leaning back too much at the end of every

stroke. This pulled one of my muscles due to which I had to stop exercising for several weeks. I never again pulled any of my muscles after

I started following instructions on the right way of pulling that I had

found on Youtube.

I purchased the Horizon Oxford II CS Rower from elite health and fitness in london before horizon increased their prices. Excellent build quality, easy to use console, folds up nicely and has a smooth rowing action, be careful when folding away as you can trap the wires..

Excellent service from the London retailers, highly recommend, excellent product but if your after more feedback from the console, look at the vision ar700 - negatively the ar700 doesn't fold though and is quite a lot bigger.

I bought the Horizon Oxford Rower last month. This rowing machine is the best I have tried. By far! It really is the next best thing to a concept 2 feel and for half the price. It really isn't worth paying £200- £300 as they will be unuseable within 3 years. The oxford will last a lifetime (guaranteed!)

The problem for any air resistance rowing machine is that it is inevitably compared with the Concept2 which has become the standard against which such machines are judged. Given that it costs little more than half the price the Oxford II CS acquits itself quite well.

The machine is delivered as two sub-assemblies. One has the working parts, the fan to provide the resistance and the mechanism to drive it, all contained in a welded steel frame and a protective metal cover to keep anything from getting trapped in the fan. The second assembly is bar on which the seat runs. Assembly involved connecting these two parts, fitting the pivoting footplates and the adjustable mount that holds the console which displays time, distance, calories and strokes per minute and was simple using the tools supplied. The machine itself is solidly constructed with a reassuring weight to it that gave me confidence that it would survive serious use.

Once assembled it was time to give it a go. The footplates are sturdy and have broad straps to hold your feet tightly in place. With my feet strapped in the position was comfortable throughout the full range of a stroke. I set the timer and started rowing. The machine itself felt solid with little or no movement or flex as one sometimes gets on cheaper machines. The level of resistance was good. It seemed easy as first but within a few minutes I was breathing hard and starting to sweat. The problem with the resistance was that there was no means by which it could be adjusted and this might be a problem as training progressed. My main criticism of this machine is the console. A wider range of functions would be useful. For instance it would be good to be able to set a distance you wished to row for rather than a time and it would be nice if the timer was activated by your starting to row rather than you having to press a start button and then start rowing. This would be even more important if one was setting a distance to be rowed rather than a time. The distance function is weak to. Essentially it just multiplies the number of strokes by an unspecified amount to arrive at a distance. The number of strokes is measured by a sensor activated by the seat and so takes no account of length of stroke or the power of the stroke. As such its hard to say its measuring anything meaningful at all.

For the money this is a sturdy and well built air resistance rower that is badly let down by the console supplied. While variable resistance is undoubtedly desirable on an indoor rower it is the console more than anything else that allows you to measure your efforts and to challenge yourself. The information that this console provides simply is not adequate. Given the low cost of electronics these days I find it hard to believe that Horizon couldn't do better without dramatically increasing the price of their machine.

exceptional build quality - a class above any of its competitors ... really, if (like me) you're not going to buy a concept 2 or water rower because £1000 is too expensive this is the only other option (unless you want something really cheap that will only last a year). I tried the Johnson 7000 (£750) and Tunturi 7 series (~£600). Neither of these compare with the feel or look of the CS2 - I can't comment on their reliability of course.This is one of the few machines on the market (perhaps the only one for less than £750?) that comes with a commercial guarantee (light use) - if they are willing to back their product for use in gyms it must be good - that was my logic - and it's true.JUST WISH IT HAD A VARIABLE RESISTANCE SETTING!