Well, my very old rower finally just broke down on me, so I was in the market for a new rowing machine.

 

Spending for a Concept 2 was out of the question because of the ridiculous cost to get in Thailand.

 

So without very much research at all, I went with the FRO 500 Rower from Decathlon. You can buy online or go to a Decathlon store (attached to Lotuss'). 

 

Decathlon Thailand | Official Online Sportswear & Equipment Store

 

It arrives in the box and frankly assembling it was not something I felt I could do at all competently, even if I could it wouldn't take the suggested 30 minutes, more like all day if lucky. 

 

So I was happy that in my area you can book a technician to assemble it for 500 baht. I really wouldn't have bought it otherwise.

 

This is a much more sophisticated rower than I had before so it's going to be a steep learning curve. For the rowing machine snobs, yes I know it has flaws. Most likely deal killer flaws for the more serious rowers (not me). 

 

The cost was 12,000 baht.

They also have the Domyos 120 model for 7,000 baht.

 

Perhaps they sometimes have promotion pricing, but not now. 

 

Arguably the 120 would been good enough for me but since it's such an infrequent purchase it seemed worth trying the higher end model. As far as I can tell the main difference is that with the 500, it's much heavier, the resistance change is digital, you must plug it in (so you need an nearby outlet), and the display is much bigger and better. You can download an app for set workouts and mount your phone on the display.

 

Major feature! BOTH the 120 and 500 quickly and easily fold up for storage. So they could both fit into even small apartments. The 500 actually requires one less step to do the fold up. 

 

So, anyway, it is too late to for me to change my buying decision, but I'm wondering if others have tried this machine and might want to comment on how they use it and how it's working out for them. 

 

Perhaps this model is too new in Thailand to expect any local user comments. I'm really not sure.

 

Happy rowing! 

I mean you must have amazing traps. Do you have your own home gym?