service station

Question from an ICI/PRO member:

Hey john,

I had a rider wearing a Timex HRM in class yesterday and it would not pick up her heart rate on the Keiser console of any of the bikes?  It does work on other equipment in the facility (treadmills etc.)

Is there a reason for this? and what she should check if purchasing another HRM to look out for?

thanks

This had me thinking about my Grandfather John Sr. (I'm the third) who could fix anything. Whenever I had a problem with something, specifically a car with issues I couldn't correct, he would advise me to carefully examine any assumptions I was working under. He knew me well enough to know that I had a tendency to see problem "A" and assume it was caused by a failure in part "B". So I'd start to tear apart "B", find nothing wrong with it, put it back together and after wasting a few hours bring the problem to him.

Learning to challenge assumptions can be very helpful in situations where someone brings a problem to you. Most people will try to solve their own problem, before bringing it to you. Along the way they may have created a few assumptions that they will expect you to follow.

My response was...

I'm thinking that it maybe hard to trouble shoot this.
Before I'd do anything I would confirm that the strap is actually working at the time. I've had similar situations where a student says; "it works everywhere else" but that's in the past days or weeks ago... only now the battery is dead 🙁
Does the signal show on their watch, but not on the M3? Or if they don't have a watch have them go directly to another piece of equipment and see if it shows there.
If the strap works other places, but not the M3, as a last step confirm that the M3 works with another HR strap.
If everything checks out then I'd connect you with one of the smart people at Keiser.
Learning to challenge assumptions can be very helpful in situations where someone brings a problem to you. Most people will try to solve their own problem, before bringing it to you. Along the way they may have created a few assumptions that they will expect you to follow.
You need to be careful not to sound cynical or condescending when you question assumptions; especially if you're a man talking to a women*. Rather than saying; "are you sure the strap works?" which can come off negatively, I'd suggest something like; "how about we go over to that treadmill over there just to confirm everything?"
*Trust me on this one. I worked for a number of years at a service gas station (remember those?) and have a vivid memory of being accused of insulting a women, who turned out to be the best friend of the owner's wife, because I didn't appear to take her prognosis of her car's problem seriously.   
As a follow up to the story, a response from Keiser...
Currently our display supports only Polar HRM. Unless the Timex watch has Polar
technology, it won't sync to the M3.Follow this link to our website that talks about Polar:
http://www2.keiser.com/en/accessory_options/polar

Please let me or our service department know if we can help any further.

Kind Regards,

Daniel Meine
Engineering
Keiser Corporation

Did you know that? I didn't and I've taught on Keiser M3's for years.

Originally posted 2013-02-06 09:41:31.

John

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