Wall Mounted Cable Machine

Update: 9/16/2019 - I’m coming up on two years of using this great piece of equipment and I still highly recommend it. Since I bought it I found numerous ways to modify it for even more uses by using different attachments and combination of attachments. The only limit is your imagination. I’ve had no issues with any of the parts they’re all still working just as they did two years ago. A great piece of workout equipment! And what a great value! I just got mine setup in a spare room and it not only doesn't take up much room at all, but it works great. Plenty of range of motion. I have a bunch of equipment in my garage, but when it gets cold it is such a pain to go out and fire up the propane torpedo to heat up the place. This will allow me to get through winter without having to join some gym and blow a bunch of money, put up with all those people hogging the equipment just to sit there and text and send selfies of themselves. Or want to talk to you when you're just trying to get your workout done and get out. For the price I paid for the BD-62 I would only get 7 months of gym membership. But I own it and after that it's a free ride.. in the comfort of my own home where I can come in in my underwear and yell and cuss to get that last rep without worrying about getting kicked out. One question was can you do crossovers with it. You might not think with the two cables being close together you can't, but you totally can. Well chest flys anyway. I attached the included handles at the longest length connection and you can totally wrap around in a crossover type exercise with them. Great. Some have mentioned that it's not tall enough for lat pulldowns and it might be kinda limiting on that one single exercise depending on your height (you can sit on the floor). I built a pedestal to bring it up a little higher but not so high you loose the lower angle. You can hit your lats with other exercises like the single arm pulldown that you can do standing up. I had looked at a big full sized functional trainer that was awesome. But it was $2000... and as compact as this one was compared to some others I was considering it would still take up a lot of room. I was in the process of clearing out that spare room completely to make room for the BD-62 but since I got it installed I've found it takes up so little room I don't have to bother! I'll include a shot of mine with the pedestal I made. I put a rug under it all to protect the carpet. I would use wider, heavier duty washers for the wall connection than the dinky ones they provide though. Makes for a more solid connection. And I would make a point of attaching the top to solid wood in the wall rather than using the anchor bolts for drywall. If you can’t find a joist where you want to put the BD-62 you can span a piece of 1x wood across a couple joists then bolt it to that. And you can either strap the bottom front feet to the floor or drill holes in the front feet and bolt it to the floor that way. That’s what I did and it’s solid. I also put a couple L brackets on the front of the pedestal and then screwed that to the floor through the carpet. It isn’t going anywhere. Defintely worth it!

For the price, it's a very good unit so far, been 3 week in now. Came with the anchors to bolt the top and bottom, feels secure and I have not felt otherwise using it. Using just one of the pulleys is very smooth and works well. Using both by clipping them together onto a bar or something else is not smooth and that should take a star off it but all in all, it's hard to complain about what this can do. I've decided to mostly stick with one side when I can for the smoother glide of lifting the weights. Other issue that people mention is height. Being 6'2" I find myself kneeling or sitting to do some of the exercises I'd prefer or should do do standing. But you can do them by adjusting how you do them. I knew height on some exercises would be an issue and I've just found ways to do them differently. Adjusting the pulleys down/up to whatever height is great and works well. But considering what it does, the price and the exercises it now allows me to do at home that I couldn't do before, it's a very good, solid machine which I highly recommend. If you think it's cheap because of the price, it's not, it seems well built and solid once you secure it. Very happy with this purchase overall. Install instructions were not the best but if you take your time it's not hard to figure out. I just followed their video for doing the pulleys and lines and that was a piece of cake following it. I was able to put it together by myself, including leveling/bolting it to be secure. Just need to know what people are using to oil or grease the poles of the slide? I know some people mentioned what they did in here and I'll go back and try to find out what they used. Should the lines be greased or oiled?

I waited a long time for this jewel to be back in stock. I wasn't disappointed. Its a great addition to my small garage gym. The footprint is pretty small and I can get in some accessory cable work. I'm 6'5" and I found the range of motion in the highest setting to be lacking. I built a 5" tall platform and its so much better. I also took the bearing covers off each pully and squirted in a dry lube before I began assembly. Assembly was fast and easy, including running the cable. Probably took me about 35 minutes after I had it all unboxed. I would advise laying out and identifying all the hardware at the beginning since none of them are marked.

If you are looking for a device with a small footprint that allows a variety of exercises in multiple planes at a very reasonable price point, this could be perfect for you. Assembly could have been made easier. Labels on the hardware and parts would have helped. But I put it together by myself and I think it took me under an hour, and I am not especially handy. You will need wrench and either a second wrench or, better, ratchet, and you will need a big Phillips screwdriver (there are just two screws that require that screwdriver). I found the mechanism surprisingly smooth. Pros: Low price for what you get. Small footprint (about 4 square feet) Smooth action Ability to adjust height of the pivot point Ability to use plates with 1" or 2" holes. 1:1 resistance (10 pound plate adds 10 pounds of resistance; if you use only one handle it is 2:1 -- adding 10 pounds of weight adds 5 pounds of resistance) Can use one hand or two Comfortable handles with some adjustability (and can easily swap out to other handles, bar, rope, etc.) Pulleys can swivel somewhat allowing exercises that change angle of pull Sturdy Cons Instructions/labeling not terrible but could be better. You do need to anchor it (but there is no way to have both a small footprint and no need to anchor; because I hope to be moving fairly soon, and as mentioned am not especially handy, I was able to position mine in a place where I could use a ratchet strap to secure it, and not have to mar the wall.) I would recommend this product to a friend. (Actually, I already recommended it to two friends). EDIT: I have now had this unit for about a year. I use it about twice a week. I am at least as pleased with the purchase now as I was then. And the price is actually a couple bucks cheaper now. If you are thinking about it, get it. If you use it you will get more than your money's worth. ADDITIONAL EDIT: To clarify the ratio, it is only one to one if you either use both handles at once or clip into both cables. So you can choose 2:1 (10# load provides 5# resistance) or 1:1 (10# load provides 10# resistance). Bonus! The posts are 1" diameter. Olympic plates (2" hole will work fine, but if you want them to fit snugly you will need to get the adapters. Those just slide onto the existing pin. I had a bunch of old 1" plates so I cleaned them up, painted them and now they stay on or near this machine. It's a great addition to a home gym, allowing you to do many of the things you might want to do in a commercial gym.

You can't beat this system for the size and price. I only have a tiny area for my home gym, and was able to squeeze this in easy (just not enough space for the BD-61 unfortunately). I may buy another to put on the opposite wall just to have full crossover options. I'm absolutely in love with it. Super easy to assemble. The only thing I could say to Valor Fitness would be to print the corresponding numbers next to the nuts, bold and washers on the cardboard backing. It would make the easy job even easier. When you get ready to do assembly, just count off the amounts of the components. The parts all have different amounts, so it makes it simple to know what's what. I thought there was an issue with the 'top' hole, as to get the front pulley assemble to lock into it everything binds up, but in the description it specifies it only has 16 positions...so don't use the top one. This doesn't cause issues for me at 5'11", but a super tall person probably wouldn't get full extension on kneeling lat pull-downs. And pulling up while having the pulley system all the way down, like with curls, feels unstable as the front of the system will pick up off the floor. I don't doubt the bottom wall mount will hold, but I haven't slapped max weight on it so I can't say for sure. Some of the stickers on it were a bit sketchy. Not quite lined up, somewhat coming off. I bought it to lift weights though, not for a sticker album, so I couldn't care less about that. But some folks may freak...sticker folks, you know who you are. And for those wondering, I put the Olympic adapter sleeves on it, and there's plenty of clearance to put 45 lb plates on without hitting the wall it's mounted to. I was worried at the time of purchase, but pulled the trigger anyway. Note, this is not a $1,200 to $2,000 cable system that's been mis-priced. BUT this is an absolutely PERFECT option for home and garage gyms. Love, love, love this thing.

The most important reason I chose this cable station was it's compactness. It was the only compact cable station available even close to the size I needed for the space I had. Because of that fact alone I am pleased that the station surprisingly exceeds my expectations. The station is easy to assemble which I did myself unassisted. The cable stringing was not the nightmare I thought it would be. I started with the short cable first and then strung the longer one, connecting the pulleys as I went. One thing I did't feel comfortable with is the wall anchors that came with the system. They are designed to go into the sheet rock wall after drilling the proper size hole and then using the supplied lag bolts to expand them as they are screwed into the anchors. I presume that since most of the stress when pulling on the cables is actually lifting the weight plates that securing the station to the wall in this fashion would be OK but I wanted a firmer mount into a wall stud (2X4). My problem is that the closest wall stud didn't center on the mount without the station interfering with the doorway so I made an extension plate out of steel. I wanted an extra firm mount so I also made a support bracket for the bottom which screws into the station frame after drilling the holes with metal screws and then into the wall floor plate (2X4) with a lag bolt. It is as steady as a rock and gives me a great peace of mind that I do not have to baby this equipment. Since all of my other gym bars and machines use Olympic style 2" hole plates I bought the 9" adaptors to slide on and fasten over the 1" bars on this station. I think the Olympic plates would work and not fall off without the adaptors but aesthetically they look and fit nicer. I also use the 2" quick connect collars to keep the plates tight. The pull handles have several different attachment points sewn into the webbing making the length adjustable. I find the extra length gets in my way so I replaced them with all metal handles. That's just my personal preference since the supplied handles are very functional. The cable system is very smooth and the pull using both handles seems to be close to 1 to 1 meaning if you have 50 pounds of plates on the bars the pull is 50 pounds plus a slight poundage above accounting for the resistance friction of the system. Adding a pull bar, triceps rope, and other attachment goodies can really turn this into a very very versatile machine. With a 250 pound capacity this station is all I need even for heavier routines like rows and pulldowns. Sure it's not as versatile as a double cross cable system but some routines such as chest flys are just going to have to be done one side at a time. Overall I couldn't be happier with the BD62.

The Valor Fitness BD-62 has some shortcomings, but despite these I've managed to make it a worthwhile addition to my home gym setup. I bought the BD-62 to replace my Valor Fitness BD-7 cage which had a (better) integrated lat pull and low row option. I'd also bought the BD-CC2.0 cable crossover attachment. I needed to downsize since living accommodations no longer had the space for a full-size power rack. Primary Issues: 1. The system has a great deal of resistance from the number of pulleys, their mediocre quality, and the lack of compliance in the steel cables that interconnect everything. As initially assembled, I was measuring 15+ pounds of force needed to get a single side of the pulley system moving (measured by hanging a plate from the handles) and a significant difference in the amount of resistance in the eccentric portion of a pull movement. Some of this resistance can be attributed to the guide rods that the plate carrier rides on, but a LOT of it is in the pulley and cable arrangement. If you pull on both of the cables at the same time you will get twice the system resistance. 2. The wall mounting system needs to be wider or arranged so that two bolts can be mounted to a wall stud. As delivered from the factory the system can't do this without some end-user engineering (see below). 3. The very top peg position cannot be used because the cable trolley interferes with the top pulleys. I imagine this comes from Valor Fitness using the square peg tube from other systems in their product line, but they count the top peg hole in their product description as being usable; it isn't. If the top stationary pulleys at the front of the system had been spaced farther apart this would have worked, and probably helped with some of the system resistance. 4. Valor Fitness should include Olympic plate peg adapters. Even cheap nylon ones. 5. Due to having more pulleys than a sailboat, you will need to increase the amount of plate loaded weight to get the same amount of resistance out of the system when compared to simpler lat-pull systems that you might find at a commercial gym. Also the eccentric (release) portion of a rep is much less than the concentric (pull) due to this inherent resistance. 6. The system doesn't deal well with uneven plate loads. If you want to put 90 pounds on the pegs, you have to load a 45 on each side. This even applies to lower weights. If the load is uneven, the resistance goes up considerably. Lubricating the guide rods for the plate carrier helps, but it's still quite noticeable. So with all the above negatives said, does the BD-62 work as a home gym cable machine option? Yes, but with some caveats: - Mounting the system will require some additional engineering on your part. The included bracket design with the BD-62 doesn't allow it to easily be mounted directly to wall studs, which is REALLY needs to be if you are going to use it safely. In my case, I ended up using some 2x4 boards, cut to length so that I could span across at least 2 wall studs at the top, and anchor directly into a stud at the bottom, then bolted the BD-62 to those. I painted the boards to match the wall so they don't seem so obtrusive. - The lower mounting point bracket of the BD-62 will align with baseboard trim molding unless your room doesn't have this, but most interior rooms do. As such you will have to make some sort of riser platform to avoid the baseboards. The rise platform is also recommended to give the system a little bit more height when using as a lat pulldown. I built a minimalist platform out of 2x4 boards that matches the footprint of the cable station. Again, this is more end-user engineering that is pretty much REQUIRED to make the system usable. - I've replaced some of the pulleys with aftermarket machined aluminum pulleys. This helped lower some of the resistance, but I'll probably replace a few more of the pulleys with upgraded versions to increase the smoothness of the system. Unfortunately I've found this to be a REQUIRED expense otherwise the system would be difficult to use effectively. Valor Fitness should really supply better pulleys with this system given that there are SO many of them. Their combined resistance really does add up. - Lubricating the cables and pulleys with silicone spray lubricant has helped some, as has continued use of the system. Initially the cables are quite stiff and the pulleys need to "wear in". - I ended up drilling a 0.5" hole about half-way between the top peg hole and the next one down so I could get that extra 2.5" of vertical height. It actually DOES matter when seated on a normal height bench with my average length arms (my height 5'10"). - The system is good for lat pulldown variations, seated rows, single-sided cable "flys", face pulls, tricep extension variations. I've found that it is NOT a capable substitute for a proper cable cross and as such I do rear-delt flys one side at a time, it doesn't really work for cross-body flys. What DOES work really well is attaching two single ropes and doing "cross country skiing" type pulls at a high intensity; a proper core and upper back workout. - I ended up buying two Olympic adapters for the plate pegs so my plates wouldn't bang around. - I've loaded 250 pounds on the system for seated rows and it hasn't complained. Conclusion: this system is worth buying if you are willing to put in the engineering time to get it properly mounted and are ready to experiment with replacing pulleys (and the costs associated). I'm already in for at least $48 worth of replacement pulleys and will probably have to spend at least that much again. Add that together with the additional hardware, wood and time needed to get this properly setup and it adds at least another $100 to the take-home price. I probably would not have bought it if I'd known I'd be in for what amounts to a hobby project. I probably WOULD NOT recommend this system to someone as it currently is setup. If Valor Fitness could just include better pulleys and make some minor changes to the mounting brackets it would make this system a lot easier to recommend, as it is right now: buyer beware. UPDATE After 3 months of regular use I started to hear a metal "pinging" sound when doing exercises that used a long excursion pull on the cables. Upon closer inspection, I found that the weight bearing cable (the long one) had some filaments of wire fraying off and a split in the cable jacket about 24" above where the central pulley that mounts to the weight carriage is. It looks like a manufacturing defect in the steel cable that has finally expressed itself. I contacted Valor Fitness, and to their credit they sent me a replacement cable, no questions asked, via USPS Express mail. The replacement cable is different than the one I received originally; the replacement is thinner in cross section more supple and doesn't have the built-in twisty-ness than the original cable has. It actually makes the cable cross functionally smoother in use. Based on this, I'm adding a star to my original rating. Well done, VF.

I've had this for 1.5 years now. While it was an absolute nightmare to put together, it is exactly what I wanted! It takes almost no floor space, and works very well. I absolutely recommend this if you are someone who can puzzle out bad instructions.