Powercrank?

[Chris Watt]

I just had my MAP test by Houshang yesterday and he was very keen about Powercranks. Anybody know anything about these? If they're half as good as promised they sound incredible. Claim to improve your average speed by 2 mph by improving pedal efficiency. Tons of testimonials including from top TDF pro-riders (Hincapie etc). ~$950- not cheap but probably more effective than a $7000 bike.

http://www.powercranks.com/FAQs.html#which_sports-

Cheers,
Chris

[Lister Farrar]

No personal experience. Searched google groups on "Powercranks". Results seem equivocal.
eg: http://www.cyclingforums.com/archive/in ... 54644.html

There's one published study looking at the cranks, which showed an increase in gross efficiency only. however, a leading expert in this area of research, Jim Martin, suggested that there maybe methodological errors within the study. Either way the study or similar needs repeating to build up the evidence one way or another.

On an associated note, from a theoretical point of view, there's no basis to suggest that they would be beneficial. Coyle et al 91, studied with force instrumented pedals two groups of cyclists (well trained and elite) and found that the elite group 'stomped' *down* on the pedals harder (and thus pulled up less) than the non elite group. This fits in with other research showing that cyclists stomp down (the exception being MTBers).

Ric

I recall one observation that evolution has given us quad muscles that mostly resist gravity, and therefore push down much better than anything else. But I also know elite riders who train one legged on hills to have a good pull up for critical parts of races like sprints and jumps. One post above suggests powercranks encourage lower cadence, so maybe better for longer time trials and triathlons vs road racing?

Mo info here: http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=7697

[Chris Watt]

More studies here:

http://www.powercranks.com/studies.html

...although off the PC site but they do appear to be independent. I guess I'm also being influenced by Houshang's strong support of them and the fact that he has had Whitfield/Tuft/Hestler use them (and he says that when they first started none of them could do more than 5 minutes b/c the recruitment of little used muscles was so exhausting but that this improves quickly after 20-40 hours of riding)

So I'm still really intrigued.

Cheers,
Chris

[cashman]

Take a look at the Tri forum on: http://www.slowtwitch.com and search for powercranks there is a lot of information as well as skepticism surrounding the actual benefits on using this training tool; Frank Day the founder posts frequently on the Tri forum.

Then search the Classified on slowtwitch as I know there are several pairs on their some quite inexpensive say ~$450.00, link: http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi? ... =post_time

My take on these is that they are a training tool only you can't race with them so you are very limited with their use. I believe that peoples muscle make up dictate their pedal stroke, yes you can improve with some training aids however everyone is limited in one way or another. You need to ask yourself if it is going to cost me X for these cranks and I am only going to benefit up to Y then maybe the grand you put out for a set of these powercranks could be better spent on a training AND racing tool i.e. Power meter.

Now with a power meter you get the best of both worlds training AND racing so you can apply the results of your power training to racing and racing results to training. TRAIN HOW YOU RACE / RACE HOW YOU TRAIN.

You could get into a wired power tap for about ~$500.00 again getting the best of both worlds training and racing. Check out fleabay (E-Bay) or search the classified forum on slowtwitch.

And one last point is that you just spent XXX amount to get your MAP tested with Houshang which now gives you power numbers to work with and as I have said in previous posts if you don't apply those numbers in your training then those are only nice numbers to know.

Colin

[Brian S]

Colin--I absolutley agree. The advantage of having the MAP testing is to clearly establish your (unique) HR-power-lactate threshold relationships. Applying them in training and retesting is the logical progression towards race progression. At least that was the opinion I was left with after meeting with Houshang. Still, that no so little voice that says "How can I increase those watts at the same RPE/heart rate?" is a central reason why we look at tools such as power cranks.

[Chris Watt]

Thanks for the links Colin and I agree with most of what you said- quantitative feedback is super-useful, Power meters are great tools for achieving that and it's dumb to do a MAP if you aren't going to keep collecting power data. I also agree that PC's aren't a racing tool (at 3 lbs they're heavy!)- but if they increase pedal stroke efficiency and if that translates to a regular crank and if they add 1-2 mph to your race speed- then I'll take a pair of those bad boys.


Had never heard of them until Houshang (who trains many national riders) strongly recommended them- since then all the reading I've done has just increased my curiousity.

One thing for sure: there's a miserable learning curve with them and everything I've read suggests you have to be prepared to put with that. I expect that may defeat a lot of folks.

Anyway, the reading goes on. Anybody else know someone who's tried PC's?

Cheers,
Chris

[Josh.E]

One of the guys I work with has them. I'm not sure how much he's used them for training. He's a pretty decent runner, and is of the opinion that they help runners more than they help cyclists.
I'll ask him more about them and give you some feedback.

[Chris Watt]

Anecdotal support for PC's as a training tool from pro-riders here:

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6446
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6809
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=4906 : "One of the best training tools we’ve seen is PowerCranks. All of our testers have reported increased power and strength after using them as a serious part of their training. One thing we’ve not seen yet, though, is an actual power output test as part of our evaluation of PowerCranks... until now."

Cheers,
Chris