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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [MadTownTRI] [ In reply to ]
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MadTownTRI wrote:
I had to google wtf powercranks were...

Assume they have fallen out of favor/ don't work as well as they claim. I came into the sport in '14, and I haven't heard about them or seen anything like them advertised to me.

I think way back when, Frank Day (owner) had one pro using them. You couldn't really say they were ever in widespread favor. I don't know anyone in my town that has them or ever did have them. And for the most part, advertising for them fell off a cliff years ago. H2O Fun was one of the few people on ST that ever vouched for them. The commonality between H2O Fun and Frank Day is that both were eventually banned from ST. It's been a lot quieter around here since then.
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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HuffNPuff wrote:
MadTownTRI wrote:
I had to google wtf powercranks were...

Assume they have fallen out of favor/ don't work as well as they claim. I came into the sport in '14, and I haven't heard about them or seen anything like them advertised to me.


I think way back when, Frank Day (owner) had one pro using them. You couldn't really say they were ever in widespread favor. I don't know anyone in my town that has them or ever did have them. And for the most part, advertising for them fell off a cliff years ago. H2O Fun was one of the few people on ST that ever vouched for them. The commonality between H2O Fun and Frank Day is that both were eventually banned from ST. It's been a lot quieter around here since then.


Actually, there were a number of PC proponents on this forum. Some of them are still active. They're just not talking about PCs anymore.
Last edited by: Dreadnought: Nov 17, 20 11:00
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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Didn't realize Frank was banned. What's his sentence? Life? 25 years? 25 minutes on Power Cranks? I rode a friend's bike that had them. A humbling experience.

http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [Hydrosloth] [ In reply to ]
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Hydrosloth wrote:
Didn't realize Frank was banned. What's his sentence? Life? 25 years? 25 minutes on Power Cranks? I rode a friend's bike that had them. A humbling experience.
What exactly are they? I'm not watching their geocities 1995 videos on their site
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [duganator99] [ In reply to ]
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They replace the cranks on your bike and are independent of each other so that pushing one pedal does not bring the other up, you must pull each side up. It forces you to bike as if each leg were performing a single leg drill the entire ride.
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [Hydrosloth] [ In reply to ]
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The sentence is up to Dan. H2O Fun was banned for giving Frank his password on the infamous crank length thread so that both Dave and Frank were posting under Dave's handle.

BTW, I think I would be humbled too, but I'm not convinced at all that it would improve my performance. And now that I no longer run, it doesn't matter.
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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I do admire frank day for one thing, the ability to steer any post on this forum to PowerCranks. That's not an easy thing to do when the subject matter might
be defizzed coke.

Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [Hydrosloth] [ In reply to ]
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Hydrosloth wrote:
Didn't realize Frank was banned. What's his sentence? Life? 25 years? 25 minutes on Power Cranks? I rode a friend's bike that had them. A humbling experience.

I think he was banned initially with maybe the potential to come back, but then H20 let Frank post using his account, which in turn got H20 banned too (I think).
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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HuffNPuff wrote:
The sentence is up to Dan. H2O Fun was banned for giving Frank his password on the infamous crank length thread so that both Dave and Frank were posting under Dave's handle.

BTW, I think I would be humbled too, but I'm not convinced at all that it would improve my performance. And now that I no longer run, it doesn't matter.

Roughly around the time of this thread I saw a dude climbing up Alpe d'Huez on PC's. He was doing really well.
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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HuffNPuff wrote:
They replace the cranks on your bike and are independent of each other so that pushing one pedal does not bring the other up, you must pull each side up. It forces you to bike as if each leg were performing a single leg drill the entire ride.

Yes. That sums it up quite well.

The big question was whether such training was actually beneficial.
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [Dreadnought] [ In reply to ]
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Dreadnought wrote:
HuffNPuff wrote:
They replace the cranks on your bike and are independent of each other so that pushing one pedal does not bring the other up, you must pull each side up. It forces you to bike as if each leg were performing a single leg drill the entire ride.

Yes. That sums it up quite well.

The big question was whether such training was actually beneficial.
Man, it was 2008 when Frank did his "study" here on ST. I was fortunate enough to be able to take part, and in the end he gave me a failing grade for not using them for EVERY ride. I did manage 50% or more of my miles on them, but I was doing mass start bike racing at the time.

https://james-p-smith.blogspot.com/...nal-verdict.html?m=1
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [tigermilk] [ In reply to ]
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Everytime I had the slightest thought about buying a pair, I only had to come to ST and read a few threads of derision and quickly dismissed the idea.
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [Dreadnought] [ In reply to ]
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My wife is using the European version of the PowerCranks i.e the SmartCranks on the indoor trainer bike for about 15 years now. She can do 4hours in TT position with them.

Do they have any training benefit? At least she is a really fast road racer, you will not find many female triathletes in the world faster than her in a TT. The SmartCranks helped her a lot to get a stable position on the bike. In TT position at full throttle no movement of the body, only the legs move. Also they helped to get soupless (what is the English expression for it?), something very helpful in road racing. After a winter with SmartCranks on the trainer, ordinary cranks outside feel just so easy.

I used them too over a decade ago. I became used to them but I was not better in road racing with ordinary cranks. I didn’t liked them much and I would never use them riding outside. I was astonished that I could still do 2 hours of swift racing (yes, such long swift episodes exist) with them after not using them even a single time for probably 10 years (my wife insisted I have to try her Swift setup).
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [Dreadnought] [ In reply to ]
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When I started doing triathlons, I had extremely weak hip flexors (my history was 100% cycling, 0% running). I bought PowerCranks almost on a whim. I never liked Frank's salesmanship, but I have to admit that a winter of training exclusively on PowerCranks really did help balance me out. I wasn't faster, but I was more durable. My runs off the bike were way better than before PowerCranks.

Ultimately, I stopped using them because they were just a huge pain. They made riding a chore instead of fun. Now they are sitting in a parts bin somewhere in my basement. If anyone wants them (170 or 172.5mm, I think, and for ISIS bottom brackets) I would sell them cheap :-).

Bets on if this thread will still be alive in 2030?

-Mark Rebuck, http://www.markrebuck.com/
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [MarkRebuck] [ In reply to ]
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MarkRebuck wrote:
Now they are sitting in a parts bin somewhere in my basement. If anyone wants them (170 or 172.5mm, I think, and for ISIS bottom brackets) I would sell them cheap


You could sell them on EBAY. I often see some for sale at about 1/2 their original price.
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [BergHugi] [ In reply to ]
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BergHugi wrote:
I used them too over a decade ago. I became used to them but I was not better in road racing with ordinary cranks. I didn’t liked them much and I would never use them riding outside. I was astonished that I could still do 2 hours of swift racing (yes, such long swift episodes exist) with them after not using them even a single time for probably 10 years (my wife insisted I have to try her Swift setup).


I used them exclusively for several months on my indoor trainer. When I switched back to conventional cranks, it was a weird feeling: I no longer had to lift that crank, and I felt the crank pushing my leg upwards. It was almost like the transition from a conventional bike to a track bike.
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Re: Good news for PowerCranks today ... [Dreadnought] [ In reply to ]
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Sounds like these Power Cranks might be beneficial to counteract the negative effects of sitting all day at a desk. My physio has me doing loads of strengthening exorcises for the hip flexors and glutes. If I could just jump on a trainer and pedal for 5min instead...
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