I think I remember seeing photos of PNF or another elite female IMer riding cranks that had “little cranks” joined to them half way down that rotated on their own independent axes. Rubbish description but you’ll know what I mean if you know what I mean.
Does anyone have info or photos of these and/or know what the idea behind them was??
Interesting - they seem to make these commercially now:
http://www.hingedcrankarm.com/what_is_it.htm
but I don’t think her’s were to deal with hip issues. Here’s a decent photo:
http://i40.tinypic.com/2cd9ac3.jpg
Anyone know the story?
the idea it to put the foot at the center of the pedals rotation point because something something
.
This was discussed in a post yesterday. this was Slowman’s response, sorry I don’t know how to link to a post within a thread.
**“****In **this one, Paula has those crazy crank extension things on as well. Those kind of vanished.”
they were called “drop center” cranks. the general idea is still around, in a less extreme form, in side mount pedals. these pedals don’t have a second lever as long as the drop center cranks, but they do what they do with a significantly smaller Q. drop center cranks added about 3cm of Q.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
The thread is on the second page right now and it’s about How steep is Natasha Badman
it looks like paula put the ‘pedal units’ on standard length cranks. in the photo, her cranks just look (relatively) short because of the huge chainrings she was using to spin those tiny wheels.
but i would love to know more about them, like who came up with them, and why they were used.
The actual advantages are claimed, rather than substantiated. Back then, there was no SRM, no Powertap, Nothing other than, it feels fast…
So you’re saying they’re like old-school PowerCranks? 
(I’m kidding Frank, please don’t come rip my head off)
