Power Cranks - Christmas Question

Triathlon Forum
1

I’m am hopeful to possibly have enough $ saved to purchase a set of powercranks. I realize there have been many posts on PC’s, but could not find my answers in the search. So here goes:

  1. Do you ride, then once trained on PC’s, *race *with powercranks?

  2. Would you place the PC’s on your road bike or tri bike?

  3. Can you easily switch PC’s to another bike?

I realize these are rookie questions, but I could not get any info off their web site. Any additional comments greatly appreciated. I have learned and gained valuable knowledge from this great site and it’s veterans. Happy Holidays…ride safe…

2

Well, I will have to work on answering those questions although many think my web site is too busy now.

  1. Most people now go back to regular cranks for racing although i am now recommending that people consider racing on the PC’s as I think they will be faster on them for a period after they have a reasonable base for the race they are doing but before the brain is completely retrained. What you do is up to you based upon where you are at and the importance of the race.

  2. Put them on the bike you ride the most. the big key to getting better with them is not the specific set up but the number of hours on them.

  3. They switch pretty easily. Should take about 5 minutes if the cranks are off the other bike.

Now that is my biased opinion but I think most who have taken that approach will agree with me that it works well.

3

  1. I plan to race on my PCs next year if I can get in enough winter adaptation. I raced one short duathlon on them last year and was pretty fast, but I couldn’t stay aero. Not enough adaptation time.

  2. Agree with Frank. The key to making gains is to ride, ride and ride. Then, when you think you are good, start bending over into your aero position and start adapting all over again. Its a painful process. Right now my cranks are on my spinner bike propped up with boards to simulate a steep tri bike. I can ride for about an hour at 80 rpm before my legs start to give out because there are no downhills on the indoor bike. Combine that with a little run training and you will begin to hate yourself. If this doesn’t make me really fast in the spring, Frank will never see the end to the hate mail I will send his way. :slight_smile:

  3. If you are a passable bike mechanic with all the tools then the process is not too bad. Make sure you read the directions and use an allen bolt and not the old style 14 or 15 mm kind.