Is it possible, when the cranks are 180 degrees apart and you are pedaling fine, that one leg is working harder than the other? I think that if one leg was working harder the other leg would fall behind and you would then receive the “negative feedback” by becoming unsynchronized. Maybe building equal power in both legs is a benefit of powercranks, but I just can’t recall if this is advertised. But it seems that one of my legs is working a little harder than the other, even though the cranks stay 180 apart. Maybe I’m just identifying my dominant leg. By the way, my first time on them put the hurt in places that I didn’t even know were places. It’s all good.
I’ve been riding mine on the Computrainer, which will tell you if one leg is pushing over the top and down harder than the other. I’ve never had an uneven pedal stroke. But with the PCs, I have found myself drifting off to a right-leg dominance. The left-leg power drops as low as 42% if I don’t concentrate.
So, I think that part of the adaptation is to keep a focus on using each leg equally. I don’t know how one would do this without a Computrainer, though.
I guess that, on a regular trainer, you would want to use your ears and hear the telltale changes in noise as your wheel accelerates at different parts of your pedal stroke. You want to hear whirrrrrrrrrrr…, not whir…whir…whir…
Yes it is possible.
As long as you have forward pressure on both pedals they will not fall behind. but the pressure does not have to be equal. Typically though, the lesser leg is weaker and will fail first so it is the one that typically falls behind. However, because you cannot compensate for it (as you can with reguolar cranks) it is working “harder” (relative to its capabilities) and will improve faster and the two will soon be equal.
Does that make sense?
Frank
more powercrank fun
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