Okay, I am going to take Frank up on his question. So, this is my question to ONLY PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED PC"S FOR AT LEAST 3 months. (I am not interested in opinions from folks who have never tried for at least 3 months)
The first question is how many folks have bought PC’s, and how many have returned after 3 months to get their money back.
For the ones who returned them, why? For the ones who kept them, why? For the ones who kept, this would imply you say some measured results that had you spent this kind of money. Either faster bike, run, and/or less injuries.
So, I am not taking sides. As an engineer, I love to be data driven. So, what is the ST data?
2 years with PC’s (on training bike permanently attached to a computrainer). Didn’t send back and will never sell them. Have worked wonders on hip stregth and overall pedaling/running effeciency. Since I started with them I’ve set big pr’s on 10k, marathon and 1/2 IM. People can say what they want and maybe infomation will never be quantified to their satisfaction. But they do actually do something and they have helped me. That’s all I need to know.
I rode PCs for a summer and sold them the next year. I would have sent them back but decided to keep trying. I never got past the break in phase. I rode significantly slower and couldn’t keep up with training partners anymore. Couldn’t ride for long periods, and missed the hours I would have normally put on my non PC TT bike. By the end of the summer the PC equipped bike stayed in the garage because it was no fun to ride…period. I have had PRs since then training without the PCs. Maybe the purchase of expensive training devices reflects the users greater commitment to the sport and improvement inevitably follows?? In fairness to Powercranks, my PC equipped bike had the tightest hip angle of all my rides and that probably was the worst choice for first installation.
I know you said you don’t want info from those who have not used them for over 90 day, but I have used mine for about 2 weeks and I have been having some good running results. My long run have seemed much easier. I have not really changed anything else in my training, so I give some of the credit to the pc’s. Maybe it is increased flexibility, I don’t know. I have not gotten to the point where I can ride my bike at normal levels. Hopefully that will come soon. I will definitely post more when I hit the 30 and 90 day marks. I would say there is only a 1% chance I will return them. I want them to work and I think they are. I know my spinscan is not near as efficient as it should be.
As the criticism of Dave’s results after three weeks show it is not possible that these running improvements you are seeing are due to the PC’s. It is only two weeks after all. As was pointed out so clearly, this is not possible. I am going to have to come up with some other explanation to explain these two week running improvement reports which are so common so my product will have more credibility. May I should rename them placebo cranks. truth in advertising you know
What I was trying to say by the comment was only folks have really tried. Meaning, one attempt does not count since I know my first 5 attempts I could not go longer than a few minutes. I just want folks who have given an honest try give their opinions. So, folks who are just starting out, please give your thoughts.
3 years. Year 1 exclusive. Year 2 first half of season exclusive on PC’s, second half exclusive on conventional. Year 3, 6 hours per week on PC’s on short commute rides, 6-9 hours per week on conventional cranks.
My bike times have improved. My run initially was pretty strong. I have gained some muscle mass in legs and upper body over the past 2 years, so my runs are slower, plus I run less. Can’t blame that on PC’s for that. I do believe they help the run, although I have no documented proof. I have documented proof of bike PB’s across the board at all races this year, compared to 1985-2002 period.
Well, if you’re not hard and fast on the 90 day rule…
I used them for about 8 weeks, during the middle part of my ‘base’ period. During this period my 20MP went from 300W to 295W–during a period that it normally would have gone up to 320W (as it did the subsequent year on normal cranks).
I stopped using them as I felt like I was wasting valuable time.
BTW, a “25% increase” in power for me would put my TH power squarely at 375W, or 6 W/kg…which, as much as I’d like to believe is possible–just simply isn’t.
Been using em for about a year now and found last year when first using them after about 2 months with Computrainer improved pedaling efficiency, power output, and also running was faster during training runs by 30 seconds…this translated most dramatically into average training run pace which went from 7:45 per mile to 6:45 - 7 min/mile for normal training pace which feels easy now.
used the cranks since feb of this year. I can climb hills sitting down like never before. I can spin circles now, where before, I was a pedal masher. I can dominate my weekly group ride, before I was just one of the guys. I nearly broke an hour for the bike at one of my olys this year. I checked my log book and I have actually biked less (hrs and miles) this year vs. last year. I would not sell the cranks for anything.
For others to say that riding with them is no fun… well duh, its training and it is training that kicks your butt in a way regular riding cannot.
It was a stretch for me to drop the dough and my wife was not too happy with me, but it is the single best investment in tri gear I have made.
So, it sounds like you race with them? Whats the longest race you have done with them? I am still trying to get over the hurdle of using these in hills on a race.
actually, I have never raced with them. I have them mounted on my road bike which I ride 2x per week approx. 50-75 miles total on a hilly ride. I also ride my tri bike once per week (w/o cranks) approx. 25 miles.
I also ride my tri bike once per week (w/o cranks) approx. 25 miles.
You ride without cranks? I think I am going to invest in a set of these PowerCranks if they have helped you improve so much that you can now ride with no cranks at all
I bought a set of 172.5’s for my wife a little less than 2 years ago. Her spin scan numbers are always in the 40’s to low 50’s - I figured she would benefit a lot from the cranks. She rode them for a little while and then quit. I put them on my bike and rode them for a couple of months. I would switch them out for group rides. Early on I could tell that I was spinning more freely with my regular cranks. Then I quit using them. A few months ago I emailed PowerCranks and inquired if they knew of anyone who had a set of 180’s that wanted to swap for a pair of 172.5’s. Andrew responded and said that they had a set of 182.5’s and that he would swap me straight up! Brilliant! I have set them up on an old steel frame and am running them as a single-speed. If I get around to it, I’ll take a picture and post it - it’s a real McGuyver deal (a used toothpick, a paper clip and half a stick of Wrigley’s spearmint gum and, “voila”, he has a thermonuclear device).
A little background before I continue. I used to be a decently competent cyclist. A year and a half ago I just quit exercising. I was ground down into dust. I put on 30 pounds and not until a couple of months before the swap did I start exercising again. I could barely average 14 mph on my bike for a solo ride. My HR would be in the 160’s and 170’s to accomplish that. It was physically impossible to “spin”. I probably kept the revs below 65 rpm. I also tried to incorporate running into my workouts. I have a .85 mile loop around my neighborhood that was a death run for me. I got to the point where I could do it in 8’ 30" most days. On a bad day it would shoot up to 8’ 50". Then I started on the PC’s. My goal was to do 15 minutes a day during the week and ride my conventional crank bike on the weekends for a coupla hours. Within 2 weeks my neighborhood run had dropped to 8’ flat. A month later, I cranked out a 7’ 10" lap. My PC rides were slowing getting faster and longer, but the big difference was that my legs were becoming “lively” again and I was starting to ride conventional cranks with closer to normal rpm (90ish). Since I finally felt physically able to spin now, I would do a coupla high rpm spin ups down a very slight hill (so short and slight that you have to work to exceed 26mph normally) whenever I rode the CC’s. I am now able to exceed 175 rpm for several seconds (in a 42x19 at almost 31mph) and it feels like I can go higher at some point. When I do these spinups, I really feel the HF’s being activated strongly. By the way - this is with 180cranks…and on a SoftRide. I have only lost 5 poiunds so far, but I’m working on it and my health/energetic level is slowly improving. At the rate I’m going, I would expect to be able to do a fast group ride by the time I lose 10 more pounds - still 15 pounds overweight - because of the PC’s. Time will tell.
I have used them myself and had 13 clients use them, all with positive results. I think how you use them is key. I don’t believe in using them 100%, but as an important supplement.
I have athletes use Powercranks on 1 or 2 recovery workouts per week only, often Monday/Friday and regular cranks the rest of the time. The PC workouts are 30-60 minutes at extremely low wattage (~20-40% of LT wattage), but build to relatively high rpm after the athlete adapts. This provides a recovery workout for the quads and glutes and a skill and muscular endurance workout for the hip flexors.
Even though I disagree with Frank about how to use them, I have had a lot of success with Powercranks and I definitely believe in them. I think that any athlete who can’t easily do race duration of single leg pedaling straight through will benefit from Powercranks. I’d guess that would be most of us.
