Two questions for the Powercranking Brigade

First, am I right in thinking that each crank is totally independent of the other? So, is it entirely up to the rider to keep them at 180 degrees, and if so, how does one know one is at 180 degrees (and not, say, 175 or 185?). I had got the impression that they were made so that you would know immediately if the upward pulling leg was dropping off the pace of the downward pushing leg, but that they had some kind of lock/bar to stop the upward pulling leg overtaking the downward pushing leg. Having looked at the video footage on the PC website, I’m now not sure that’s right. Returning to the question, what’s to stop you overdoing the cycling in circles technique so that you go deviate from 180 separation, and the upward pulling foot starts starts to catch the downward pushing foot?

Secondly, once you’ve “mastered” pedalling with PCs (which I don’t mean perjoratively; simply that you can maintain even cyclical strokes with both legs), if you revert to fixed cranks, why doesn’t your form revert (immedately, or over time) to the laziness that fixed cranks supposedly generate?

TIA

GregB

FRank is our man on this question, but as he probably has something more resembling a life, and I do not, I will tag in with my .02 FWIW:

  1. They work. You’ll be faster big time.
  2. It is up to you to maintain the appropriate 180 degree crank orientation. Pedal “wrong”, it goes to heck.
  3. These things are hard to use, but it’s all I.G. (Instant Gratification), you see results in very, very little time. Over more time the results spill over into your running, etc.
  4. They are harder to use if you are a “better” (i.e. think you’re a legend) cyclist since your bad habits are so ingrained. But the benefits will also be greater for you.
  5. Best to adopt the Zen “beginners mind”. Empty yourself of expectations and start fresh. It’s not the walls of the bowl that make it useful, it’s the empty space inside. You will struggle at first- but that palce you are struggling will fill with your new skill and you will be better quickly.
  6. Going back to regular cranks a few days before a big event has never been a problem. You still pedal better. I think the key to this is to use the Powercranks all the time in training. At first this will seem nearly impossible since they are so tough to use. STick with it.

I own a store but I have nothing to gain by hyping these- I don’t have any to sell in my store (yet). I’ve used them and still use them and believe in them. The results speak for themselves. Incredible. Best kept secret.

I’ll give you the Official answer to your second question first. Yes, you will revert to your old pedalling stroke if you don’t ride PC’s almost all the time. The reason I think this is true, is that most everyone rode the lazy hip flexor way for so many years that it is natural now. Plus, even if you thought you were using your hip flexors to lift the rising leg, you probably weren’t doing it nearly as well as you thought.

As for the 180 degree thing. There is NOTHING about PC’s that will physically make you go to 180. In fact, I will bet you that you will not be at 180 degrees within a very short time the first time you experience them. Sooner or later (probably much sooner than you’d imagine), that rising leg will be late to the top and the power leg will have decreased the angle between it’s crank and your slower rising leg’s crank. It’s called “getting out of phase”. It feels awkward. For a while.

Then, somehow you find that you are able to “get back in phase” without stopping and starting over. You don’t really know how you do it, you just do. It’s very much like learning to steer a bike. You steer by COUNTER steering, believe it or not, and the explanation can get confusing…but, your brain learned to do it correctly, probably fairly quickly, and you don’t think about it anymore. Same as with PC’s…and I’ve only had them 9-10 days. I could explain to you how I get back in phase, but that’s like trying to explain countersteering…it’s best experienced first hand.

I will say that after my first “ride” with PC’s, I was scared I’d not be able to learn to stand on them. I went on my FIRST road ride today, and since I’d tried standing on the trainer several times, I had NO trouble standing on the road. By the way, I’ve found riding on the road is EASIER than riding on a trainer…on the road, at least you get some automatic rest opportunities when you go downhill! And you will NEED those rest opportunities for a while…at least your hip flexors will need the rest!

greg i have using them and enjoying every minute of it since july of this year. in answer to your questions based on that:

1.it is up to you to maintain orientation, as tom says. you can feel this quite readily - as easy as you can see it. when you start you DO slip out of synch, and it is easy to get back in line within a couple pedal strokes or less. once you are in line all you have to do is maintain positive forward pressure - even a little - and you will remain so. (easier said than done !). you can at times slip out of time intentionally for different reasons. for example you can replicate the “drive 8 hours/recover 4 hours” effect of rotorcranks which is a nice little cheat if you are tired - or do the “dolphin” to entertain your kids or passing mt bikers. :slight_smile:

2.when i ride my regular bike i find that i can either pedal PC style or regular style. i guess over time you would revert away from PC style, but definitely you do not in a race, or occasional ride if you do not want to and you ride PC’s regularly enough, it seems. i would liken the effect to having an extra technique in your “quiver”, such as being able to ski skate v2 as well as v1. the PC pedalling technique is sufficiently distinct from regular that you can drop into it or out as you like.

There is no way that POWERCRANKS can replicate the effect of ROTOR

cranks, which is having the upper pedal in the 1 o’clock position when the lower pedal is only at 6 o’clock.

You are VERY WRONG. I can have have my left crank anywhere when my right is at 6 or when it is anywhere else! Same is true for the other side.

Ok I am wrong, but I still maintain that comparing the benefits of these

cranks to those of the Rotor system is unfair to Rotor. I have never

used POWERCRANKS but if the cranks are swinging so freely around

as you say, they appear to me to be much the same as the old

cranks when used with the old style worn cotterpins.

PC’s only swing freely in one direction…backwards. Other than that, they go where your power is able to make them go…whether it is up the back half of the stroke, or down the power side of the stroke. The point is, once you learn to get your rising leg AT LEAST out of the way and to the top of the downstroke, you aren’t losing any power spent just lifting the rising leg.

Also, with PC’s you CAN duplicate a similar crank position as you mentioned. In fact, you often DO find your downstroke leg at about 3:00 when your upstroke leg is at only 8:00. And vice-versa on the second half of the revolution…it’s because your rising foot isn’t rising fast enough (and you aren’t losing that power that you used to use to assist that foot, either. That power now goes to the chain!) So, your downstroke can be faster than your upstroke, twice per revolution…and you just keep on doing that, if you’d like. However, the goal is to actually ADD power with the riding leg once you’ve ridden enough.

Although, I’ve never ridden Rotor cranks…so what do I know?

actually i stand corrected by perfection, who is technically and mechanically correct. i maintain that the PC trained rider does not need and would not be really helped by RC’s, but my choice of terminology and frame of comparison was ill-stated and off in this instance. sorry i brought it up, under a thread which had nothing to do RC’s, whatsoever. my bad.