Who has Powercranks

cjcanty said:

Hi everyone. I just have a question for those of you who own powercranks and what kind of success you have seen using them. I am interested in buying them and before I spend the $500 bucks (avg price on ebay) I want to make sure that I will see significant improvement with them.
I figure if I am going to spend that kind of money I should spend it on something that will make me faster and not something that will make my bike faster.

Thanks

Use the search function, this has been discussed many times before. Ask yourself if you can pedal with one leg for free, why would you want to pay 500 to be forced to do it all the time?

I do and they're GREAT! Definitely buy them and DO stick to the instructions for maximum benefit

www.powercranks.com
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One guy in my club uses them and swears by them. He did say that it took a few weeks to really get used to them and his legs were very sore. He did a lot of the field testing for the set he has on his bike.

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That is a link to the article Stephen wrote about using Powercranks for 5 months.

Who has Powercranks?
Good question.

There was one guy who was a great climber and wanted to do well in stage races but couldnt TT. He worked with powercranks and his TT improved dramatically. Like 2-3 minutes better over 50 km ITT. Thats like 50 watts better at least sustained over an hour. My money is he'll win the Tour someday.

Another guy was a flatlander, more suited to the Classics like Paris Roubaix, which I think he will still win one day. He started using powercranks, and low and behold became a really good climber due to improved power and efficiency. WOn the queen stage of the TdF this Year.

Yes, two words: Basso and Hincapie.

You would be hard pressed to find two riders already at the top of elite cycling who have then gone on to make such dramatic improvements. The only reason they dont come out and endorse them is that then everyone else would use them too. IMHO
Need I say more.

hombredesubaru

thanks dude - I quoted you over on roadbikereview as I seem to have attracted the usual crowd of "I've never used them therefore they must be [censored]" trolls.

It's alaways amusing seeing pro's training bikes with black taped powercranks (You ain't seen these, a'right!)😄

i don;t get it. what are powercranks?

named and shamed - reads like a who's who of bicycle sports

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markhr said:

hombredesubaru

thanks dude - I quoted you over on roadbikereview as I seem to have attracted the usual crowd of "I've never used them therefore they must be [censored]" trolls.

It's alaways amusing seeing pro's training bikes with black taped powercranks (You ain't seen these, a'right!)😄

Its all good dude!

weiwentg said:

they seem to be more a hit with triathletes rather than roadies. however, I heard (from the owner, who posts on slowtwitch) that Bjarne "Mr 60%" Riis ordered a dozen pairs for CSC. given all this, I decided to give them a try for a couple of years before I start doing a Kerry Irons on them.

If a rider like Riis, who won the tour, can see the benefits for his team of pro's(in theory all at the top of the sport already) then...look out for CSC dominating the tour next year.

Liquigas(?) riders training bike with powercranks

here's a better copy of the same picture

other powercrankers paste some pic's

Karl's training bike - klbarrus.blogspot.com2005 08 01 klbarrus archive.htmlOpen ↗

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another powercranker

I realize you are doing your best to try to keep this thread alive and while I have no doubt there are benefits to using them, I can't help but notice in every review (and paid advertisement like cycling news and Pez "reviews"😉 I have read of them there seems to be a theme, let me just change the component to a ficticious "power seat" which is really just a seatpost you insert in your ass instead of sitting on a conventional seat and lets see if you can guess the pattern:

At first when I installed the new "power seat" I noticed a lot of discomfort in my ass, heck I could barely go 30 minutes before I had to return home. The next day I was more sore than ever, certainly evidence that it is training an area I do not get much use out of. As time went by I became adjusted to the new inserted "power seat" and after a few months I was able to train more than ever before. Now that I am totally used to my "power seat" I have been able to put in mad training time and I have noticed I am much stronger than before the "power seat". Clearly this is an advantage I don't want any of my competitors to have..."

FWIW I think Frank Day shoots himself in the foot with outrageous claims such as "40% increase in peak power" rather than being realistic and saying that you will see small gains in efficiency and increased endurance...which may or may not be worth the cost in terms of $$ and training time you will need to see any improvement depending on how serious you are about the sport... in the pareto of how to spend $700+ for speed gains, power cranks are hardly at the top for most cyclists.