Powercranks

Hi. I'm new the the group but thought this would be the right place to
ask. Just got a set of Powercranks and put them on the bike I've been
using on my Computrainer. Gee, I used to enjoy my Computrainer! Now I
can only ride it for about 3 miles! Anyone else had experience with
Powercranks? Does this get better or is this why I see them on e-bay
so often? Thanks in advance!

JohnT.

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:23:01 GMT, may have
said:

Hi. I'm new the the group but thought this would be the right place to
ask. Just got a set of Powercranks and put them on the bike I've been
using on my Computrainer. Gee, I used to enjoy my Computrainer! Now I
can only ride it for about 3 miles! Anyone else had experience with
Powercranks? Does this get better or is this why I see them on e-bay
so often? Thanks in advance!

Debated here more than once. Proponents claim they're wonderful,
skeptics find the assertions questionable, and those who have tried
them often have found them wanting in some regard. I have pointed out
more than once that the gadget is irrelevant to learning the technique
*if* the rider wants to employ it. My personal opinion is that adding
an enforced penalty for minor deviance from an otherwise enjoyable
activity creates so much negative feedback that the most likely result
is the barely-suborbital ballistic removal of the device from the
vicinity after a short period.

If you leave them installed, I would personally consider it
appropriate if you would keep us posted as to whether you manage to
get up to or beyond your former level of performance on the trainer.
The makers' claims that have been made for their benefits to date seem
(at best) overinflated, to me.

If you remove them, be sure to do it before the end of the trial
period so that you can get your money back.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Yes, I have a killfile. If I don't respond to something,
it's also possible that I'm busy.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

wrote in message
...
Hi. I'm new the the group but thought this would be the right place to
ask. Just got a set of Powercranks and put them on the bike I've been
using on my Computrainer. Gee, I used to enjoy my Computrainer! Now I
can only ride it for about 3 miles! Anyone else had experience with
Powercranks? Does this get better or is this why I see them on e-bay
so often? Thanks in advance!

JohnT.

Here is some interesting feedback:
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=1882
The author, Josh Horowitz, should be comming upon his one month update
shortly.
Bill

Hi. I'm new the the group but thought this would be the right place to
ask. Just got a set of Powercranks and put them on the bike I've been
using on my Computrainer. Gee, I used to enjoy my Computrainer! Now I
can only ride it for about 3 miles! Anyone else had experience with
Powercranks? Does this get better or is this why I see them on e-bay
so often? Thanks in advance!

One of our employees uses Powercranks; it's taken him months and months and
months to get proficient at them. This is apparently normal; they require a
degree of dedication that goes beyond simple logic... you've really got to
believe in them in an almost religious manner.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
http://www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 04:53:17 GMT, "Mike Jacoubowsky"
may have said:

Hi. I'm new the the group but thought this would be the right place to
ask. Just got a set of Powercranks and put them on the bike I've been
using on my Computrainer. Gee, I used to enjoy my Computrainer! Now I
can only ride it for about 3 miles! Anyone else had experience with
Powercranks? Does this get better or is this why I see them on e-bay
so often? Thanks in advance!

One of our employees uses Powercranks; it's taken him months and months and
months to get proficient at them. This is apparently normal; they require a
degree of dedication that goes beyond simple logic... you've really got to
believe in them in an almost religious manner.

And after all of that, has it paid off in terms of useful performance
capability, and is there a way to verify it?

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Yes, I have a killfile. If I don't respond to something,
it's also possible that I'm busy.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Bill who? writes:

Hi. I'm new the the group but thought this would be the right place
to ask. Just got a set of Powercranks and put them on the bike
I've been using on my Computrainer. Gee, I used to enjoy my
Computrainer! Now I can only ride it for about 3 miles! Anyone
else had experience with Powercranks? Does this get better or is
this why I see them on e-bay so often?

Here is some interesting feedback:

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=1882

The author, Josh Horowitz, should be comming upon his one month
update shortly.

That makes painful reading for me, having ridden Power Cranks on a
demo just long enough to understand what the concept is. No doubt it
is exhausting and it builds new muscles to do a task that ordinary
cranks make unnecessary. The easiest way to return the foot/pedal/leg
from the bottom of the stroke to the next power stroke is to let it
ride. That is, unless you don;t have two reasonably equal legs that
are balanced when you sit on the bicycle without a chain.

If you see two riders, one with weight lifter muscles and a slim, no
fat rider with big lungs, I believe that most riders will recognize
the bikie as the slender guy. That's because only for sprints are big
extra muscles useful. The limit of most fit bicyclists is not muscles
but cardiovascular. More muscles and using otherwise unused muscles
in propulsion is someone's dream of a speed secret.

This goes in the same bucket as round pedaling and ankling.

This sounds so much like patent medicine with no supporting evidence:

http://www.powercranks.com/

Jobst Brandt

Mike Jacoubowsky writes:

Hi. I'm new the the group but thought this would be the right
place to ask. Just got a set of Powercranks and put them on the
bike I've been using on my Computrainer. Gee, I used to enjoy my
Computrainer! Now I can only ride it for about 3 miles! Anyone
else had experience with Powercranks? Does this get better or is
this why I see them on e-bay so often?

One of our employees uses Powercranks; it's taken him months and
months and months to get proficient at them. This is apparently
normal; they require a degree of dedication that goes beyond simple
logic... you've really got to believe in them in an almost religious
manner.

I hadn't though of it that way but now that you mention it, it is a
great act of faith, a type of religion. As long as there is that
faint thread of credibility there will be faithful followers, the
fainter the thread the greater the faith. People love to believe in
unbelievable things.

Jobst Brandt

"Bill" wrote in message ...
wrote in message
...
Hi. I'm new the the group but thought this would be the right place to
ask. Just got a set of Powercranks and put them on the bike I've been
using on my Computrainer. Gee, I used to enjoy my Computrainer! Now I
can only ride it for about 3 miles! Anyone else had experience with
Powercranks? Does this get better or is this why I see them on e-bay
so often? Thanks in advance!

JohnT.

Here is some interesting feedback:
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=1882
The author, Josh Horowitz, should be comming upon his one month update
shortly.
Bill

Dear John and Bill,

In the article that Bill mentions, the rider makes
the same complaint as John--using the Powercranks
leaves him sore as hell and feels quite awkward,
at least at first. He couldn't ride very long with
them for more than a week.

If he's sore because he's using different muscles,
then he may get used to it. But if cardiovascular
capacity is what really matters in bicycling for hours,
then using more or different muscles is unlikely to
help him rider faster.

If there were any mechanical advantage, then it
would show up immediately.

If it trains him to change the way that he pedals
in some more efficient way, then he should be able
to return to a normal crank, pedal in his new style,
and achieve the same results. (Or better, since a
normal crank of the same strength is lighter.)

If it's a Hawthorne-style placebo effect (initial
improvement caused by being observed), then it
will join many other contraptions that motivated
people to work harder and then credit the contraptions
with the results of their extra effort.

Carl Fogel

wrote

snip
One of our employees uses Powercranks; it's taken him months and
months and months to get proficient at them. This is apparently
normal; they require a degree of dedication that goes beyond simple
logic... you've really got to believe in them in an almost religious
manner.

I hadn't though of it that way but now that you mention it, it is a
great act of faith, a type of religion. As long as there is that
faint thread of credibility there will be faithful followers, the
fainter the thread the greater the faith. People love to believe in
unbelievable things.

It is interesting isn't it? Especially considering that reality is often
just as amazing ... if not more so ... than all the quack stuff out there.

This is starting to sound like it might interest the James Randi Educational
Foundation:

http://www.randi.org/

Tie it in with perpetual motion, and you might be awarded the $1 million
prize!

C.Q.C.

wrote in message
...
Bill who? writes:

Hi. I'm new the the group but thought this would be the right place
to ask. Just got a set of Powercranks and put them on the bike
I've been using on my Computrainer. Gee, I used to enjoy my
Computrainer! Now I can only ride it for about 3 miles! Anyone
else had experience with Powercranks? Does this get better or is
this why I see them on e-bay so often?

Here is some interesting feedback:

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=1882

The author, Josh Horowitz, should be comming upon his one month
update shortly.

That makes painful reading for me, having ridden Power Cranks on a
demo just long enough to understand what the concept is. No doubt it
is exhausting and it builds new muscles to do a task that ordinary
cranks make unnecessary. The easiest way to return the foot/pedal/leg
from the bottom of the stroke to the next power stroke is to let it
ride. That is, unless you don;t have two reasonably equal legs that
are balanced when you sit on the bicycle without a chain.

If you see two riders, one with weight lifter muscles and a slim, no
fat rider with big lungs, I believe that most riders will recognize
the bikie as the slender guy. That's because only for sprints are big
extra muscles useful. The limit of most fit bicyclists is not muscles
but cardiovascular. More muscles and using otherwise unused muscles
in propulsion is someone's dream of a speed secret.

This goes in the same bucket as round pedaling and ankling.

This sounds so much like patent medicine with no supporting evidence:

http://www.powercranks.com/

Jobst Brandt

Well, this is probably true for maximum effort but I would believe that
using extra muscle groups to do the work would be benefitial when it comes
to endurance and submaximal efforts. It would take longer before the mucles
were exhausted. During a 5 hours road race I guess this is what counts, not
your cardiovascular maximum limit.Or am I completely wrong here?
Hjalmar