powercrank questions

[the Superstar]

for those of you who have used them, how important is the lock out feature?

[Chris Helwig]

There are two schools of thoughts. There is the Sica/PowerCranks Company line that says that to get full benefit from the cranks you should be using them at all times. They argue that if you have the lockout the tendancy will be to wimp out too early and use the lockout like a crutch.

Graydon has the lockout, I will let him post his own theory but as I undertand it is a good emergency bail out if you are out in the country and your hip flexors fail and also good when starting out.

Having only done 1 ride on the cranks and not having lock out I have to say I sort of wish I had the lockout. When you start you can only do 20 minutes, which is sort of annoying to just do a 20 minute ride. If I had lockout I could have done a proper warmup and stretch, got in the 20 minutes of crank work and then lockout and got in some bigger volume for the ride. Now once I get aquinted and get up to 2 hrs this shouldn't be an issue, but at the start it would be handy.

[Graydon]

Graydon has the lockout, I will let him post his own theory but as I undertand it is a good emergency bail out if you are out in the country and your hip flexors fail and also good when starting out.

I actually don't have the lockout as I got mine used and they are a couple years old before there was a locking model. I wish I did have it though.

My experience with non-locking is this: Riding in and out of the city would be nice with lockout. After becoming quite good at using them, starting and stopping in traffic with the Power Cranks still makes me a bit nervous. I use MTB pedals with my PC's as they are two-sided and a little easier to engage, but if you have road pedals which are one-sided (and always tend to flip upside down), and must start-stop through busy city intersections to get your rides started, it is clumsy at best, dangerous at worst.

The second reason I'd recommend locking PC's, is that when you learn to use them, training volume is significantly reduced. It takes the average person a couple months to build up to 2-hour rides, and then it takes longer still to build up to 3 and 4 hour rides. With the locking model, you could maintain your training volume and thus not detrain as much while you are learning on them by locking and unlocking as your skills improve.

Finally, regarding a bail-out mechanism, I rode consistently over 3-hours on them in the winter, but once in a while I tried a longer ride over 4-hours. The failure in the hip flexors happens suddenly, painfully, and without warning somewhere around the 4.5 hour mark when you are only used to 3-hour rides on them. Having the security of a "bail-out" mechanism to get you home, especially in the winter, is comforting.

So you are considering PC's? My experience is this. They hurt like h#ll, and you'll spend your winter in Z3 instead of Z2. But they will greatly improve your pedal technique, fix any imbalances, and teach you proper weight distribution on your bike. These skills are definitely learned and carried over to regular riding. I can go back and forth between normal and PC's with no percievable differences. Furthermore, after not riding them all summer, I went back to them this fall riding 2-hours with no problems other than some tired hip flexors which are getting stronger quickly. So motor patterns are definitely altered permanently. If you are prone to back problems, the PC's can also make a big difference by strengthening the pelvis stabilizers.

The big BUT, however, is based on my data and experiences, the PC's will improve all of the above for submaximal power outpus, but the bottom line is they do not affect any of these at/for maximal power generating capacity. (In otherwords, stronger (and smoother) yes, faster no).

[226.2]

Save the lockout for the NHLPA, especially if most of your winter riding will be inside anyway! You are buying the Power Cranks to get stronger and pedal better. So go hard or go home. Gee, why can't men make commitments about anything...