Power Meters

[Dusty Bin]

I see your not reading the posts correctly again
I stated that you attempted to ridicule the person (Phill) you decided to attribute the comment to for holding a view which is different to your own. I made no reference at all about feeling ridiculed myself..... so its only your inability to read my posts without interpreting them to suit your needs which surprises me.
Please continue to wonder, it might help

Phil gets enough stick - don't worry, I'll buy him a beer next time I see him. To be fair to Phil though, the ridicule was more directed at you, for using a TV commentator's comments as evidence in support of your 'pedal technique' claims. Or, have I misunderstood, and you weren't actually doing that? I'm happy to be corrected if that wasn't the case.

 

[Fasta Asloth]

FWIW.....
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21507064/?i=4&from=pedalling efficiency

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

I was not presenting evidence of any kind. I was simply stating that other people do not share your view that the pros' pedal in exactly the same way as everyone else does. If someone believes their opinion to be correct then surely the onus is on them to provide evidence supporting this view.

Is there any available power meter data suggesting they all produce power at the same point in the pedal stroke, or pedal in the same way? I'm not aware of any?

 

[Dusty Bin]

Most people produce peak power in the same points on the pedal stroke - which is a natural and inevitable outcome of having two legs turning a rotating crank situated underneath you. if you look at wattbike graphs, they all show the typical 'peanut' shape lines - but the size of the outline is the only real difference and only indicates that some people pedal harder than others.

 

[Pedrosanchezo]

Most people produce peak power in the same points on the pedal stroke - which is a natural and inevitable outcome of having two legs turning a rotating crank situated underneath you. if you look at wattbike graphs, they all show the typical 'peanut' shape lines - but the size of the outline is the only real difference and only indicates that some people pedal harder than others.

Do you have any evidence to back up these statements.

 

[Dusty Bin]

Do you have any evidence to back up these statements.

er, yes - the reference was implicit in my previous post. Here it is again with the relevant bit in bold...

Most people produce peak power in the same points on the pedal stroke - which is a natural and inevitable outcome of having two legs turning a rotating crank situated underneath you. if you look at wattbike graphs, they all show the typical 'peanut' shape lines - but the size of the outline is the only real difference and only indicates that some people pedal harder than others.

 

[VamP]

Jeez, to have an opinion is trolling if not backed by evidence. What evidence would one suggest anyway? Google? Other peoples experience and/or research? Okay............

http://d3multisport.com/cycling/pedaling-efficiency-vectors-and-motion/

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/cyc...chnique-make-you-a-more-efficient-rider-42241

http://www.topbike.com.au/pdfs/colson-bicyc-austjuly_aug2002.pdf



Or here is one which is on a forum and based mostly of opinion and experience. Lots of for and against.

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=21152


@Dusty Bin, we still have to perceive evidence before we make our argument with this evidence. How it is then perceived depends on the next individual and so on and so forth. ALL evidence can be disputed.

I agree though. This is going nowhere, i merely thought i'd show there is plenty of reading out there on pedalling technique and efficiency. Note that i didn't just link to those that are "pro efficiency".[/quote]

So not only do you not have any EVIDENCE*, now you concede that you don't actually have an OPINION either.
In the light of that, you might want to reassess this statement

Pedalling efficiency is not a myth, it is in the interest of every competitive cyclist to find out how to pedal most efficiently.

Wading in on a discussion with authoritative statements like this, when you have no evidence or even an opinion, does come pretty close to a text book definition of trolling.

* The stuff you linked to is second-hand rehashing of Coyle's work, who did several studies based around Lance Armstrong's inexplicable performance improvements, and attempted to link them to his pedalling cadence. Not souplesse, cadence. I think with hindsight we might re-evaluate how much of Armstrong's improvement came from cadence changes and how much from, ehm, other sources.

 

[VamP]

WTF ? Try using your eyes--ever heard of "souplesse" ?....nah didn't think so

Another troll?

You asked for evidence, but prefer to cast aspersions rather than speak to it?

Souplesse is hundred years old notion, it's not a cutting edge concept. Pretty much considered irrelevant these days.

 

[VamP]

FWIW.....
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21507064/?i=4&from=pedalling efficiency

Have you read the whole paper? Because from the abstract it's impossible to understand what they actually tested. And I'm not spending $30 to find out that recreational cyclists with pedalling problems improved their comfort by having their saddle height adjusted. Which is just as likely an interpretation of the abstract as anything else.

 

[Dusty Bin]

Have you read the whole paper? Because from the abstract it's impossible to understand what they actually tested. And I'm not spending $30 bucks to find out that recreational cyclists with pedalling problems improved their comfort by having their saddle height adjusted. Which is just as likely an interpretation of the abstract as anything else.

As above - although the results look potentially interesting, there's no indication from the abstract (which there usually is, incidentally) as to who was taking part in the study, or what the feedback modifications to pedal technique actually were. As Vamp says, it could be something as simple as raising/lowering a saddle.

A similar study on trained cyclists would be interesting...

 

[michaelcycle]

Having had a look on Google Scholar this study appears to be pertinent:

http://www.setantacollege.com/wp-content/uploads/Journal_db/Effect of Pedaling Technique on Mechanical.pdf

It seems it doesn't matter all that much and the advice of most relevance is to actively pull on the pedal...

I think that's great. One less thing to obsess over

ETA: edited for clarity as it seems I cannot read this morning!

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

And there I was losing sleep over it all.

 

[VamP]

Having had a look on Google Scholar this study appears to be pertinent:

http://www.setantacollege.com/wp-content/uploads/Journal_db/Effect of Pedaling Technique on Mechanical.pdf

It seems it doesn't matter all that much and the advice of most relevance is to actively pull on the pedal...

I think that's great. One less thing to obsess over

ETA: edited for clarity as it seems I cannot read this morning!

Pretty much.

 

[Dusty Bin]

...apart from the 'pulling up' bit - that's highly debatable.

 

[michaelcycle]

...apart from the 'pulling up' bit - that's highly debatable.

No doubt.

I guess that's why most studies add the caveat "further research is needed" and the language is specifically couched to allow room for changing your mind completely...