Q-Rings by Rotor



velobob said:
I am curious if anyone has done tests with these or used them. I like the concept and it seems like more pros are using them these days:

http://www.rotorcranksusa.com/i1-q-rings.shtml
Not Q-Rings, but this people has tested Rotor Cranks vs Normal Cranks and not found any difference in TT performance.

COMPARISON OF POWER OUTPUT BETWEEN ROTOR AND NORMAL CRANKS DURING A 16.1KM TIME TRIAL.
W. Hailes, S.E. Gaskill, and B.C. Ruby.
Human Performance Laboratory,
Department of Health and Human
Performance, The University of Montana,
Missoula, MT, U.S.A.

In conclusion, the theoretical improvement in cycling efficiency by eliminating the dead spot of the pedal stroke did not translate into an improvement in cycling performance during 16.1km time trial cycling.
Source: http://www.bases.org.uk/newsite/pdf/Abstract book etc.pdf

Ale Martinez
 
Hi, i have used Q-ring for 6 weeks and with the 40 i have seen an improuvement in keeping a high cadence,

With the 53 Q-ring a smoother pedal stroke, better efficiency.

Those are my founding after comparing "Power files" for the same cadence a higher power ,Pedal Efficiency;) , Musher
 
amartinez said:
Not Q-Rings, but this people has tested Rotor Cranks vs Normal Cranks and not found any difference in TT performance.

COMPARISON OF POWER OUTPUT BETWEEN ROTOR AND NORMAL CRANKS DURING A 16.1KM TIME TRIAL.
W. Hailes, S.E. Gaskill, and B.C. Ruby.
Human Performance Laboratory,
Department of Health and Human
Performance, The University of Montana,
Missoula, MT, U.S.A.

Source: http://www.bases.org.uk/newsite/pdf/Abstract book etc.pdf

Ale Martinez

Hi Ale. Yes, I read that report before purchasing Q-Rings to test. You have a report like that that shows no difference, but then you also have studies like the one done by Dr. Alfredo Cordova at the Universidad de Valladolid that showed about a 3% increase in performance as well as a reduction in lactic acid build-up. The link for that is here.

Since you have 2 supposedly scientific studies that show conflicting results, the only thing left to do is test them for yourself, right?

I'll be doing the follow-up Monod test on my round rings either tomorrow or the day after. Should be interesting to see what happens.

Cheers! - nojiri
 
I am starting to think that the benefits that one might see using q-rings or rotor cranks could depend highly on the individual. If you have a very efficicient pedal stroke to begin with and or have a particular balance of strength between your quads and hamstrings then you may not see as great a benefit compared to someone else who does not pedal efficiently and or has an imbalance (from a cycling perspective) of strength in the muscles involved with pedalling. In this way it maybe a kind of quick fix (as opposed to years of developing improved efficiency and muscle balance) which as long as they remain race legal would seem to be a good solution for me.
 
velobob said:
I am starting to think that the benefits that one might see using q-rings or rotor cranks could depend highly on the individual. If you have a very efficicient pedal stroke to begin with and or have a particular balance of strength between your quads and hamstrings then you may not see as great a benefit compared to someone else who does not pedal efficiently and or has an imbalance (from a cycling perspective) of strength in the muscles involved with pedalling. In this way it maybe a kind of quick fix (as opposed to years of developing improved efficiency and muscle balance) which as long as they remain race legal would seem to be a good solution for me.

What about the fact that it has been shown that "pedalling efficiency" is not a performance limiter ?

Ric has cited a study more than once that has demonstrated that Elite riders simply push down harder.

IMO performance is improved by increasing power output over the duration that is important to you as a racer and not by changing pedalling technique.
 
nojiri said:
Hi Ale. Yes, I read that report before purchasing Q-Rings to test. You have a report like that that shows no difference, but then you also have studies like the one done by Dr. Alfredo Cordova at the Universidad de Valladolid that showed about a 3% increase in performance as well as a reduction in lactic acid build-up. The link for that is here.

Since you have 2 supposedly scientific studies that show conflicting results, the only thing left to do is test them for yourself, right?

I'll be doing the follow-up Monod test on my round rings either tomorrow or the day after. Should be interesting to see what happens.

Cheers! - nojiri
Hi Nojiri, thanks for the link, but I would'n put much stock in the 3% performance increase as the statistical significance is not determined:

RESULTS.
Results obtained are displayed as an average of all data for each of the analyzed circumstances, and are displayed on the following charts (1,2,3). For explanation of the results, statistical variations of results were not considered, due to this being a preliminary study, so more attention was focused on evidential biological characteristics. Obviously, for a bigger group of test subjects and with control of parameters considered as optimal, it would be necessary to do a statistical analysis of the results, so they could be properly published in a scientific publication.

It is observed in the results that when cyclists made the test with OQC they produced slightly more power (around a 3%), together with a slightly lower heart rate (around a 2%) during the progressive incremental test (chart 1).
Emphasis added.

Cheers, Ale.
 
reporting back after training for 2 months. when I first started this thread I was training with my cyclocross bike on a trainer and the initial values for the Q Rings were on the cross bike. on Dec 2, 2006 I switched to my road bike and did a test with normal rings and got 3min = 369 Watts and 9min = 306 Watts. Today, about 2 months later, I retested using the same protocol on my road bike with the Q Rings and got 3min = 387 and 9min = 332. Unfortunately I didn't test the road bike and Q Rings right at the start to see if there were immediate improvements (but I did do this on my cross bike and the immediate improvements were negligble so it would prob have been the same on the road bike). Either way I have seen pretty decent gains in 2 months using the Q Rings - how much is due to the Q Rings it's hard to say - but I'll take it!