Should I have bought my Rotor Cranks? (PING: N. Crowley)

[Nick H.]

I bought Rotor Cranks for an attempt on the round the world record - an 18,000 mile ride which I'll do as fast as I can. Rotor Cranks have zero awareness in the UK where I live. The only dealer has given up on them. So I came here looking for info and found some useful info from N Crowley buried in a thread about Power Cranks.

I bought them to reduce fatigue, effort and injuries. I haven't used them much but noticed that steep hills immediately became less painful to climb - which is worth a few dollars or pounds if like me you enjoy big climbs but only get the chance to do them when touring with baggage. My question now is do I have the right pedalling action for RCs? If not, will it develop naturally or do I have to work at it?

 

[n crowley]

I bought Rotor Cranks for an attempt on the round the world record - an 18,000 mile ride which I'll do as fast as I can. Rotor Cranks have zero awareness in the UK where I live. The only dealer has given up on them. So I came here looking for info and found some useful info from N Crowley buried in a thread about Power Cranks.

I bought them to reduce fatigue, effort and injuries. I haven't used them much but noticed that steep hills immediately became less painful to climb - which is worth a few dollars or pounds if like me you enjoy big climbs but only get the chance to do them when touring with baggage. My question now is do I have the right pedalling action for RCs? If not, will it develop naturally or do I have to work at it?

The dead area between 11 and 1 o'c has a neutral effect when riding on the flat but on climbs it has a negative effect. While RC's only compensate for a small portion of this area, for the reason above any advantage should be more obvious when climbing. The earlier you can begin your downstroke, the better the advantage you will get from these RC's and this can be helped by the earliest unweighting at the end of the power stroke. While RC's are a good idea, I believe that the additional moving parts with their increased friction and extra weight reduces the advantage. The introduction of the new elliptical Q rings will not help the RC sales. Believe it or not, the entire dead area can be replaced with max pedal power and it can be done with normal equipment but that's another story which I will not be repeating.

 

[Nick H.]

The dead area between 11 and 1 o'c has a neutral effect when riding on the flat but on climbs it has a negative effect. While RC's only compensate for a small portion of this area, for the reason above any advantage should be more obvious when climbing. The earlier you can begin your downstroke, the better the advantage you will get from these RC's and this can be helped by the earliest unweighting at the end of the power stroke. While RC's are a good idea, I believe that the additional moving parts with their increased friction and extra weight reduces the advantage. The introduction of the new elliptical Q rings will not help the RC sales. Believe it or not, the entire dead area can be replaced with max pedal power and it can be done with normal equipment but that's another story which I will not be repeating.

Aha! You got my PM!

I know exactly what the weight penalty is - but I know nothing about the friction penalty. Do you have any figures?

I don't know about these elliptical Q rings - what are they?

I know you don't want to repeat your story about how to do without RCs - but can you give me a hint? Does it have something to do with pulling on the upstroke and increasing your cadence? I used to try that when I was a youngster...perhaps I should have another go?