Power cranks / Fixed gear bike?

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My fixed gear rear wheel has a hub which is a freewheel single speed on the other side. Would that work?

>>My fixed gear rear wheel has a hub which is a freewheel single speed on the other side. Would that work?

Yes.


As someone who has PC's, a S/S, and a fixie. I can tell you that the PC's collect dust, the S/S is for off-road fun, and the fixie is what I ride every day.

scott

I haven't read the other responses, so this may already have been covered.

I had the chance to talk to Frank Day (the inventor and owner of the company) about Powercranks, and in particular the adjustment period. I had recalled Tim the Nurse (guy used to be active on Tri-Newbies Online and still pops in on occasion) and his experiences with them (basically he'd been a BIG opponent to PC's, and Frank finally told him to put his money where hos mouth was, so Tim tried them, and after a short time paid for them sonce they were doing him so much good). Well, at the time, Tim had set a record for how few days on PCs before doing a century on them -- something like 2 weeks (maybe less, I don't really remember, but it was short). Well, Frank told me of a guy who wanted to get the PCs and said he was going to reset that record, which he actually did (2 days), BUT... Frank basiclly doesn't count that record, because the guy trained almost exclusively on a fixie. He said that the benefits of PCs will almost be lost on some one who does a lot of fixed gear riding.

So take that for what it's worth. I interpret that to say that a fixie will give you pertty much the same benefit as PCs, though it may take more time. To be honest, I've only tried PCs once, at a bike expo, and I lasted about 30 seconds on them...

What is a fixed gear bike and what are powercranks?

A fixed gear bike is essentially a track bike, maybe with brakes. And that may not help you a lot, so here's more -- you only have ONE rear cog, and it's "fixed" to the hub (it doesn't spin), so you can't coast. It forces you to have a smooth pedal stroke.

Powercranks are a training aid that replace the cranks on your bike with ones that rotate independent of each other, and rachet on the bottom bracket spindle. Not only do you have to work to keep the pedals in synch with each other (keeping them at opposite sides of the circle), but you have to work to pick them up from the bottom of the stroke -- pushing one pedal down will NOT bring the other pedal up. Really work the hip flexors.