Seen an ad for "pedal boosters" and I wonder what it would feel like to pedal that thing.
I understand it's even more controversial than oval chainrings and possibly worse than just regular cranks but that's not what I'm asking.
For anyone who tried it: Does it do anything and how does it feel?
by Plisnak
12 Comments
No idea if it rotates or not. If it rotates, it’s the same thing as raising your saddle. Most non-enthusiasts are using a saddle height that’s too low, so it would in fact make their ride easier.
If it doesn’t rotate, it’s the same thing as a shorter crank. Most people who aren’t tall men are using a crank that’s too long for them, so it would in fact make their ride easier.
This the same effect as oval chainrings or no?
These are called swing cranks.
Used in people with excessive leg length discrepancy, impingements, and rehabbing injuries etc.
It’s BS, it’s as unproven as oval chainrings, the fact that you can’t only find them on Aliexpress should tell you something. Tell me this, if this would work why isn’t every pro using it, they actually do test these kinds of thing, same with ovalrings by the way, no pro is using them now (except for maybe Froome but yeah that doesn’t really help him).
Oh, it’s like ‘L’ shaped cranks all over again! 🤦🏻♂️
https://preview.redd.it/07a6hpxz2e3f1.jpeg?width=1108&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8319e15372102570598b7d2abdf5f3da08ddf820
Now THAT’S a rabbit hole! The picture appears on e-bay and Ali Express. Lots of sales blather, no actual description. It _appears_ to be an extra bearing that would let the pedal hang lower on the crank, giving the same effect as raising the saddle a centimeter. This would be pointless except for making it easier to strike the pedal on the ground.
If it were fixed, it would be a handy way to set crank length at will before buying new cranks.
Paula Newby-Fraser used those back in the day. These were then called Drop Center Crankset. It gave her a much wider Q-factor. Some believed this led to a better power transfer. Nothing was ever proven about any increase on performance. PNF did win 8 Ironman World Championship titles, but who knows if the weird crank really helped.
This looks to be basically the same idea as Shimano’s Dyna Drive pedals of the early eighties. They didn’t catch on, and I’m not sure if there really was any benefit, anyway.
https://www.outliermtb.com/products/p/pendulum-pedal
looks like a shitty version of this mtb pedal
It looks like it makes all pedals like these!!
https://youtu.be/ubmicIdu_no?si=ESD7OigxKkndzseS
A friend of mine lost his leg below the knee to cancer, he uses one of these with his prosthetic leg
I wonder if it would make pedal strikes more recoverable? Then again it would make them more likely in the first place