I love Data, don’t we all, but I am a firm believer in Data that has no context is worse than no data at all.
Garmin and I believe Wahoo, when paired with pedal power meters and watt bike etc provide pedal metrics such as “power phase and balance”, “platform off set” and “ power phase start and end”.
Some are obvious, like a 50/50 Balkace is best but what about the rest
But what is optimal? Should we care? Can any of this be trained or adjusted anyway?
Hi
I have Assioma Duo pedals that offer cycle dynamics. The only parameter that i really look at is balance. Having had a hip replacement. I am 50%-50%. And am pretty consistant. I do see a difference in pedal efficiency - But not that i can notice.
I saw something recently that asked an insider at Sky (As it was then) if they worked on pedal stroke as we get a lot from coach Chad. The response was they did not as it did not make a lot of difference. 30 years ago I used to do single leg drills and thinking about scraping mud of the sole of my shoe… The time that i found the scraping mud pedal stroke working if i am on a rolling type road and going over the small peaks seemed to help.
But that was on feeling. I am not sure using my hamstring and pulling a little on the up does a lot for me. I think the science would probably say i am wrong, its just maintaining that pedal technique , I still do the drill when encourage to do them. Breaks up the TR efforts.
I have the Vectors. Have had various left side injuries over the years and my L:R balance has always been a little bit skewed to R as a result, maybe 47:53 or occasionally 45:55 of I’m tired. Never worried about it as didn’t seem to be causing me any problems. Just recovering from a trapped nerve in my left shoulder at the moment and recent rides have been around 42:58 which is unbalanced enough that I actually figure I should do something about it. Have various rehab exercises to get the left side of my body firing properly again, going to also add the L:R data field onto my default computer display and see if having it in front of me helps me to correct it, in the same way that seeing power on display can help to smooth power output.
I’ll let you know how it goes!
On my last long outdoor ride
LR balance 54/46
L/R torque effectiveness 75%/67%
L/R smoothness 22%/19%
so, some areas for improvement, especially on the right leg. But this was a zone 2 ride and actually my pedal smoothness, balance and efficiency tends to improve and settle as intensity increases.
The hard to answer question for me is what is the measurable benefit of improving these figures?