Training & Nutrition - Power Cranks

I'm thinking bout getting a set of these for the bike that is permanently mounted on the trainer. No road riding with them at all. But the feed back I got from the lbs is there a bad idea. Wanted to cast my net a little wider and see if anyone else has any experience with them.
Thanks
http://www.powercranks.com/

Can't give any personal info but there was a really good link posted here (more likely the road bike board) about the quirks and potential benefits.

As I recall, there were demonstrated benefits (of something like 5% improvement in FTP over the course of a season) This was by a pseudo pro am rider (again the article is a little fuzzy so don't hold me to any specifics). He compared his abilities with and without.
Bottom line: He thought they did their job BUT you really have to monitor your progress and be disciplined in your training.

BTW I drafted behind a guy with power cranks on a group ride. AWFUL. Very difficult (at least for me) to draft him. Anyway I got torched on that group ride. In retrospect, it felt like I never got a draft and was ALWAYS pulling.

Testrider.com did a two part review of powercranks and his overall feeling was that they did work, but were not fun to ride. You should check it out.

The Powercranks guy, Frank Day, posts on Cycling Forums as 'Fday', and has some pretty funny arguments with the naysayers. Check this out.

http://www.cyclingforums.com/showthread.php?p=3816590#post3816590

For more gold, search for more posts by him and 'n crowley' :D

I use and LOVE Powercranks. I don't think, even considering single leg drills and fixed gear bikes, there's anything else that comes close as a training and, if you wish to, racing tool.

Powercranks, within 30 seconds of trying them for the first time, showed how un-coordinated my pedal stroke was, exactly where the weak spots were, which leg was the weaker and how little I was actually pulling up (you think you are but until you've tried powercranks you just have no idea).

As with anything like this TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. There are a lot of opinions on them from both users and non-users (if you haven't used them then how do you know?) so read as much as you can, talk to as many as you can and absolutely, 100% demo them before you make your mind up.

Anyway enough of my BS. Here's some not so random stuff from "teh interwebz"

Powercranks website
videos - http://www.powercranks.com/v4pages/videos-list.htm
blogs - http://www.powercranks.com/news/blogs / http://powercranks.blogspot.com/

Pez website
review - http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=758
the Pro's - http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6446 and http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6809

Cyclingnews website
http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2003/reviews/PowerCranks

User videos
beginner - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JCHC1KFNv0
experienced - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXzrC04x8VU

There's a lot more information out there so good luck

powercranks OR powercrank OR powercranking OR powercranker OR "power crank" OR "power cranking" OR "power cranker" OR "power cranks" (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=h14&oq=&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4RNWN_enGB307GB309&q=powercranks+OR+powercrank+OR+powercranking+OR+powercranker+OR+%22power+crank%22+OR+%22power+cranki ng%22+OR+%22power+cranker%22+OR+%22power+cranks%22)

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a326/markhr/powercranks/powercranks.jpg

http://www.bronesbikeshop.com/Torelli%20power%20cranks%20training%20bike.jpg

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/tech/powercranks06/pcranks08-srmxlite.jpg

Markhr - never used them, but my guess is you're right on. OLP and low cadence climbing are the two most important drills I do for gaining power. It's so interesting that PC users do these drills, in fact sometimes seem to be able to do OLP more easily than ride with both legs! Trying to pull up with both legs must feel really strange when you've only done OLP with normal cranks. Bunch of money, though a lot less than a new bike, and more probable to increase performance.