Originally Posted by
smackpotato
rubiksoval pedal smoothness has been defined as average power divided by total power. as
gregf83 says you can generate these if you have garmin pedals and the software. so if anyone has this plot. i would like a copy or two. thanks.
I think that first is a slight misstatement: pedal smoothness should be average power divided by maximum instantaneous power. It would be nice to use pedal force normal to the crank instead, and I believe some power meters can resolve the vectors to deliver that number, but then power is really the same thing if cadence is steady, so fine. That said, I was once on a long climb in a line behind a couple guys. The guy behind said to the guy in front, "Do you realize you pedal hard for 5 strokes and then easy for 1 stroke?" So pedal smoothness isn't necessarily about just the pedal circle, but I think that alternating power level thing is pretty rare.
A plot like that was posted recently on a trainer/roller thread somewhere on BF. It basically showed that the same rider is much smoother on rollers than on a trainer, which is an interesting result which, though a big roller fan, I would not have anticipated. The poster's handle was @
asgelle IIRC.