Just read about some new research on pedaling technique that will soon be published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. Jim Martin just posted this over on Slowtwitch.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=4964241#4964241
"I happen to be aware of a study that was just accepted for publication in European Journal of Applied Physiology. The authors evaluated metabolic cost of cycling in three conditions: normal double leg cycling, single leg cycling, single leg cycling with a counterweight. The counterweight serves to lift the leg and maintain similar biomechanics to double leg cycling. Single leg cycling without the counterweight was much less efficient than the other two conditions. For any specific VO2, power was about 40 watts less with single leg no counterweight.
Thus pedaling in a way that mimics single leg cycling is a really bad idea.
This of course has nothing to do with powdercranks so it should be okay.
Cheers,
Jim "
I'm sure they didn't carry it out for the 10,000 hours that some would say is required to show a real benefit.
It's amazing how I can see measurable benefit from just two VO2 max sessions in a single week's time.