Fair question Dennis,
The average of 30% increase in pedaling efficiency relates to a conservative estimation of the amount of inefficiency that is reduced by eliminating the energy/work spent in dragging up the non-pushing leg of the stroke for an average cyclist. This percentage does have a direct correlation to the level of experience and therefore sophistication of technique of the cyclists.
You know how the bell curve fits in that respect….The very new, or those that for a variety of reasons, have not been able to improve on one edge…the ones that are trying and markedly improve as a function of time but hit a plateau in the middle…and the advanced/pro level ones at the other edge.
Through the years I have had a large amount of individuals that fit within the first two levels of the curve in my indoor cycling classes. Some of them were new to cycling, took the indoor cycling classes and then started riding road or mountain bikes. Others were already riding on groups, some of them for many years. Others have just stayed doing the indoor cycling. The improvement that LPP has provided to cyclists of those two segments of the curve has been, to steal your words, mammoth!
This is more evident when they are so clean coming out of the gate from doing many indoor classes with the correct technique and they decide to go into outside cycling. For them this technique has been awesome. Some had injured knees, were about to quit cycling and were able to stay on it. Others were simply tired of being dropped, could not improve and were falling off the sport. For them indoor cycling was a good way to exercise without frustration. They ended up picking the sport back up because they started moving up on the rung of their groups rides. For many of those people, the improvement in pedaling technique was at least in that 30% range if not better. A 1.5 to 2 mile an hour increase in their average ride speed has been reported for those who who do outside cycling. No wattage data is available.
For the more advanced and efficient the pedaler, as well as for semi-pro or pro level cyclists, that percentage of improvement of pedaling efficiency should be in my estimation about 10 to 15%. Improvements of 1 mph average moving speed with the same ridding effort for those individuals has been reported. For me personally, improvements of 1 to 1.2 mph average speed in my rides have been achieved and my personal normalized wattage average has gone up about 20% from where it used to plateau. Now a pro has started using the LPP technique and I can’t wait to see what kind of average normalized power and moving speed results he gets across his training tracks once he is fully comfortable with it.
Being the geek/propeller head I am, I love being able to dive into experimenting and collecting that kind of data not just from advanced riders but also from the regular ones. That my friend, takes money and that is why I needed the Kickstarter project. I also wanted to create the material required to provide the average riders the information in a way that could be understood and internalized. I have worked directly for many sessions with people of all levels and my experience is that the less experienced need more help to understand and internalize the concept.
However, and there is always a catch, in Kickstarter, if you don’t get to your goal, you don’t get the money and all the people that pledged get their money back. So the jury is still out as to whether LPP stays constrained to the few or goes to the many. Either way I will continue moving forward and you guys at McGill can count on me being there for you! As usual Cheers Dennis!