Power discrepancy...why?!

[zoom-zoom]

So we've borrowed the Garmin power meter pedals from our shop. Yesterday we did an 80 mile fondo on our tandem, me with the pedals on the rear. Looks like my right leg is doing 61% of the work! Could a sprain I suffered on my left ankle years ago be to blame? Even before that, every little overuse issue I'd suffer running would be on my right side. Also, I have always suspected my right leg to be longer.

Thoughts?

[thekarens]

I know nothing about this kind of stuff, but couldn't it just be that your right leg is your dominant/stronger leg, so it naturally works harder?

[Owlie]

I'm the same way--my right leg does the bulk of the work, and I have to tell my left leg to actually do something. Are you right-handed? I'm very "right-sided." I don't think it's unusual to have your dominant side be stronger, so your brain just tells it to do alll the work, like normal. I can see how a leg-length discrepancy could be part of it, but I would also assume a full-on fitting (which I'm sure you've had) would help address that with shims and whatnot.

[zoom-zoom]

Yep...but 45/55 is apparently a pretty moderate discrepancy. A guy we know with major Achilles damage has less of an imbalance than I.

[zoom-zoom]

Yep, totally right dominant, even though my dad and sister are lefties.

[Rubylvr]

I have worked for a year trying to change my leg strength imbalance, to no avail.
Finally I just said forget it and decided to enjoy the riding and not stress over it.
I played soccer for 25 years, causing my left support leg to be dominant. Sorry not
to give you any clues as to fixing the problem, but I hope you don't stress as much about
it as much as I did!!

[zoom-zoom]

Interesting update...and I think I need to try these pedals a few more times to really know what's going on. So DH took the pedals off the tandem and put them back on his road bike...and now his relatively slight imbalance has swapped sides. He thinks it may be relative to the torque used to install the pedals. We need to play with them more to really figure out what's going on.