After five years in research and development Verve Cycling is releasing the Track InfoCrank to the public and making it available to track teams & individual riders globally. Developed with British Cycling’s track team, the Track InfoCrank gets an official debut at Track Worlds in Apeldoorn in The Netherlands next week.
Track InfoCrank 144mm track-specific power meter crank
Verve developed their original InfoCrank power metering crankset working closely together with the Australian Institute of Sport as a project to more accurately quantify rider power outputs. In the almost 4 years since, the power meter market has greatly expanded, but Verve’s offerings continue to set a high bar for usability and accuracy. And from the initial 110 BCD cranks release, there was already an immediate call for a track version.
British Cycling was looking to improve track power data acquisition and worked with Verve since 2015 to develop a more accurate track crank solution, and then continues work with the mechanics at the UCI World Cycling Centre. British Cycling Team’s coordinator Dr. Oliver Caddy said, “The promise of far greater reliability and precision in our data was before us and has now been achieved. This is more than an incremental step forward for the team, and [track] athletes at every level will benefit.”
Track cycling is one of the most controllable environments, and one where exceptional power outputs are produced. So we were a bit surprised to hear Verve’s claim that their new Track InfoCrank is a track-specific first.
Their quote, “The Track InfoCrank is the first purpose-built torque transducer formed as a crank available in the highly competitive and measurable world of Track Cycle racing.” What that means to us, is that this is the first track-specific crankset designed to directly measure the power loads that a cyclist exerts into the cranks.
Accuracy
Verve says the real power testing on this first production batch of Track InfoCranks demonstrate that the cranks are delivering unsurpassed levels of torque measurement and power calculation accuracy. Verve claims minimum accuracy <1% at every power output level, a step up even from their well-regarded road cranks. And again they seem to be beating that in production crankset tests.
Verve also says the power meters start tracking within two seconds of activation for a quick start to logging toque, even before the cranks start to fully rotate (ie, before a crank rotation.) They also continuously output the sensor torque data to allow for a detailed look at rider technique – from standing starts, to accelerations, and decelerations.
Tech details
The 144 BCD Track InfoCrank that will now be commercially available is actually Gen 2 of the track cranks the British team raced at the Rio summer Olympics. It will first be available for now in 165, 170, 172.5 & 175mm lengths (with sizes down to 155 and up to 180mm to follow). It does not use an integrated bottom bracket spindle design, but rather uses an ISIS BB to ensure track frame compatibility.
The cranks employ drop-forged 7050 aluminum ally crank arms which integrate Verve’s independent left & right strain gauge sensor tech. The driveside crank also adds on what appears an alloy spider (an update from Gen1’s composite spider). Claimed weights are 456g for the driveside arm, and 294g for the non-driveside.
Availability
The new Track InfoCrank will debut under the riders of the Great Britain Cycling Team from February 28 in Apeldoorn at the 2018 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. By the same time Verve will also be shipping out their first pre-orders for the new track power meter to other early adopters as well. From then it will be available to the public.
The Track InfoCrank will retail for $1500/£1700/€1500. It is available through Verve’s dealer network worldwide or direct online. Now most track cranks will be made to order with a roughly six-week lead time, but 165mm & 170mm cranks should be shipped from stock in most cases.
