[FrankWest]

Still many strange and unknown things exist. Maybe there is an unknown property of the metal in the crank that could create some strange phenomena so you better store your your crank in the vertical position just to be safe. After all, science for over a hundred years could not account for the fact that bumble bees can fly because their wings are too stubby to lift their big body aerodynamically...
But with recently with ultra high speed photography they found that the bumble bee does not flap his wings up and down as previously thought but rather front to back. So aerodynamically the bumble bee should not be able to fly but accounting for fluid flow dynamics of air with front to back flapping, more lift is actually generated. Maybe some day aircfaft designers will employ this principle to generate aircraft with greater lifting capacities.