Has anybody ever gone from longer crank arms to shorter ones on a road bike?
I’ve been on 172.5 for approx ever and am thinking about 170 or 165?
I heard folx getter shorter as they age
Yes. I was a 172.5 guy for years. Switched to 170. Felt fine.
I’ve set up enough post-fit shorter cranks to drink the Kool-Aid. For some reason, I have decided to race some time-trials next year and will absolutely be using 160 or maybe even 155mm cranks on a bike for this.
The overall takeaway is that with the exception of a few outliers riders generally prefer 160-170mm crank for drop bar fits and 150-160 for time trial fits. This is based on fitting on a proper fit bike with quickly adjustable crank length.
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Yeah NGL I kind of want one of those chipset cranks for variable lengths
I’ve been taste testing 155-180 this year. I just started cycling them into the drop bar bike so I don’t have a ton to say in that application except you can keep the same position if you have room to slam your cleats back. Stay tuned…
For dirt:
180 - single speed only
175 - normal
170 - annoying, felt like 175s but lost some punch
165 - felt normal in 10 minutes, climbing feels like I’m making more, less risky, bets
160 - felt a little too short on the steep SA trail bike, but awesome on the slack bikepacker with sandals
155 - felt too short on the trail bike, took an hour to adjust on the gravel bike but the midfoot shoe situation wasn’t ideal.
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155 on the gravel bike with regular slammed cleats puts me a little too over my toes and I can’t get farther back on this frame. But it’s surprising how much they disappear - they really only stand out when out of the saddle for longer durations and your RPMs are dropping.
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Yes, repeatedly; I’ve dropped from 175s down to 167.5s on my traditional randonneuse, and they don’t seem to feel significantly different (modulo pedal strike) and my sweet fixie went from 175 to 170.
Let’s chat seat angle and crank length as it relates to cleat placement
Currently my bikes are nearabout 73deg ST and all cranks are 172.5. My cleats are slammed back and I could probably go back further if the cleat holes allowed.
Making my st steeper will move my body and therefore my knees further forward, correct?
Making the cranks slightly shorter (170) will make my calf/thigh angle less at 3-6 o’clock, correct?
When I had bike fit this year the fitter asked if I had ever tried shorter cranks and that has been bouncing around my mind since then
What do
one time the bike shop sold me a set of cranks that were 170mm drive side and 175mm non drive side. i never noticed.
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but he’s not talking about 5mm pubes. he is going to change his cranks 2.5mm. it’s different
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I don’t want to well actually at you folks but when you start putting down real numbers and spending hours in a saddle, things like knee angle/cleat placement start affecting joints. And getting older doesn’t help. Sometimes after a ride I’ll have trouble descending stairs (this mostly resolved by moving my saddle forward a tiny bit)
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perhaps one of my legs is longer than the other and thats why i didnt notice. how the fuck do you measure legs?
Idk but one of mine is longer and I don’t normally notice that I walk in large circles probably because I’ve never been given the space.
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What does this mean? Knee pain? Hamstrings smoked?
The treads are uneven by 5mm
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I don’t want to well actually at you but when you start putting down real circle-walking numbers and spending hours walking in a circle, things like varying leg length start affecting the size of those circles.
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It’s been a while, I think it was knee/hamstring. Moving saddle forward (seriously, like 5mm) solved a lot.
Slamming your cleat back both reduces ankling and your ability to compensate top and bottom of the stroke as well as extends your effective position. Moving your seat forwards would shorten your extension and cancel some of that out.
Going to a shorter crank can also shorten your extension or allow for a lower position while keeping the top of stroke relationships the same or better from a hip impingement and breathing standpoint. It also means less ankling is needed so that pairs well with the more midfoot position.
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So a move from 73 to 74 HTA would do the same thing right?
Or a 20 setback to a 0