Podcast | Measuring Up: Crank Length, Q-factors, and beyond

News

by Hannah Dobson June 21, 2023 18

Chipps, Hannah and Benji talk crank length. Mostly because in the staff chat Hannah said ‘I want shorter cranks’ and Chipps said ‘But, levers’ and Benji said ‘Short is gooood innit’. Or something like that. Poor Mark was on holiday when we recorded it, so wasn’t there to keep us on track, so off we wandered into pedals, and Q-factor, and wonky knees and… well, tune in and find out.

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Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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This topic has 18 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 1 year ago by rfreeman.

Viewing 18 posts - 1 through 18 (of 18 total)

Podcast | Measuring Up: Crank Length, Q-factors, and beyond
BruceWee
Free Member

I quite enjoyed the first 7 minutes and 40 seconds but then it just loops back to the start so I’ve no idea what the rest is like.

Posted 1 year ago

tmays
Free Member

Yeah something’s up with this one, seems to repeat/skip around a bit? Hard to keep track of what was going on

Posted 1 year ago

rfreeman
Full Member

The podcast contains six minutes of chat, repeated several times. Please fix! Would like to hear more.

Posted 1 year ago

rfreeman
Full Member

I was drawn to this by mention of crank length. While 175mm cranks may fit the mythical average rider perfectly, as someone with significantly-longer-than-average legs, they don’t fit me. I wonder what the population’s average leg length is?

Posted 1 year ago

1

cannondalem500
Full Member

Fast forward to 26 minutes and the podcast then doesn’t repeat again.

edit: spoke too soon as it jumps around after that point

Posted 1 year ago

stwhannah
Full Member

Sorry, something weird has happened when we’ve exported the file. Mark is on with trying to fix the glitch.

Posted 1 year ago

rfreeman
Full Member

It starts repeating another section (battery removal, Cragg Vale) at about 30mins in.

Edit: missed Hannah’s post because I was too busy listening.

Posted 1 year ago

1

Mark
Full Member

Should be fixed now. Sorry about that. No idea how that happened.

Posted 1 year ago

malamutte13
Free Member

I read the posts above and at 8 hours after posting (and 4 hrs after the last comment suggesting it’s fixed) the Apple podcast version seems to still be skipping every 6 minutes (3 times)…didn’t get past that so if its still going I’m assuming the rest of the pod is still jumping around too?

Posted 1 year ago

malamutte13
Free Member

And I only got 6 minutes in but for DH biking moving from 175mm to 155mm cranks changed everything for me. Not sure you guys got to that in the discussion but I still continue to up my times and overall the bike feels far more plush & stable now w/ the 155s plus much less ability to rock-strike. So yeah, never going back. Not sure this would work as well for trail / enduro, maybe just 10mm or so…I haven’t scienced or art’d that out yet.

Posted 1 year ago

tjaard
Full Member

Yeah, it loops at least 3 times. By that time I was at least 1/2 through so I gave up.
can you reload it without the loop back sections? It seems it would be fun to listen too.

Posted 1 year ago

BruceWee
Free Member

It was mostly fixed for me (on Spotify) but then it started looping again at around 35 minutes.

Posted 1 year ago

1

mert
Free Member

I was drawn to this by mention of crank length. While 175mm cranks may fit the mythical average rider perfectly, as someone with significantly-longer-than-average legs, they don’t fit me. I wonder what the population’s average leg length is?

Average leg length is about 32 ish inches for an average ish bloke of about 5 foot 10 ish (Europe).

175mm cranks are also about the maximum length for someone with average legs. (They were too long for me. Despite being pretty average.)

Leg length isn’t that tightly linked to Crank Length though, it’s more about Hip, Knee and Ankle flexibility with a side order of leg length. Those with long legs can use longer cranks, but quite a small limitation from “perfect” flexibility will the crank length you need come down a lot.

(This is all based around pedally things, not gravity stuff.)

Posted 1 year ago

stwhannah
Full Member

Hi folks, we think it’s a case of the old file being cached in various places. The right file is there in the system – a bit of classic ‘turn it off an on again’ IT support might help get whatever app you’re using to pull through the latest file.

Posted 1 year ago

1

stwhannah
Full Member

I just remembered, I promised a dog photo in this podcast.

Posted 1 year ago

BruceWee
Free Member

No, still looping back at 35:25 even after restarting everything, trying different browsers, trying spotify, etc.

Posted 1 year ago

mtbfix
Full Member

Isn’t looking back/circular conversation the very nature of the stw pod?

Posted 1 year ago

rfreeman
Full Member

> I wonder what the population’s average leg length is?
Average leg length is about 32 ish inches for an average ish bloke of about 5 foot 10 ish (Europe).

175mm cranks are also about the maximum length for someone with average legs. (They were too long for me. Despite being pretty average.)

That makes sense. Treating 175mm as an indicative upper limit and scaling that up to my leg length gives 216mm (the implied accuracy is spurious). I use 200mm and 210mm, have a slight preference for 210mm when conditions allow (tarmac or gravel, with no rocky bits trying to grab my pedals), and feel no urge to try anything longer.

Posted 1 year ago

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