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I am looking to replace my cranks. SLX M665 cranks 175mm are hard to get at the moment but 170mm are available. Apart from the 5mm what is the difference? Extra clearance?
I am 6'3" with long legs, loger cranks will give a slight advantage with leaverage so you can turn a higher gear easier, but with strong legs this is less of an issue. Conversely with long legs I may get more space. Which way to go!!!???
Same height as you and I always run 175, unless on a downhill bike.
buy the cheapest
All this 'more leverage' stuff is bobbins: changing your gear ratios has the same effect, as it's all about the ratio between how far your feet move to how far your wheel rotates / bike travels.
Longer-legged folks may find longer cranks gives them a more efficient pedal stroke, but not necessarily.
6ft 1 or 2 here
I have 165, 170, 175 and 172.5 on various bikes and have also used 180s on a road bike
I can tell no significant difference, other than relative lack of pedal strikes with 165 off-road
At 5’10 I find 170 feel marginally better for me (could all be in my head of course), I find I get less ache in my Quads on longer missions and feel a touch more balanced on single track, I use 165mm XT’s on my DH/Hack bike, seems even more comfortable on technical stuff, not awesome for grinding out the miles though…
Given your height though I’d have thought you would be happier with 175mm…
It’s a scale thing, as with bar widths, I’m sure bigger people need bigger bikes and parts to suit, where us dwarfs should have proportionately smaller stuff…
Cranks ? cant decide what length? then dont have them.
http://glidecycle.com/videos
PSML!!!!! Blo0dy brilliant Macavity!!! I will get on for the next miniDH in the Forest of Dean. Result.
Thanks everybody else for the feedback. I think the answer is that size doesn't matter that much after all. Thanks!
1 of mine has a 170, 1 of them has a 175, the other two I don't know. No idea which of the 2 XTRs is the 170 and which is the 175, can't tell any difference at all.
Glidecycle yeah i like that.
good luck at the dh race 🙂
ive had this converstaion b4- what size cranks wud suit me.. (im only a 5ft midget ! 😉