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Was looking a bit more closely at a bike that I enjoy riding but find much harder to pedal than my others, and noticed that it has 170mm cranks, rather than the 175mm on all my other bikes. Is that my imagination or can you really feel the difference of 10mm in the diameter of the path of the pedals? Now I know it feel like I am on a clown bike!
Sheldon Brown doesn't seem to shed too much light on it suggesting it is effectively just personal feel
[url= http://sheldonbrown.com/cranks.html ]http://sheldonbrown.com/cranks.html[/url]
I used to have 170mm on a road bike and 175mm on MTBs and I could feel the difference.
You'd notice a difference if your saddle was 10mm higher or lower (well, I would), and that's basically (sort of) the same thing.
and that's basically (sort of) the same thing.
ummmmm
in a kind of sort of way 😉
Yup 165, 170 and 175 cranks on three different MTBs all quite different in terms of pedalling.
Shorter cranks often accompany slacker geometry and low bbs to avoid pedal strikes etc but by the same token bikes like this are harder to pedal anyway.
IMO - the longer cranks give you a longer lever so you can push a higher gear but changing gear could give you the same speed. I think 🙂
I'd look at crank length but only to allow a better saddle fore/aft position
Do the pros have custom crank lengths?
THere would be my answer (AFAIK they don't).
EDIT: unless they were sponsored by a "custom length crank company" 😉
I've got 175s and 170s, can't tell the difference
I have long(ish) legs.
I went from 175mm to 180mm.
I really didn't think it would make a difference but it does - not in a good way though.
Peddling feels "less smooth" than on my bikes with 175mm cranks.
May be my imagination though .......
I notice a difference. But I couldn't say which is better or not. I think you just get used to them. Different bikes feel different anyway, so putting the same crank length on every bike won't necessarily make it feel the same.
Gearing is the same whatever the crank length...