Hope Evo 155mm Crankset Review

Rhys has been spinning these rinky dink Hope Evo 155mm length cranks for quite a while now. Are they rad or just a short(!) lived fad?

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By rhyswainwright

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Hope Evo 155mm Crankset Review

its a bit annoying no-one does cheap cranks in short length, as I’d like to try some out to see how they feel. I didn’t notice any real difference switching from 180mm (road bike) to 165mm on my trail bike, so I suspect I’d be fine.

How hard is it to drill deore cranks..

its a bit annoying no-one does cheap cranks in short length

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s109p3752/STRONGLIGHT-Impact-Kid-Cranks-%28pair%29

https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s109p3752/STRONGLIGHT-Impact-Kid-Cranks-%28pair%29

interesting option, but 110bcd is pretty limiting for chainring sizes on a 29er and I’m not sure how well kids square tapered cranks will react to 85kg of me doing rowdy riding on them 🙂

A well-written, balanced, informative review, that. Nice one.

Agreed – but as a cheap way of trying for a couple of rides and then sell on to someone else who wants a go…? I think spa have a load of 160mm cranks.

Not sure this can handle agressive ridding too, but can be an option for urban. I will try it on a trike.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mL2nR42

 

It is harder to find 104/64 to go bellow 30t.

Nm

Do you raise the saddle 15mm to give the same bottom dead centre leg extension / angle, or set it somewhere in-between? (I presume you don’t leave it in the “normal” 170mm position as that would maybe feel very cramped up)

Do you raise the saddle 15mm to give the same bottom dead centre leg extension / angle, or set it somewhere in-between? (I presume you don’t leave it in the “normal” 170mm position as that would maybe feel very cramped up)

this, and if the saddle height is up, does the bar need to be raised too (for the same seated position)? meaning that a level footed position out of the saddle will feel higher at the bars?

Good questions. Will send them to Hope.

There are short cranks and there are cranks with the pedal holes drilled closer to the centre.  The latter only partly solves pedal strike as it is often replaced by crank end strike.   I like the fact the the holes on these seem to be right at the ends of the cranks.

In response to the saddle height question: Yes, you’ll need to raise the saddle by 15mm. Initial saddle height is always set from the bottom of the stroke. Unless you;ve been running cranks that are vastly too long and had the saddle miles too high – not as uncommon as you might think.

Bar height: I like my bars pretty much slammed but if your seated position is sensitive enough to notice the additional 15mm saddle height then yes, a bar height adjustment might be required. I think this one is less clear cut and more a personal preference. My mountain bike bars are miles higher than my road bike bars and the saddle height is the same on all my bikes.

I would have thought that most riders interested in these cranks would have their bars set for standing, rather than seated, position. That won’t change as the vertical position for your feet hasn’t changed when the pedals are level.

OTOH you’ve just lost 15mm of saddle clearance, which is a shame u less you also want to throw buying a longer dropper into the mix

I’m fascinated about trying these. I’m the same height, and dropping from 175mm to 170mm was brilliant, and 165mm was even more brilliant. But pedalling feels weird going back and forth even between 165mm and 170mm (I have a new bike still with 170mm) so I’ll probably standardise on 165mm to avoid the cost of changing them all.

I also wish shorter cranks were cheaper and more readiliy available!

More about shorter cranks:

http://www.applemanbicycles.com/resources/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11923708_Determinants_of_maximal_cycling_power_Crank_length_pedaling_rate_and_pedal_speed

Another bike publication has a good article about this, posted Set/22.

Many thanks for responding to the good questions raised.

Lucky for us this is easily offset with a smaller chainring! Hope recommend reducing your chainring size by two teeth when going from 170mm to 155mm cranks.

Having ridden these Hope Evo 155mm cranks with a 32t round chainring and a 30t oval chainring, I agree. The 30t is much more manageable. The oval chainring also seems to work really well with the short cranks, smoothing power output to make climbing a breeze.

Running some numbers out of interest on this calculator, assuming 29er and 51T biggest cog on cassette:

30T 170mm = 1.28 gain ratio
28T 155mm = 1.31
30T 165mm = 1.32
32T 170mm = 1.37
30T 155mm = 1.41
32T 155mm = 1.50

This is interesting.

Just built up a Cotic and have been clipping cranks on technical terrain.

Thinking of going 165 from 175 but a little worried how it would affect my position on the bike.

Running it fairly slammed and am a tall fella at 6’2″ with 34″ inside leg.

Thanks,

Max.

I’ve 165mm on all but one of my bikes now, I’m a little bit pedal-strikey so it’s definitely worth it for thta, and I can’t say I’ve noticed any ill effects. I had 160mm on a bike a while back and I did feel like my feet were a wee bit close together when flat, it just felt odd but again, no actual bad effects, just odd.

So I guess I’ll try 155mm once some early adopters have bought them and decided to sell 😉

@Turnerfan1 I noticed a big drop in pedal strikes going from 170 to 165 (Bird Aether 9, so quite a low BB).

I’m 5’8” with a 30” inseam, so if anything 165mm is still too long for me, but 165mm was what I could do cheaply (sale price shimano crankarms on the same chainring).

You’d have to raise your seat 1cm but I doubt you’d notice that. I only noticed the foot position changes, and I thought they were all +ve: pedal circle, flat, and outside foot down. But maybe that’s just cos of my height.

Yesterday after reading this, I found some inexpensive Miranda 160mm ISIS cranks in the right Q-factor to replace the 170mm ones on my commuter bike (which are too long and quite uncomfortable now that I’m used to 165mm). I’ll see how those work out.

Interesting that your pedal strikes were reduced from 170 to 165.
Wondered if I should try 170 or go straight to 165? This is coming from a 175 crank.

Local terrain has been ok on the 175 but just more Noticible in Wales and more Rocky terrain.

great article

I recently went from 175 to 165 on my enduro bike and there was a definite improvement in ground clearance, less pedal strikes

I did have to raise the seat a bit and felt a bit tougher on those steep climbs-  id never noticed that going from 175 to 170 on my old bike.

my legs adapted pretty quickly tho

I have short legs (28in inside leg) and I’ve put 165mm SLX cranks on all my MTBs.

I’d be interested to try 155mm, apart from that the 165mm ones have already made my lowest gear (28tx46t – on 11sp and 29in) just that little bit harder. I can still do steep climbs but I don’t have the luxury of twiddling up them.

So I suppose that’s a word of warning for anyone else who hasn’t got a 50t+ cassette.

Interesting that your pedal strikes were reduced from 170 to 165.

I was really surprised by how much difference 5mm could make 😀

It’s not nm it’s Nm.

I noticed a big drop in pedal strikes going from 170 to 165 (Bird Aether 9, so quite a low BB).

I’m 5’8” with a 30” inseam, so if anything 165mm is still too long for me

Are you me? 🙂

I was really surprised by how much difference 5mm could make

I was also skeptical. But what convinced me to try was someone pointed out 5mm could be the difference between striking and scraping, or scraping and clearing something.

@bikesandboots do you have hilariously wide hobbit feet as well?

I fitted my new 160mm Miranda ISIS cranks to my commuter ebike at the weekend. The drop from 170mm is really nice for comfort – both on my knees and the thigh-paunch interference zone (10mm shorter cranks means my saddle’s 10mm higher, so 20m more space).

It’s also much easier to spin a higher cadence – it was actually faster on the steepest part of my commute on same cog.

Grinding does seem a bit less effective tho.

Happy so far. Especially for £57 delivered.

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3StYPqF5_M –

5lab

How hard is it to drill deore cranks..

If you can keep them perpendicular not too difficult then tapping/steel inserts is a doddle.
It helps to find the right length to cut though for your desired length… you want to drill through where there is plenty of meat and you need 13mm (9/16) plus some meat below where you drill

its a bit annoying no-one does cheap cranks in short length,

How cheap and how short do you mean? There’s one of the 10 speed SRAM cranksets that you can sometimes find in 160mm for about £100.

I’ve just got my “new” bike swapped over from 175 to 165. The original cranks were utterly battered, some of the gouges had almost flattened the ends of the cranks off, and some of the climbs near me are unrideable due to the pedal/crank strikes with the longer crank.

Smooth sailing on 165.

The 165 mm Shimano cranks on my mtb used to feel small and very comfortable compared to the 170 mm cranks on my commuter bike. Now after a week commuting on 160 mm cranks they feel huge and quite uncomfortable.

It’s nuts! I got used to them after a while, but I feel like I need the same length on all my bikes.

What I have learned is that every time I drop a size, it feels better.

Speaking of short cranks, does nyone know if you can use the Shimano Ebike crank arms on a standard manual XT drivechain?

 

 

Nope, as they don’t have an axle attached to the drive side crank

SRAM makes the SX crankset in 155 mm, so a nice affordable option there.

For lightweight riders, Trailcraft Cycles, makes a kids crankset, but meant for real mtb use, and with a GXP spindle, so fairly sturdy.

 

I am 6’5” tall, long inseam and use a 170mm crank on my mtb to reduce pedal strikes. No issues with pedaling that length.

Thanks @tjaard that is an awesome recommendation that I had not considered

SX crank at 155mm is a far more palatable way to try the shorter crank movement that is on trend

Seb Stott talks about the benefits downhill as well as up, which has me even more intrigued to try them out

Can only comment from a road bike perspective but..

3 of my road bikes have 165 cranks

1 has 172.5 cranks

the gravel bike has 170 cranks

the tt bike has 155 cranks

I can’t say I’ve noticed any difference at all between them when pedaling.

Unfortunately they seem to be vaporware. Only place I saw them was an Aussie webshop. I am building a new mtb for my youngest daughter. She is 5’9”, 174 cm, so no need for long cranks, short ones are probably better. Also, it’s a Stumpy Evo in mullet mode, with the low/long rear, so really low to the ground. We race enduro, so pedaling hard without paying attention to timing your strokes is common.

Canfield bikes is the other option. Not quite as cheap, but on sale currently. I got a pair of those.