Current Projects chat and miscellany

Does it make any difference?

Generally, crank length makes only a very small difference until you get to too long. That bargain might not be so much of a bargain if it turns out that 177.5 is too long for you. FWIW, I have 177.5 on the race bike, but I'm 3" taller than you with longer than average femurs. If you want to play safe, wait for a bargain to come up in 170, which will definitely be fine since there's pretty much no such thing as too short cranks.

It does make a big difference (maybe not once size off but two sizes will), but if they are second hand why not try them and resell if they don't feel good to you?

The problem with going too long in the cranks is that you may not have the hip flexibility for a smooth pedal stroke.

It does make a big difference

^{[citation needed]}

I went from 172.5 to 175 because of a bargain, ended with knee problems, so went back to 172.5 in a spendy way. Few years later a new bargain came along in 175 which I could not resist. No more knee problems due to improved flexibility. But eventually back to 172.5 because it's just more comfy with high cadence. Christ the money I spent on bike stuff...

Your bike collection should be visited by designers of modern bikes. The paintwork alone is an inspiration and makes 95% of modern frame finishes look artless and unimaginative.

Customers are quite easily pleased these days. They settle for anything that doesn't look awful. If it has a fade or contrasting matte/satin/gloss people consider it nice, or even special. Where are the textures!

/rant

WIP. many headaches.. why is something called a "standard" if it doesn't end up making the components fit..? argh.

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Yeah I crashed. Down tube has a dimple near the headtube as well. I have a new frame just no time to get it built.

Weird that posted twice. It looks like this now

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Has anyone here tried 150mm cranks on fixed?

Had some on a recumbent decades ago, kind of weird but worked okay for that application.
See above for tester’s declaration.

Not 150, but 140 and 160. My experiments matched the published work on the subject, which is that if you keep gain ratio constant, crank length is all but irrelevant. You can use this to your advantage in contests where gear development is restricted, i.e. Medium Gear races

That's too bad. What frame did you get?

Cheers all. Resell is always an option so I may take a punt. I'm reasonably flexible and maybe the increased range of motion would be good training for my indoor rowing, who knows?? Do love a bargain.

done, lazy/comfy geo for long rides.

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That's great. The paintjob looks loads better now it's fully built, I wasn't too sure before. You ridden it yet?

Love it!

thanks, just around the block, tommorow will hit some distance.

^thx

Really like that. Brifters work with MTB derailleur because it's 10 speed, right?

It's 9sp RD, pre dyna-sys, so it works like a charm with 10s ultegra.

Is that a clutched derailleur? I’ve got a long cage 105 5700 on my 10-speed drop bar mtb frankenmix. Seems to handle 11-34 at the back no problem but I guess it would probably not be as good when properly off road. Hadn’t considered a 9-speed XT.

this slaps

no clutch on 9sp mtb shimano rd i guess? 10 and above only.

Just my experiences... 175 gave me saddle problems, or so I thought... the saddle was actually fine and it was dropping down to a 170 crank that smoothed out my pedal stroke and resolved the issue. Im 6-2 so I thought 175 was reasonable, but apparently not. I can touch my toes etc, so not an outlier in terms of flexibility either.

That's not in conflict with what I said - there is such a thing as too long, but below that crank length makes almost no difference.

Is there a good reason why mtb cranks are almost always 175 and mega wide Q?