175mm crank for fixed gear on road conversion - suicide or ok?

Just thought I ask. I am looking into the bits and bobs needed to convert my road bike to fixed or single gear. The bike has Campagnolo avanti 175mm cranks and a road geometry is this a recipe for disaster and should I take into account getting smaller cranks if I plan to go fixed gear?

thanks
Dennis

i shouldnt worry about it mate, unless you are trying to do a 'moto guzzi' with your nee on the ground. i ran a conversion on a low end peugeot for ages with 175's my pedals never clipped the ground once even on fast corners. get some 165's if your feeling angsty about it tho because you want to enjoy your riding and not be worrying about stacking it!

there is a technique of riding that'll also help

to try to learn to lean body weight off the bike and into the corner - leaving the bike as vertical as possible - a little like motorbike riders do. this will give you higher cornering speeds than normal body-above-bike cornering without pedal strike - and the habit will enable you to pedal through corners you'd normally coast on on a freewheel equipped bike (maybe you'll see riders doing this in TTs or criteriums on tight up hill corners where to stop pedaling would be to lose speed un- necessarily - ).

it's a technique also used by trikes due to their non-leaning nature so this give and exaggerated idea of what i'm talking about...:

http://bp1.blogger.com/_SZx2oaxuJSA/Rdwb_QJ6dlI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/JYlrcEc0yYk/s1600-h/BBheight2.jpg

i had one of these with fixed hub as an option - so you can do this whilst pedaling...

for no real reason at all..............here it is (i never ran it as a fixed - but it was a option on the rear diff hub): http://static.lfgss.com/attachments/11324d1245417569-sl373389.jpg

but do watch out if you are inclined to scoot down the side of cars next to higher london kerbs if you ride it fixed; only time I've suffered pedal strike and entirely my own fault but unnerving none the less.

Thanks for the answers...looks like I will be taking the risk.

i ride fixed on 175 - no probs, no pedal strike.

boom

I have a Peugoet fixed gear conversion with 170mm cranks and the BB is quite abit lower than the average fixed gear, it is my slower "beater" so i dont ride that fast, but i do alot of traffic weeving now n then and have took some fast corners and i havent come close, if your going to take the corners so fast you hit your pedals i think you need to slow down...

Only thing i'd worry about is hitting curbs on the side of the road in sticky situations