POLL: crank length & height

[caligurl]

i've grown since i began working out! lol!

i'm 5'3" (made hubby remeasure about 6 times cuz i didn't believe it!!!!!!!!!!) (i was 5'2" or a bit over for years!)

crank: 167.5
bike: 51 (but it's too big )

i've been told i could use a 170 with my inseam (28" if i remember correctly)

[RoadRaven]

I'm 5'10" (unlike cali I have shrunk an inch since I was a teen)

I have a 54" frame bike and my cranks are 175


Just of interest for you crank-ophiles, my partner is 6'3".
His TimeTrial bike is a 58" frame, and with his 83cm seat height (he has very long legs) he has had custom cranks made (which were cheaper to have made and delivered from America, than to have done locally).
185 cranks on his 58"TT frame.

[fasteryet]

On a ride this past Tuesday with the assistant manager of my LBS, a crank length discussion came up. She said the the latest thinking in the bike world is that 172.5 is right for the majority of riders, no matter what height.
PS. I'm currently 5'4" and using 170's on my road bike and hybrid, and feel that they fit perfectly. Road bike is C-Dale r800 50 cm frame.

[emily_in_nc]

I'm 5'2" with a 28" inseam and use 170mm cranks on my road and mtn bikes. My slightly older Terry bike has 165mm cranks. Both are fine, but I chose 170s when I custom built my Aegis Swift and Bike Friday as I felt they'd give me more leverage on hills (and hopefully not kill my knees), and on my Aegis I wanted a compact double, which didn't come in a smaller length than 170. They seem to agree with me fine, even though all the charts say I should ride a 165mm or shorter crank based on my inseam.

Emily

[LED_now]

5' 4"
170mm factory-issue on GT Mtn

6 mos later, after "car vs. me" incident, the LBS (s) didn't have 170's to fit & I was off to Vancouver (from Toronto) w/ 175's instead.
Naively didn't know any different, so said "ok, 175's fine"... yet no probs in Vancouver despite hills + 8 hr days on the bike...
Back to T.O., switched to SPD's (great!float ok, super-duper fun etc.) but: 3 mos. later Knee Probs, taking me right off the bike ... for months sigh ...

Then, GT recall on crank set, shop now had 170's again, so went BACK to 170's.

Many calls to Different Shops here have resulted in the speech: "165's? 167.5's? Uh .... lady, those are hard to find..."
Note: I'm not looking for fluorescent polka-dot fun-fur custom cranks. But still, this response. I take my business elsewhere & same thing happens..?
Since I'm not overly mechanically minded, I do not know if whatever crank set (ordered on the 'net for instance) would fit the bike's BB etc... Among a zillion other Q's I suppose ...

ANYWAY:
Sill knee probs... surgeries...gave up for a while (a few years)... now, back in "Stubborn/Optimistic/Delusional(?) Mode", trying to figure out what the KEY(S) to this PUZZLE could be. I say "key(s)" since I've tried what seems to be everything under the sun. Any other types of leg-based exercise (running, weights, etc. = zero knee probs). On-the-bike puzzle though, you name it, I've most probably tried it.

Hence the CRANKS POLL Questions.

[DeniseGoldberg]

Many calls to Different Shops here have resulted in the speech: "165's? 167.5's? Uh .... lady, those are hard to find..."

I don't know what component group (manufacturer) you are looking for, but just out of curiosity I checked the Shimano site. I know that the (165) cranks on all of my bikes are Shimano, and I was just wondering if they'd changed the available lengths.

According to the Shimano site, the cranks for their XTR, XT, Dura-Ace, Ultegra, Tiagra, and Sora groups all are available in 165's as well as the more common longer sizes.

I just looked at the GT site too, and while some of their mountain bikes appear to have Shimano cranks, some don't. It's quite possible that the manufacturer of the cranks on your bike don't make 165's - but it seems to me that you should be able to switch to Shimano cranks. Might be worth asking a mechanic in your LBS. If they aren't willing to help you then I think it's time to find another shop!

Good luck, and keep us posted.

--- Denise

[LED_now]

Yes, Denise, the cranks I've had (& switched & back again) were always Shimano. Just now I called another few bike shops (again) & the folks didn't want to order anything for me unless I paid for them the whole amount upfront (this whole XTR thing being the 167.5mm only available) & I'm not even sure they would fit my BB on this old GT mtn model ... Maybe I'm speaking a different language or something... Vancouver seemed so much more helpful!
Lot's of dough for a "potential" help on the knee thing ... Guess I gotta start a fund for it.

Thanks again to everyone for being so quick to answer this POLL!

[jobob]

Good grief, that bike shop should be nuked for giving you 175 mm cranks. Here I am wondering if 175's might be a bit on the long side for me (at 5'7" and 32-ish inseam) - they were certainly too long for you. Those long crank arms could not have helped your knees one bit !

As for finding "hard-to-find" size cranks - many cranks do come with different crank arm lengths, but since it's clear some bike shop nits (er, employees ) are too darn lazy to waddle over to the shelf and open up the catalog, or to find the manufacturer's information on the web, sad but true it's up to you as the Informed Consumer to find out that information for yourself and shove it under the nose of (uh, nicely present it to) said lazy nit (um, helpful bike shop employee).

That said , often it's the higher-priced cranksets that come available with the variety of crank arm lengths.