Optimal Crank Arm length

Ultegra R8000 offer 165mm cranks. You could sell your current crankset to recoup some of the cost.

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Out of curiosity, what size frame do you have? I’m the same height and ride a 56 (and 172.5 cranks). I thought about going one smaller in frame, but my son pointed out that that would likely make it impossible to get the bars high enough for my saddle height (I’d run out of stack). I usually use the shortest available stem and all the available spacers and have been able to get pretty comfortable. When I was younger, I rode a 58 in a more aggressive position, but I can’t do that anymore. But you’ve made me wonder if shorter cranks would help too.

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I wish I knew, actually. lol. I inherited my dad’s ti bike and I have the paperwork in a folder somewhere in my home office, but I can’t seem to find it for the life of me.

He’s about 3" taller than me, so a longer body and longer arms.

I have all the stem spacers in to bring the handlebars as high and close to me as possible. I reduced the stem length from 110mm to 80mm - though I’m considering going down to 60 or even 50mm. I have my saddle almost as far forward as it goes. I even rotated the handlebars up and back about 2 or 3 degrees - almost imperceptible to the eyes - to bring them a just a bit closer to me, as well.

So, I don’t know exactly what size frame it is, but I know from all my adjustments that I really should be riding a frame at least 1 size smaller.

But you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. And this bike has gotten me through a lot. Tho I’m sure I wouldn’t have quite so many niggles if I had a proper sized frame and a bike fit.

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I’d be real careful about saddle position. After a number of pro fits and some personal fiddling over the years, I have concluded that the positioning of the hip/knee/foot should be treated completely separately from reach. Knees are particularly sensitive to where the saddle is relative to the pedals (and probably crank length too).

With my 172.5 cranks, I’ve figured out that no matter what size the (road) bike, the top of my saddle should be 29 1/2” from the center of the crank and the center of my saddle should be 8 1/2 inches behind the center of the crank (measured by dropping a plumb to the ground). My feet naturally toe out and my my knees tend to collapse in, so my cleats are pushed as far to the outside as possible (so my feet are closer to the frame and under my knees and they are rotated slightly so my feet toe out naturally at the center of the float. If I get that right, my knees and hips are good.

Then I use spacers and stems and handlebar rotation (like you do) to get the bars high enough and close enough. I can handle about 1 1/2 inches of drop if the bars are close enough, but prefer less. If I’m too stretched out, my lower back tightens up and that also causes my hips to hurt.

Main lesson: never use saddle position to solve reach problems. That will screw everything up.

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Agree with you completed. I was actually having problems with the nose of my saddle falling forwards from the pressure of my body, so I was forced to push it back a bit and the middle of my saddle is now closer to being centered over top of my seat post, now. Which is probably for the best, anyway. But now I wonder if that is causing some of my hip and lower back tightness because a lot of those niggles happened after I switched saddles and shifted it back… :thinking:

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That sucks. I haven’t had problems with the saddle holder (it probably has a more official name) slipping for a couple decades. Maybe you have an old one. If you recently changed saddles, you probably don’t want another, but I really like my new short-nose saddle (specialized power with mimic). It helps keep me back in saddle where I belong!

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Yeah. I’ve been looking into either a new seat post with an integrated adjustable clamp, or a new saddle rail clamp (name?) that has 2 screws (front and back) instead of just one in the center. But just moving my saddle back a bit seemed to fix it or me. That and not doing Cadence Drills for a while until I moved my saddle back. Cadence drills seemed to be the one ride that tended to make it happen. I was pushing/pulling down on the handlebars to force myself down on the saddle so I didn’t bounce. And apparently that was enough force to push the nose down. :grimacing:

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Glad you got it under control.

I think you’re supposed to use your legs and core to prevent bouncing, not your arms🙂

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lol. Form schmorm. :wink:

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I believe what matters is also the type of cycling you do. For an Ironman you might want to have shorter cranks, opening up a bit the angle between the body and your knees. That said, I tried to standardise most of my bikes to 185mm, including my TT, based on fitting and internet searches many years ago. ( I am 188 cm tall and have long legs). It is an expensive hobby though, non standard cranks are not cheap, and on my newer bikes I decided to go with the maximum I could find in the regular group sets, which seems to be 175. I don’t feel the difference anymore. I do adjust saddle height.

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I’m not an expert, but my two cents. I have short legs, long body (about 6ft tall). I went from a 172.5 crank to 167.5 crank.

My underlying problem is extreme tightness in my ITB, hip flexors, quads and glutes.

The shorter crank made it more comfortable for riding whilst I sort out the tightness through regular stretching.

My 4dp profile showed that my sprint (NM) power dropped from around 1251 down to 854 with the change in crank. I can only assume it’s because of the shorter crank = less leverage.

For now, I don’t care about the NM decrease, I am more comfortable and I can ride whilst I continue stretching. Cycling is inherently good at tightening up quads, glutes, hips and ITB’s. So if I want to cycle, I need to work at it consistently.

Martin

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I know this is way old, but watch the GCN video when Alex went from 175 to 165 mm cranks and what changes he noticed. I would do likewise but I don’t have the money and finding SRAM Force cranks with the correct spider is just about impossible.

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There is always an adaptation phase. I went from 172.5 which were on my new bike (170 on old) down to 165mm cranks. Funnily enough I did a 4DP last Sunday and hit my highest ever NM figures, even though I was not 100% up for a 4DP (I’m sure if I had, I could have squeezed out a couple of percent). Shorter crank lengths also mean you can hit higher cadences easier and that also means more power, so just give it time.

Keep up the stretching too, that will pay big dividends, especially the older you get. I have a daily route + before and after rides, if I don’t everything tightens up and I regret it. Good luck.

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Interesting topic. I’ve been obsessively researching this a while back.

My leg length (89cm inseam) would mean that I could get away with cranks longer than 175mm, but it also seems (from the publications) that there is very little risk in going shorter and some risk in going longer. If in doubt, go shorter.

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Interesting… I am only 5’ 5" tall with an inside leg measurement of only 29" and I have 170mm cranks on all of my bikes. I did have 165mm on a track bike at one time(sold that now) but TBH I didn’t notice any difference.

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