Would you ride 150mm cranks?

[KermitGKona88]

Hello every peeps,

I bought some cranks and they turned out to be 150mm, I am 5' 8"ish with a 29"ish inside leg. I saw someone on here 98 + section selling some Hope cranks in 150mm so WDYT?

Cheers for looking

Mark

 

[grantoury]

Mike Burrows said in his book something to the effect that most cranks are too long and one should experiment. I have never gone shorter than 170mm, but I may try 165mm in the future.

 

[yakboy]

I'm riding 165mm at the moment on my adventure bike and am about the same size as you. Much better for the hips and knees over long distances. If you are riding cadence then shorter cranks are better. Mike was right you can get away with shorter cranks better than longer

 

[Lucidone]

I think you be amazed how quickly you can get used to them - I've 33' inside leg and occasionally ride 165 cranks and don't mind at all.

 

[Imlach]

I ride 160 to 175. Really want to try 145. Also ideal for conversions to smaller wheels and can fix a too large frame to some degree. (Not in the standover height obvs).

So yes I'd ride 150.

Else you can sell em to me brother

 

[PhillB]

Yeah, why not, you never know until you try them!

 

[KermitGKona88]

Excellent thank you for all the positive advice.

Brother if I can't get on with them they are yours.

 

[moonlite]

Really interesting to find out more about this -- I've always assumed I'm a 175mm guy because most of my bikes came with those. Then when playing around with singlespeeds, it became clear that shorter cranks are common for that application and have some 170s set aside to fit someday. And then bought a bike with 170mms and didn't notice for the first few rides.

The idea of helping the old knees is very attractive -- will have to try some shorties soon.

 

[Splatter Paint]

Depends what terrain you’re on. Shorter cranks mean less pedal strikes, so that could be good. Conversely you may feel cramped climbing - only one way to find out!

 

[Imlach]

Key is to get off when climbing anyway

What goes up goes down...