Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
I have had bad knees for the past half century. Often on longer rides I have to add a patellar band to limit knee pain part way through the ride. I have 170mm cranks on a vintage bike, have 175mm on the rest of my bikes. After I do a long ride, I find that walking up a set of stairs seems to be easier on my knees after riding my vintage bike with the shorter crank, but there could be other factors, this is not a scientific test. A 5mm crank arm difference is roughly a 3 percent difference in torque on the crank.
My girlfriend experiences the same thing- she finds she can walk better after riding. Age does things to us- stuff I could tolerate 40 years ago are out of the question not. But because I've paid attention to how bike fit really works (including crank length, foot position on the pedals and so on) I can ride further now on a more comfortable bike than I ever could when I was in my 20s. And I can ride faster now than 15 years ago...