Originally Posted by
staehpj1
I'll probably live with the 165s for now, but how short are folks going these days. Also how much shorter do you need to go to make much difference in having pedal strikes?
FWIW, I am decent at reading the surface and keeping the pedal rotation such that I don't get strikes over a lot of the terrain I ride, but we have a ton of roots here with short climbs that are all requiring pedaling the whole way up. I am getting pretty good at managing on the routes that I ride all the time so maybe I am learning.
Perhaps it is kind of like toe overlap on the road bike. A problem until you learn to subconsciously avoid it and then you don't see how it was ever a problem.
165 is solidly on the short end of what is offered by most manufacturers. I would not go shorter just for pedal strikes.
As far as how much makes a difference…. In my experience, when going lower (either from longer cranks, lower bb, or thicker pedals) even 5mm makes a difference… at first. But then I adapt. Its less about how much actual clearance you have as much as how well you have a sense wherw that clearance ends.
Its a little bit like bar width. I’ve gone from 580mm back in the 90s to 780mm now in ~25mm increments, and each time the same thing happens: I graze a tree or two, then adapt. I don’t hit things with my 780mm bars any more than I did with my 580mm bars.
Of course there is probably a much harder limit to how low you can go with pedal clearance.