Originally Posted by carleton

I'm a lot like Baby Puke, I would set up my road bikes to mimic my track position, including saddle position and even crank length. I'd buy the cheapest cranks I could find in the size I planned to race the following season. The only difference being the bars would be set at a comfortable height a few inches higher than track.

The first season I raced 165mm cranks, I put 165mm kid cranks on my road bike months before. Hills sucked, but I learned to carry high cadences like Taras mentioned. I even put 40cm bars on.

Hopping back and forth between bikes was easy.

Right now I have 170mm on my spin bike and 165mm on my track, and I can feel the difference. I really wish I had 165mm on my spin bike. It's gonna take a fair amount of research and tinkering to get 165mm on there (need ISIS 165mm and I have no idea what the chain line is, and I need to be able to use track chainrings to avoid tacos). I did efforts last night on the spin bike (170mm) then hopped on my track bike (locked into a mag trainer, 165mm) and it felt sooooo goooood.

But, as Taras says, it depends on what you are doing with your road bike. Southerfox, I recall you being a road racer, so maybe it's important enough to approach the two differently and if they come together, cool. But, for me (and maybe Baby Puke) the road bike is essentially a track bike with gears and brakes.

All that being said, some people simply can't feel the difference (in a good way).