Originally Posted by
Morelock
I'm not saying you didn't see aerodynamic gains, but can you expand? In my experience this has not usually been the case.
Short people tend to be on cranks that are too long, unless we seek out aggressively shorter-than-ordinary cranks - stuff below 165. Being on "too long" cranks means that we tend to have positions that are more upright than, say, the 'platonic ideal' of bike positioning - so that we can have a hip angle that can produce power. Or, hell, just so that we can get our legs over the top of the stoke.
But when we shorten the cranks, we can raise the saddle, pitch our torsos forward, and start to approach that nice-looking position.