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Old 01-26-22, 08:06 AM
  #81  
Frkl
Must be symmetrical
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: Germany
Posts: 259

Bikes: ... but look, they're all totally different!

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Don't over think it

I'm 6'3" and have been riding 150 and 152mm cranks on all my bikes, road and mountain, for several years. I did it for knee pain, which it solved, not for any performance reasons.

I did do a lot of research before jumping in, though, and came to the conclusion that there are too many variables to predict what will happen on a particular bike. For instance, the knee-pedal relationship changes, but depends a lot on geometry. But you might not be able to push the saddle back enough to prevent a knees forward of the pedals a la triathlon bikes.

Also, remember that there are a lot of theories about how crank length will change metric x, but the bike is a machine almost purpose built to compensate for changes in leverage. So your real world experience will vary!

My advice is try it. It is not a big investment. I can't speak to US availability and pricing, but Suntour sells the XCT Jr crank at 152mm, and i use this converted to a 1x on my mountain bike. They cost 25 Euro, don't look great, but work fine. Stronglight sells a rebranded and shortened Sugino XD2 called the Impact Kid in a bunch of different lengths for about 50 Euro. These are both shortened versions of adult cranks, so plenty strong, and exactly what you would get using a crank shortening service.

If you like ithe result but want something fancier, the TA Carmina is not so expensive, so far as cranks go these days.
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