samlochner

Just thought I'd share this story with you guys. I messed up my hip and think being tall and cycling with long cranks had something to do with it:
https://tall.life/femoroacetabular-i...-fai-tall-hip/

Let me start by saying that I am a firm believer that people need proportional crank lengths and so tall people need longer cranks, wrote about it here:
https://tall.life/proportional-bike-...r-tall-people/

For me though, I have impingement in my hip joints, and using the longer cranks ironically hurt me.

I have a theory that tall people are more likely to develop FAI, so made me think to post here. If you do decided to go with longer cranks, perhaps check that you have sufficient range of hip motion first. Perhaps irrelevant for most people, but if this helps just one...

brawlo

Have you ever had a proper bike fit by a really good bike fitter? Or did you just go to longer cranks because you were tall? I'm 6'5" and am only on 180mm by virtue of a bike fit. I get better muscle recruitment for putting power down with the longer crank, but at no stage did the fitter recommend that I go to a longer crank. My legs are quite long too, and I have good flexibility. My fitter also diagnosed a pelvis issue that a previous fit never picked up, even though the symptom was identified in the fit. I'm now in the process of strengthening up my pelvis to rectify the issue.

KBentley57

I had no idea 200mm cranks even existed. Are you the love child of Shaq and Ming?

FBinNY 

So, you believe that overly long cranks caused your hip issues, but you say you're (still?) a firm believer in cranks proportioned to size.

I don't get it.

In any case, based on 50+ years riding, I firmly believe that the advantages of longer cranks are over rated. Compared to shorter cranks, they increase knee and hip stress, with no offsetting benefit. That said, some taller riders can turn them, but I still don't believe they're better off doing so.

brawlo

My understanding from my discussion with my fitter, was that longer cranks work as they recruit muscles better, generally in taller folk. So better muscle recruitment means more power, or in my particular case, a longer force application in the stroke. If those muscles are recruited on a particular crank length, then there really isn't any need to go to a longer crank. The fit on my road bike is such that 180mm cranks achieve this objective. However I also ride track, and here maxing power output is the pure goal as I'm into sprint stuff, but the fit is such that 175mm cranks get this done. The fitter was an agent for custom cranks at any length, and at no stage tried to upsell me on new longer cranks in either case.

There is a whole lot of misinformation peddled around on the interwebs re crank length. When it boils down to it, unless you're trying to become a better more powerful pedaler, crank length isn't really important, and should really be done under the guidance of a good bike fitter, not just any bike fitter that works with cookie cutter numbers

Cosmic Hawk

I'm 6'3" with 172.5 cranks. I would never fathom a crank that long. I ride 200 miles a week and don't see anything missing in my ride. I don't see how you can advocate for them and also blame them on your own injury.

JohnJ80

I think somewhere I read that Greg LeMond is doing a lot of experimenting with short cranks and advocates them as more aerodynamic for most riders, easier on a rider's hips etc...

J.