Moisture

Since the original acquiring of this bike, I have eventually restored pretty much the entire bike -





Fast forward 1.5 months later...




Trying out different cranks...

165mm sugino


170mm Biopace


And now... 175mm Truvativ




Loved the Sugino cranks but very small arms.. gave the biopace rings a try. Worked well, just not with clip in pedals... went back to circular. Feels better.

Planning to try out a White Industries VBC 180mm crankset. Will install Biopace rings oriented backwards so that the teeth count increases at the most powerful part of the pedal stroke. It should work ideally with the clip ins:

https://www.whiteind.com/vbc-rings

icemilkcoffee 

So what is your conclusion on all these different crank lengths?

dedhed

1. First rule of BF bicycle pictures - Pictures from drive side

2 Definition of "Restore"

Moisture

I've included a drive side pic at the bottom.

- Replaced brake lines and housing
- Oiled shift lines
-Rehauled rear hub as well as bottom bracket
- Painted the frame myself a little
- Replaced the rear tire
-Replaced the front rim and tire with a 700c I had laying around
- New front brake pads
- New handlebars and stem
- The new cranksets
- Removed stuck seatpost at an autobody shop
-Cleaned up the drivetrain and adjusted rear derailer positioning

Moisture

Good question. While the geometry of the frame will always make the biggest difference in terms of fit and the way you can transfer power through the cranks, I believe it is very important for the crank arms to be in direct proportion to your inseam, both for fit as well as power transfer.

While even 165MM crank arms felt a lot better than 170's on my poorly fitting mountain bike, I noticed an improvement with each crankset, despite only a 5mm difference. While 185mm would be best for me, I will have to settle for 180 due to availability as well as bottombracket clearance.

I feel like its very helpful in terms of maintaining a more reasonable pedalling cadence, especially while accelerating. Wiht the shorter crank arms I found myself often compensating by simply going into a higher gear.

Moisture

My last and likely final Crankset/chainring orientation... reverse mounted biopace working beautifully with the strap in pedals. I am really loving the response and seamless feel of having only 10t count difference between the two rings. They came from a 3x setup. Interesting to see how Shimano designed each of the three rings with a different elliptical profile according to intended use - Uphill, flat, downhill sprinting.

Koyote

Like putting lipstick on a pig...

Moisture

yeA , no

look who's back

So what do you suggest i look into that you suspect will fit me better?

Reflector Guy

Do I spy a somewhat-newer rear tire on there now?

Moisture

Lol, didn't take long for it to go from new to somewhat new with the way I ride it... I replaced the tire shortly after getting the bike .

Fast forward to January, and I've got a new rim with a 9 speed cassette and a thickslick tire on there.

Germany_chris

there are cheaper options than ~500 usd WI crank set to get 180mm crank arms Sugino, Shimano, and TA all make that length.

Moisture

shelbyfv

With 190mm crank arms, I can avoid nearly all pedal striking with a bottom bracket height of 285mm , riding however I want. I'd rather just for go for 185mm cranks because they seem to be better suited to most xl frame bb heights.

mstateglfr 

Ha, I remember when you were looking at slapping a White Industries crank on this. Entertaining times.

shelbyfv

190!!

alcjphil

Years ago, a friend of mine was riding 220mm cranks. Of course he had to have a custom frame built with extra ground clearance tp avoid pedal strike