I read through all of the performance advantages of Alex Hunt’s article. Either I missed it or he didn’t cover one important aspect of shorter cracks.
I have a worn out knee and by going from 175 to 160 on my adventure/bikepacking bike I gained 30 mm difference in knee bend at the top of the stroke. The crank is 15 mm shorter and the saddle goes up 15 mm. Which over a very long day I am hoping this will make a huge difference. I discussed this with my Orthopedic surgeon friend and MyVeloFit fitter in person, both are big proponents of the shorter cranks for bad knees or hip pain.
It’s a very expensive decision so just the one bike this year to see what difference it will make on my bikepacking trip. Road and gravel bikes maybe next year if I notice a huge difference in comfort.
2 Likes
Yes, this was discussed a lot in the comments of that article. Fit considerations and anatomy weren’t really covered in the article…
The important thing is obviously that when adjusting crank length, other things have to be adjusted to match or you might create new problems. Like you said, your saddle height changes when you change crank length. If you don’t raise your front end as well, you lose some of the benefit of opening up your hip angle because your saddle to handlebar drop would increase…
On long comment sections I don’t go down very far. I still have to put in a hard long ride to know if I need to tweak anything. As with any major changes on bike fit.
When I’m fitting people, I explain adjustments like it’s a spider web. If we pull or push in one place, it’s pulls or pushes somewhere else. I won’t recommend a crank length change if there is no room to adjust the front end to compensate.
I hope that your fitter pointed out that a 15mm crank length change can have a big impact on the rest of your fit.
You know you also need to move your saddle forward to compensate as well?
Yes I have, the saddle is forward saddle height is up but no increase in raising the bars as they were much higher than any of my other bikes. That one is a wait and see.