
Old 10-25-18, 02:57 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 130
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 68 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 5 Times in 5 Posts
At the same cadence a shorter crank requires lower foot speed and higher torque. Longer crank is the opposite, higher foot speed and lower peak torque

In reality someone running longer cranks is likely to use a larger gear at a lower cadence, effectively equalizing the peak torque and foot speed. Someone running shorter cranks is likely to use a lower gear and higher cadence, also equalizing peak torque and foot speed. In the end the difference is the cadence and actual gear used.

I think the most important thing is that your cranks on all your bikes should be no more than 2.5mm different from any other bike. I can't remember what study this was but that was the main take away I had from reading it. The participants could the produce the same power at any length once acclimatized but changing by more than 2.5mm resulted in a loss of performance until they re-adjusted to the new length.
rustymongrel is offline