Track Cycling - Do any track racers use cranks shorter than 165mm?

Just curious to see if anybody uses 150-155mm?

Acceleration and ability to spin your ass off would probably be the only values? :giver:

There was a study done by the Aussies, I dont know if it was in the Westy era or by Barras but it indicated that the shortness of crank isnt going to give you a better spin at all. Espessialy if you have average lengh or longer legs.

It sudgested that sprinters use short cranks to clear the banking at slow speed. As racing has evolved alot of sprinters are moving up to 167 and 170 cranks now for the torque.

There was this short guy who rode for EDS in the early 90s who supposedly used 145 cranks with about an 82 gear for sprints.

This is information from the way back of my head. Someone may know more.

At my home track, there was one guy who used Shimano Sante road cranks, which were available in 160 and 162.5, but I never verified that he was using them for a specific length. It was an interesting choice, as he did have a full set of 151 BCD chainrings and crankarms, making me wonder what that was doing on his bike.

The clearance issue comes up when you make that hard right turn at the bottom of the banking after launching the sprint.

Interesting

ds

World professional sprint champion Claudio Golinelli used 155mm cranks for a season or two.

A study I read found that 170mm cranks perform the worst for almost all events and for all rider heights.

A study I read found that 170mm cranks perform the worst for almost all events and for all rider heights.

is this a joke?

not a joke - that's ringing a bell with me. can't defend the results, or even recall the specifics, but i believe i remember reading that the people studied performed optimally above or below 170... 170 being the average, sort of fell in to being a baseline/standard size, despite the fact that it was optimal for few people.

I wish I could find where I favourited the article, but 170s performed terribly. That said, if the British track squad is considering switching to 170s maybe the article was wrong.

Well, I found the url for the article I was talking about. It used to be on Velo News, but they've taken it down.

However, this looks interesting: http://www.trikes.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=2

Well, I found the url for the article I was talking about. It used to be on Velo News, but they've taken it down.

However, this looks interesting: http://www.trikes.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=2

The 170mm is worst for everyone just doesn't make any sense though. I can accept there is some intermediate crank length between two local optima(though it seems unlikely). That it would 170mm for someone who is 5' and 7' makes no sense though.