Can you explain to me about cranks?
 

Ok i'm a total noob to this. I just ride and don't usually care but i recently wanted to start upgrading my Kilo. I don't understand the crank size and ratio stuff. i'm 5'8" with shorter legs than torso. I currently ride 165mm, 44Tx1/2x3/32 144 bcd according to the kilo chart. I kind of get the patches thing. I just don't know what size cranks I should be getting. Whats the benefit of going to higher mm or tooth count or BCD or the benefit of going lower? I generally ride a 17T EAI cog if that matters. I'm looking to get some SRAM Omniums. Any advice is appreciated

165mm crank sounds fine for you. And gear ratios are all about preference, strength, and what type of terrain you are riding on. Do you live in a hilly area or mostly flat?

If you know nothing about cranksets why do you need to upgrade?

^this. upgrade saddle/wheelset/handlebars/pedals first. those always seemed more important to me and I never felt a need to change the crankset on my kilo. it always got the job done. if you want drivetrain change just buy a $20 cog and play around with different gear-inch #'s.

Also +1 for the kilo

Also why does everyone and their mom have/want omnomnom's? I thought we all like Sugino 75's?

Because Omniums are inexpensive compared to other track crank setups.

#sugino4lyfe

thanks for all the responses. I live in NYC and the roads are rough. Hilly in some spots by my house and flat and rough in the city. I already upgraded my wheelset, pedals, toe straps, saddles and have risers, bullhorns, and drop bars. I'm comfortable with my cog. Only reason why I want to know about the crankset is to determine if I should even upgrade or not. Also I want Omniums because they're on sale and like Scrod says its inexpensive compared to some others.

I just want to know if changing crank size is beneficial.

Probably not.

yep, track cranks (165mm) are already small and the only reason that i've heard for people going with longer cranks (167.5,170,172.5, I think 175 is road crank standard) is if they are bigger dudes. I'm a hair under 6' and I love my 165.

I think I remember reading that Scrod recently moved from using 170 cranks to 165 cranks and enjoys them quite a bit more. I personally enjoy spinning on my 165's a lot. So I'd say stay the same length and get those omnomnom's just cause you want them, and because i enjoy calling them omnomnom's. it's much easier to spell. Plus having 144bcd makes finding & reselling chainrings pretty easy, which is cool. I find it's easier to mess with my gear inches via changing my chainring as oppose to switching cogs. Plus the big one's look cool and are super smooooooooooooooth.

I'm a lot shorter than you-5'5". I have been riding 170s same as my geared road bikes. I've done several centuries on the 170s and lots of 50+ mile rides and didn't have any problems but did a 100 miles a week ago and really irritated the back of my knee and upper calf on one leg. I think my hip angle is too tight at the top of the peddle stroke with the 170s. I just got Sugino 75 cranks in 165mm from Scrod. I haven't installed them yet. But they should work better for my short legs. My "guess" is you will like the 165 cranks better than 170s but you may not notice a significant difference using either depending upon how you ride your bike and terrain. In short, stay with what you have until it needs to be replaced then consider if you want to change crank length.

Wow thanks for all the great advice from all of you guys. Also I want to apologize, I made a mistake. I have a Kilo TT Striper edition and when I searched the specs, I was looking at the regular Kilo TT and I didn't even notice it had different stock parts. I'm actually riding TruVativ Touro aluminum arms, 130 BCD, 48T PowerSpline, and I'm not even sure what size crank arms they are but I'm guessing a 165mm. So I have a 48T chainring with a 17t cog. I guess some questions I should be asking now is:

What's BCD?
Should I get the Omniums since it has a 144bcd and I'm riding a 130bcd?
If not omniums, what other good crankset should i get, preferably a 1/8" to match my chain and cog.
Should I just get new crank arms and install it on my original TruVativ Power Spline?
And, would I still be able to use my Sealed Cartridge 108mm PowerSpline bottom bracket? or should I replace everything altogether?

Your bottom bracket will work with SRAM s100 cranks, which are exactly the same thing you have now, cranks really will not affect the way your bike rides if they are functioning correctly, the only reason I took the touros off my kilo was because one of the cranks pedal hole stripped out on me. Fwiw my current bike has the touro cranks and I don't even think about them.

if you want to upgrade because you want to upgrade I would probably think about spending that money on clipless pedals, where you would be able to tell what you spent your money on while you are riding your bike, not looking at it.

Also the difference between 165 and 170 mm cranks for me was noticeable for about a mile and then It felt exactly the same.

I ride 175 no matter the bike I'm 6'2" with a 30" inseam ~31 in cycling stuff

Bolt Circle Diameter. Referring to the chainring bolts.

+infinity

+75

ain't nobody got cash for that.

I do.

http://cdn.business2community.com/wp...2/wink_gif.gif

LOL of course you would Scrod. Reason why I'm considering SRAM is because they offer the entire crankset with the BB. But now, after searching some old threads, people are saying the GXP BB they use are a crapshoot. So the Omniums uses the same BB as S300 in their respective crankset package, so any difference in getting S300 or Omniums?

Omniums are stiffer and there are more options for quality 144bcd chainrings. The BB is the same.

Use the stock BB until it craps out and then replace it with this and keep your Omniums forever.

is all you need to know about cranks

BCD= Bolt Circle Diameter. BCD determines the size of the smallest chainring that will fit your crank. The smallest ring you can mount on a 144mm BCD crank is 41T; for a 130mm BCD crnk it's 34T. 144mm is an old standard, used on both road and track cranks on race bikes starting in the 1960s (151mm BCD was common on race bikes before then). Road cranks have since moved to 130mm BCD or smaller, but 144mm is still popular with track riders, as the wider BCD is felt to provide better bracing for the chainring.

If you find your gearing with the 44T ring satisfactory, there's no compelling reason to change to a different BCD.

Put into normal terms.
It's a number. You need to know this number because if you don't, you get to return things :)

Thanks for the explanation JD, not poking fun AT you, just with you ;)