Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
And how do you go about determining a person's optimum crank length, given that it's quite expensive for each individual to buy several different cranksets for personal experimentation?
Im not sure what @
ESTrainSmart will say, but my fitter determined this with a FitBike. He can adjust crank length and have me pedal various crank lengths and simultaneously measure power output. I do have a demonstably better power output on 165mm cranks vs 170mm cranks. I never asked what the power difference was, but I got the impression that it was not huge. But I just like the feel of the 165 mm cranks, so that's what I went with. When I got bike
#2 , it had 170mm cranks already and I was going to keep them, my fitter says they're fine for me, just not optimal. That lasted all of about 2 weeks. I really just strongly prefer the 165s.