Originally Posted by bargainguy

I'm vertically challenged at 5'4. I played around with 165's and 170's on road bikes until I found folding bikes, and decided to experiment with much shorter cranks. My purpose was twofold: shorter cranks for easier packing of the disassembled bike in a suitcase, and let's see what they do to the power curve.

I had Mark Stonich of www.bikesmithdesign.com shorten a couple cranks, which I still have. An Ultegra triple and a 105 double, which started life at 170mm, now both at 148mm.

Power curve results were not encouraging. Easier spinning, which was nice, but greatly reduced leverage. Hills and wind became more pronounced, or maybe just my ability to deal with them. Felt like a spinning hamster wheel going nowhere fast.

In the end, I removed them and went back to my 165 and 170. Might dig them out again for a project or if I need a short crank for a particular frame setup.