Originally Posted by
LV2TNDM
Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
No, I can pedal fine on the 175s, hitting 115 if I want to. My single has 170s and I don't really notice the difference. It's only like 1/8" per crank, nothing really,..."
Interesting take. My experience with this difference in length was completely opposite. When racing in my 20's, I was out with a friend mountain biking. Crank lengths came up and I mentioned I was on 170's. He was on 175's. We happen to have the exact same saddle height and both rode SPDs, so we quickly swapped bikes. I assumed like you above that 5 little millimeters probably wouldn't even be noticed. I couldn't have been more wrong! It felt like the cranks were SIGNIFICANTLY longer than a 5mm increase. It was remarkable how much longer they felt; practically twice as long (not really, but the difference was truly astounding). It was eye-opening to say the least. Everyone is different, but I think you'd feel it if you could do swap onto different cranks mid-ride, all other things being equal. Difference in circumference is a 31mm increase from 1067mm (just under 3% increase). So even though the circumference increase is still small, it's VERY noticeable. To me at least.
Also, when I go between 175 on the tandem or mountain bike to the 172.5 on the road bike, I cannot feel the difference. Too hard to compare, given the apples to oranges comparison and time interval between rides.
Perhaps the difference in our experiences is that I've been swapping back and forth between crank lengths regularly for ~15 years and have grown accustomed to both lengths. I don't remember if I noticed a difference on our first tandem ride.
__________________
Results matter