What does any of this have to do with bees, dead or alive?? But this is very interesting: "Supposedly, the ideal crank length for maximum production of power, irrespective of the size and conditioning of the rider, is 145 [mm?]". Really? This is astoundingly interesting. Where did you hear this? How do we reconcile this with the reality of 165, 170, 172.2 and 175 cranks on production bikes all over the planet??!! This sounds like an AI fail and I don't really need to remove a crankset to test it. Besides, a drivetrain is more than the cranks alone. The gear set is also important. A 145mm crank is about 20% less in potential torque than a 175mm. You won't even be able to turn the big small and all the rest are going to feel 20% harder to spin. Ideally the new crank would be married to an entirely new chainring set and cassette.