That's cool mate. Take it as an over reaction from an old phart over stressed by his load who's had a few too many disappointments from something he'd lusted after since a teenager. A bit of thought from me would have told me you weren't taking a shot at me. Sorry about that.

Looks like most of you are talking about modified cranks - funny, the impression you get from Bentrider is that you can buy them over the counter. I've got a mate who'd probably do that for me (he builds model engines from scrap as a recreation).

I hate trying to sort out this bent in isolation, there are things that can realistically only be tackled in person, but that's not my lot I'm afraid.

I'll have another chat with my lbs and see what he can source though he's already intimated that the aussie suppliers only bring in 'normal' df stuff, which in this country means 'roadie'. I wouldn't even be looking at this if I had road gearing on the commuter - the commuter has an mtb crankset and the gearing is such that I'm constantly swapping between the big and middle ring which is annoying at best. Having seen so many positive reports about short cranks on bents, the thought was to put the bent's cranks (currently 172.5 long with road type gearing, I forget the tooth count but it's a good selection for my riding) on the commuter and put short cranks on the bent (again with road type gearing) in the hope that I'd gain even a marginal improvement.

That won't fix the main problems which are a seat that doesn't allow me to stretch my legs out (I slide forward unless I have a boom length that doesn't allow my leg to fully extend), a bottom bracket height that requires really fit abs (and hence reduces my breathing) and the flying hamster handle bar position that leaves me cramped for breath. There's probably a good bent in there somewhere trying to get out but I lack the money or the expertise to stuff around with the sodding thing much more than I already have. If you can't get a bike to work for you within 1000km you're probably well served giving up.

I'm ranting again aren't I. Probably reacting to too much study (uni) and with the end of the semester coming up, it's only going to get worse. I'll return to the bent over the long break at the end of the year, but don't hold a lot of hope for the thing.

Richard