Seeking 170mm cranks
 

I'm looking to buy a road bike, most likely 56 cm. They mostly seem to come with 172.5 or 175 cranx. May not seem like much difference, but for me the 170s are better, multiplied by thousands of repetitions.

Does anyone know of a new road bike, 56cm, that comes with 170s standard?

Thanks.

See if the bike shop you're buying from will swap them out. There's usually no charge if they have the 170mm laying around.

You're not going to find 170's on a 56cm road bike. Any product manager who spec'ed that size crank on that size bike would be fired.

Your best bet is finding a 56cm that has a 172.5 (most have this size).
Sell that crank on Ebay for top dollar.
Buy the 170's that you need on Ebay cheaper. 170 and 175mm cranks sell for less simply because they are not 172.5's.

Its a bit of a hassle, but it's better than waiting for something that's never going to happen.

That is what I did. My 54cm bike came with 172.5's and it was not something I noticed when I bought the bike. I was used to 170's and could tell the difference as soon as I started riding. I sold mine and then bought a R700 with 170's.

How times have changed. I don't know when exactly, sometime in the 90's . . . but bikes used to all pretty much come with 170's. Even the 60-63cm ones I rode. You had to go aftermarket unless a shop would swap them for you.

What we have today is not much different, except it's 172.5 or 175. The manufacturers are really lazy, as they don't care if someone who rides a 58cm frame uses the same crank length as a 63cm rider. I use 185's, which is proportional to many people using 175's. Thankfully TA still makes 185mm cranksets. :thumb:

I wouldn't hinge my bike purchase on what crank length was standard, considering that it is likely less than 10% of the total purchase price. Cranks can easily be swapped, exchanged, traded, otherwise acquired.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=158981

I went to 165s on my 53cm