Cranks on road bike/fixed conversion?
 

Hi All!

I have been riding single speed for a while, but want to go fixed.
The only thing I am a bit nervous about is the length on my cranks,
when riding a conversion since I would be pedaling through corners.

My cranks are standard 170mm, I was wondering what are peoples
experiences? Will I take a bloody fall on my first corner, and never get
on a bike again, or have people been doing hairpin turns for years with
no problems?

The picture is the bike (semi-sanded for paint). With the drive train
mounted. The top of the toeclip will touch the floor when it hangs
from the pedal, when this is in the downward position.



Thank you all.
Morten

Take your bike and rotate the cranks so that one of the arms is straight down. Lean the bike over until your pedals hits the floor. Ask yourself if you are going to be leaning over that far.

don't worry about it. On your first ride you'll fall plenty, just not from pedal strike

My first incarnation of my fixie conversion had 170mm cranks and with old stock rat trap pedals, I did occasionally experience pedal strike, but as I am not terribly aggressive in my riding it was never more than an annoyance.

I would say build it up on the cheap using your current crank and then if it is a problem go from there, either getting shorter cranks, or clipless pedals which are a lot narrower.

170mm should be fine, even though 165 is the standard fixie crank length.

Take out a ruler and look at how long 5mm actually is. It's not very long.

That's what I was thinking... 5 mm is not going to be the difference, and since I can't move the bottom bracket up!? Well I guess the only way to know is to try.

i have 175s and have not had a major pedal strike, though i am aware when i corner, and it would be nice not to think about...

just go ride and see how it feels

i have 170's and i have never pedal striked

what's wrong with pink?

Nothing at all, someone had at some point hated it enough to, pretty unmotivated, spray some black paint on pieces of the frame. I don't really think it was an attempt to paint the frame, more like a dare...

I have 165 and origin 8 track pedals.... (they're small) I've never had an issue with pedal strike and I've not been taking corners gingerly.

I'm going to go against the grain here and advocate for 165s. From the photo, it looks like your bb is pretty low, but it's hard to be sure from a pic. bb clearance isn't a top priority in road bike design, and if you've popped 700c wheels on a frame originally set up with 27" (is that the case here?), you lose a little more still. You may never encounter pedal strike, but if you do, the results can range from mildly jarring to really scary. 165s give you that extra little bit of clearance, and at least for me, the tighter radius is handy when you're really spinning. But if you find the 170mm cranks comfy, also consider narrow and/or shallow pedals as mentioned above; GR-9s or a clipless setup can give you lots of breathing room.

FWIW, I rode powergrips for a while; I can't stand them, but since I never got around to trimming them and they stuck out a bit, I could feel/hear them scape when I got close to a strike. Obviously a silly measure for long-term use, but if you really want to know for sure how close you are to striking, you could always tape a notecard or something similar to the top of the pedal and go for a spin...

If the wheels that was on the bike when I bought it are the original ones (which I suspect), they are 700c. However I see your point. My pedals have a bit of a brace on the outside which I could do without. So thanks for the pointer on the GR-9s, they look pretty slim.

I also see your point about the 165s, I was just thinking, being used to the metric system, 5 mm is like very little in this problem - but combined with the narrow pedals I see where you're going. I would like to post a picture dead on the side. But the frame is out (had a small crack in a weld - so a friend of mine is taking care of it).