h2ofun wrote:
As a tall person, my center of gravity has always been higher than a normal person to start with. So how would one determine what is good or bad for center of gravity? It would seem that for this, using the 200's to have my seat as low as possible would be the best?
A good rule of thumb is, what crank length did the manufacturer spec? Hard to believe, but bike manufacturers often take things like what crank length is going to be used when designing a bike, as well as the expected height range of the rider. Those numbers on the geometry charts aren't just random numbers. A few mm doesn't matter that much, but several cm can really start to affect things.
As for going lower, the CPSC has our hands tied. There is a minimum cornering clearance required, throwing 200mm cranks on bike with a standard 70mm BB drop is way outside of that limit. There is one production bike that I know of that is designed for 200mm cranks (KHS Flite747), the BB drop on that bike is 25mm higher than on their bikes designed for 175mm cranks. So your ground clearance, and center of gravity, would be the same...
"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"