I’ve read several articles by John Cobb on crank length. Has anyone tried shortening their crank length? Does shortening the crank length really save your legs for the run in an IM? I want some feedback before I make the investment in new cranks. I am considering going from a 175 to a 165.
an important question is, how tall are you? or more precisely, how long are your legs? then read this, it is another perspective about a pretty confusing topic. with cranks, depending on your leg length, there are some advantages to going shorter and there are some advantages to going longer.
Good discussion on this topic. http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=2126712;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=60;
As of yesterday I’ve switched from 180 to 175. Not much of a change, but I’ve been running 180’s for about the last 10 years. We’ll see.
GregX and BreakIM are pointing to the fact that you need to do a fair amount of research into this issue and then find out for yourself if it works or not. I don’t think anyone else’s anecdotal evidence will be sufficient to determine how a change in crank length will affect you.
I went out of my way to find short crankarms. I had some cheap 105s shortened to 153mm b/c I have a 28.5" true inseam and 170s were apparently causing me a lot of pain. I say “apparently” b/c it could have been any number of things but I haven’t had any knee problems on the bike since going to 153. Do I run faster/fresher off the bike? I couldn’t say. There was an added bonus in being able to raise my saddle height by 1.7cm which improved my position on the bike overall.
So… there’s lots of consider. Good luck with it.