180 MM cranks

[RideMonkey]

I have been riding 180's since the dawn of time. I have very long femurs and it always seemed natural to me.

Now that I have been road riding a lot, something startling has happened. I think that I am actually developing pedaling technique. The 180's on my MTB don't feel so great anymore.

I was also watching Lance decimate Jan on the climbs with his astounding high RPM climbing style. I have been working on this on my road bike (175's) and its great. Hard to do on 180's though.

Any thoughts on crank length?

[oldfart]

Check out Velonews.com. They recently did a test with 3 riders of short medium and tall sizes with cranks of various lengths. The results were surprising. I think the 155 cranks were amongst the best for all riders including Zinn whos about 6'7".

[muddywolf]

I noticed a big difference in power when I switched to 180. I love the leverage, I was able to pound the pavement so much faster, but I gotta agree, they dont spin for a damn.
you guys have me curious, I'll have to break out one of my old short crank sets and run them for awhile.