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Apart from 5mm what's the difference? OK you get more leverage with 175 cranks but I can't believe 5mm has that much effect - or does it?
As you have suspected your unlikely to notice much difference if any.There maybe some on here that will talk of noticing a loss of power or talk about cadence, but frankly you here a lot of nonesense on here.
Rented a Kona for a couple of days whilst in Spain 3 years ago it was only while I was cleaning it before taking it back that I noticed the cranks were 170mm. Lets face it fitting a different set of pedals could make the same difference.
If your short like me - yes
If your tall - no.
Clearance would alter slightly, I've found switching from 170 to 175, I've hit rocks a little more with my flats.
Do you think your wife would notice an extra 5mm
Damn right she would.
depends on you.
anything under 172.5mm gives me horendous cramps in my calves
I moved to 170mm due to sore knees. I did notice the difference on Tarmac in terms of spinning. It also allowed me to line up my knee over the pedal axis more easily. 175mm cranks are pretty standard on most bikes and really don't take in to account a rider's size. It's certainly worth checking out this sort of biomechanics stuff online.
i just swapped from 175 to 170 on my dh bike
cant say i noticed any difference at a dh course, apart from ht2 being soo much better than isis
ill let u know after ive ridden the mega on em
it depends on the length your legs. I'm 179cm I've always been on 175mm cranks. I gave it a try last year (had taken the same but shorter cranks from the wife's bike). When I spun I felt like I'm spending some of my effort for nothing and lap times were worse.
All in the mind in my opinion. That 5mm could easily come from a slightly different position of your foot in the shoe and unless you have had a good cyclefit then that 5mm is neither here nor there!
The only way you may notice it would be on your road bike where things are alot stiffer and tighter, but again without an accurate set up you are wasting your time!
[i]That 5mm could easily come from a slightly different position of your foot in the shoe [/i]
Not exactly true. When a foot is in the lowest position its fore/aft position doesn't matter. In case of shorter cranks one needs up the saddle for the millimetres of cranks length difference too.
Probably makes less difference off road, roadie bikes tend to come with different length cranks depending on the size of the frame.
Why do DH riders run 160/165mm cranks? Surely they can't get any advantage from running a bb 1/2" lower but having to run cranks off kidies bikes?
I had 170 on the left and 175 on the right for a couple of years after some stripped pedal threads forced a rummage in the spares box. I never noticed any difference.
Surely the just the cadence would change slightly with longer / shorter cranks. i.e longer cranks, greater turning force (slightly) therefore change to a sl. larger cog on the back and hey presto higher cadence but lower turning force? Maybe I'm wrong? I guess shorter cranks for a smaller bike?
Running 175mm as opposed to 170mm is basically the difference between running a 35-tooth chainring instead of a 34-tooth, but with less ground clearance on the cranks rather than the chainring.