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165mm cranks MTB Trend

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165mm cranks MTB Trend
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flag gabe999
Posted: Jan 29, 2022 at 11:52 Quote
Anyone move to 165mm cranks? If you did, did you find it to be better? Has your knee and hip pain improve? Was climbing steep hills the same, worse or better? Did you find any difference in torque or speed? How tall are you?
flag soywater
Posted: Jan 30, 2022 at 10:42 Quote
gabe999 wrote:
Anyone move to 165mm cranks? If you did, did you find it to be better? Has your knee and hip pain improve? Was climbing steep hills the same, worse or better? Did you find any difference in torque or speed? How tall are you?

I did and don't see a reason to go back. I never had a lot of knee or hip pain with longer cranks but I definitely feel more comfortable on the 165s.

I went to 165s and a 30 tooth chainring at the same time and it felt at little different (little faster ?) for about 20 minutes into the first ride and then I never noticed it again. I just gained ground clearance. I'm 6'5" with a 36" inseam, in theory the shorter cranks should be worse but I really can't tell much of a difference.
flag gabe999
Posted: Jan 30, 2022 at 16:06 Quote
Your response totally got me by surprise. I was expecting if anyone is going to respond they would mostly be under say 5’10” for example. So that is interesting. Thanks for your input!
flag delta5
Posted: Jan 30, 2022 at 17:47 Quote
gabe999 wrote:
Your response totally got me by surprise. I was expecting if anyone is going to respond they would mostly be under say 5’10” for example. So that is interesting. Thanks for your input!

Another tall-ish one, 6ft 0in here. Occasionally had terrible knee pain, but nothing in the hips that can't be chalked up to age. Got 165s for my main bike and all the pain went away. Looking for 165s for the hardtail now, too. Haven't noticed any difference in riding except for the lack of pain and pedal strikes.
flag Grumposaur
Posted: Jan 31, 2022 at 2:41 Quote
https://lermagazine.com/article/at-all-levels-and-categories-of-cycling-correct-poor-crank-arm-fit-to-relieve-chronic-knee-and-hip-pain

That and the referenced articles within convinced me that shorter cranks should help with knee pain, while the research showed that there isn't any negative effect in the power output, especially if you go down by only 5-10mm.

I got a 35 inseam (90cm) and went from 175 to 170 by following table in that article. Although my inseam is borderline ok for 175mm it turned out to be just to much for the knees. On my DH I got 165 and that also feels fine. I didn't notice the change except less knee pain. And that is most important, without pain you probably can have better output for longer.
flag gabe999
Posted: Jan 31, 2022 at 3:36 Quote
I’m 5’7” and usually ride medium size bikes. I can get away with a small depending on the bike. All manufacturers equip size small bikes with 170mm cranksets while the medium and larger sizes all have 175mm. IMO the medium frame MTB bikes should also stock 170mm cranksets. An argument can be made making the small 165mm but I don’t see that happening for the foreseeable future as 175 and 170mm are the most popular lengths going back decades. If I plop several thousand bucks on a new bike I should be able to get 165/170 crankset instead of the stocked 175mm right? Not sure why that is a hassle. I’m getting a new bike in May. Anyway, that is a rant for another thread.
flag Grumposaur
Posted: Jan 31, 2022 at 6:18 Quote
gabe999 wrote:
I’m 5’7” and usually ride medium size bikes. I can get away with a small depending on the bike. All manufacturers equip size small bikes with 170mm cranksets while the medium and larger sizes all have 175mm. IMO the medium frame MTB bikes should also stock 170mm cranksets. An argument can be made making the small 165mm but I don’t see that happening for the foreseeable future as 175 and 170mm are the most popular lengths going back decades. If I plop several thousand bucks on a new bike I should be able to get 165/170 crankset instead of the stocked 175mm right? Not sure why that is a hassle. I’m getting a new bike in May. Anyway, that is a rant for another thread.
Totally agree. I think there would be a better chance of correct fitment for a buyer if: S=165, M and L=170 and XL XLL=175mm. (And one can make a serious argument that 175mm is almost always not beneficial because of clearance and/or inseam and it is better to stick to 170mm max.)

But the current situations is I think a unfortunate combinations of economics of scale and a still wide spread dogma that longer cranks results in better performance (torque, power what not), and thus a large part of consumers still want this (but on a wrong basis).

But this should be fixable against minimum cost by manufacturers.

In addition another rant: speccing 800-820mm wide bars on all sizes, which cant be shortened below a certain length due to geometry which is still to wide for some (770-780), and also get way to stiff when shortened. While it is statistically save to assume that some-one on a S bike won't have 800mm as optimal bar width and is probably a lighter rider as well, making a stiff sthortened bar even more negative experience.
flag soywater
Posted: Jan 31, 2022 at 6:52 Quote
gabe999 wrote:
Your response totally got me by surprise. I was expecting if anyone is going to respond they would mostly be under say 5’10” for example. So that is interesting. Thanks for your input!

I would have thought the same. I decided I’d try it for myself and see and I’m really pleased with the swap overall. On one of Cathro’s how to bike series he mentioned that he runs 165s on his stuff and if Noodle Arms is a fan, I’m into it. Would recommend.
flag Daray
O+ FL
Posted: Jan 31, 2022 at 20:54 Quote
I’m 5’9” I went to 165 cranks last year and have them on both of my bikes now- I like the extra ground clearance- especially with how low some BB’s are now—I also feel better in my stance on the bike and I think I can spin at a higher cadence as well.
flag borlowski90
FL
Posted: Feb 2, 2022 at 21:06 Quote
What size chainring does everyone run with their 165 cranks? I'm torn between 30 and 32.
flag Grumposaur
Posted: Feb 3, 2022 at 2:27 Quote
borlowski90 wrote:
What size chainring does everyone run with their 165 cranks? I'm torn between 30 and 32.

That totally depends on a lot of things: cassette range, wheel size, kind of terrain you/climb on, your fitness and preferred cadence.
For me it depends on those things, my crank length does not really influence it. ( i.e. I dont change chainring size if I exchange cranks).

That said, both are rather normal. 30 if you seek more climbing ability in low gear or higher cadence overall , 32 if you spin out a lot at top speed.
28-34 I would say is the usual range now, people that want to go outside that probably have to look at their cassette range or cadence/fitness. Going from a 11-50 cassette to a 10-50 cassette seems small but is a 10% increase in top speed with same cadence, while maintaining same low gear.
flag gabe999
Posted: Feb 3, 2022 at 3:30 Quote
borlowski90 wrote:
What size chainring does everyone run with their 165 cranks? I'm torn between 30 and 32.

Try a 32 oval narrow wide for the climbing power of 30T. Made a difference for me.
flag p1nkbike
Posted: Feb 8, 2022 at 17:18 Quote
I'm 5"11 and I currently own 175mm on my mtb (buy them plz). I've used bikes with 172.5mm (road) and 165mm mtb. I use a 34t oval chainring (well, 34-50 on the road one)

TLDR? I barely feel the difference other than with the 165mm I get:
- less pedal strikes. turns out 1 centimeter is quite a bit down there!
- less knee issues. Not a problem for everyone but my old knees sometimes punish me for putting down too much power too fast.
- easier to put the correct amount of power down uphill on slippery terrain (175mm have more leverage so you tend to put more power into the wheel)

Don;t get me wrong, the 175 are absolutely fine. But IMO, 165 are slightly better overall for most people, and few will miss 175mm.
flag ryan198232
O+
Posted: Feb 23, 2022 at 13:38 Quote
I’m 6’0” and have 165mm on both my enduro and hard tail. I wasn’t having any knee pain before but much prefer my feet being closer while jumping, less pedal strikes and don’t notice anything negative about them.
flag justwan-naride
Posted: Mar 5, 2022 at 21:50 Quote
I'waiting a new frame to arrive and decided to go 165mm for the build. Currently on 170 that came stock on my size small bike. I don't really expect to notice a difference in pedalling, but I know that 5mm of extra ground clearance is noticeable in less pedal strikes.

Another happy side effect of shorter crank arms is that they allow for a longer dropper, as the lowest position of the foot on the pedalling circle now sits higher. In my case it will give 5mm more clearance, which combined with the 15mm of seatpost showing on my 406mm seat tube will hopefully allow me to go from a 150mm dropper to a 170 one (new bike's seat tube is 400mm let's hope seatpost insertion depth allows for the change).

I'm 163cm/5'4" so shorter should feel more natural anyway. I've owned bikes with both 170 and 175 and they never gave me any pain.
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