RE: [CR]Crank length/Vintage Bicycle Quarterly

(Example: Bike Shops)

From: "Beyer Jr., Chris (C.C.)" <cbeyer2@volvocars.com>
To: "'Sterling'" <sterling@tns.net>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: RE: [CR]Crank length/Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
HOP-COUNT: 1
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 16:21:26 -0400

This should be an interesting thread, given the divergence of opinions out there.

Peter White's recommendation is for crank length to be 18.5% of leg length, which would lead you to the opposite conclusion.

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm

_________________________________________________ Chris Beyer Volvo Cars of North America, LLC Customer Relations Rockleigh, NJ USA

Telephone: 800.550.5658 E-mail: CBeyer2@volvocars.com

-----Original Message----- From: Sterling [mailto:sterling@tns.net] Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 4:12 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Crank length/Vintage Bicycle Quarterly

Jan Heine made some interesting comments about crank length in Vintage Bicycle Quarterly ( A 400K Brevet ). He commented about the fact that with shorter crank arms you can lower the Bottom bracket height , get a better cornering more stable bike and have the additional advantage of being able to continue pedaling thru the corners without fear of kissing the pavement , not to mention you also save your knees from the stress of longer cranks. I remeber reading somewhere that in the 50's the Randoneurs typically used crank lengths of about 165mm and smaller gear ratios.
    I can also recall that this long crank thing has been tried before by the Professional racers again I think it was in the 50's or 60's and they moved back to more knee forgiving lenghts after a few years. What does anyone know about this?
    Sterling Peters
   San Diego