There is no hype for shorter cranks, except from clickbait articles like this one. Get a bike fit, or don’t.
Yeah: A good bike fit is the real answer.
I’ve gone from 172.5 to 165 and I’m quite pleased with it. Less knees in my chest, basically
I watched a YouTube video where a guy tested shorter cranks, and then had even shorter and longer cranks made to test it further. Tldr mid length cranks give the best overall performance with the least sacrifices.
Now if you could change crank length while riding… that would change the whole game
Isn’t that just like changing gears?
Similar, but it’s more related to your muscles, since it changes where you are able to apply power. It’s been a while so I don’t remember the exact details but here’s the vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GLZnLbFgcw
This guy is great, highly recommend
Ever get a couple of hours into a ride and find the grade, wind, general fatigue are shaving off just that much where the current gear is too many watts, but the gear below is too high of a cadence? And you really wish you could land in-between gears? I can imagine having some kind of mid-ride adjustable crank might give you that.
