Administered by:
Is it time to change to shorter crank length on my KICKR Bike trainer?
I'm a dimunitive 68 inches, 31 inch inseam. Previously at 172.5.
I'm going to sneak it down to 165 to see what happens
@rvaughnmd Wow! Never seen this before!
@rvaughnmd
I'm essentially the same size & Ride with 165mm cranks.
You might try putting a video camera on a tripod & using a mix of kinovea & https://www.bikedynamics.co.uk/guidelines.htm to assess things when you change your setup
@rvaughnmd Opening your hip angle by moving to a shorter crank arm is often a good thing. Also keep in mind that on most bicycles, raising the seat up moves the saddle back due to the seat tube angle, but on a Kickr Bike the "seat tube" looks pretty vertical so that may not be a factor. You may notice that the position of your knee over the pedal changes as you shorten the crank arm. Fitting changes might be necessary, depending on how good the fit was previously and how adapted you are to it.
If I could haul in the KICKR bike to get a proper fit I would (or pay a fitter to come out might even be better).
Things did change after my hip replacement a bit, so I probably have adapted to those biological changes. Bike changes on the KICKR have too may variables for my limited patience and abilities!
I'll keep riding it for a while to see if a reliable/reproducible effect can be detected.
@rvaughnmd If a professional fitting is impractical, you could also try one of the apps like MyVeloFit and see if it offers you any useful suggestions
I did a fit session on my Checkpoint pre hip fracture and transferred the measurements to the KICKR. Post hip it probably has changed a bit but I actually feel like it's pretty close for the amount and type of riding I'm doing these days. No more centuries for me.
Thanks for your interest and advice, I appreciate it!
@rvaughnmd Wow, I've never seen one of these. Would be fun to try out different lengths!