Some info.
dongkg said:
I opted on that 175 mm due to that fact that I prefer to get that extra power on climb rides. But I heard that the 175 mm crank set may not be convenient when it comes to long flat rides, especially on a faster speed. It is okay for me considering that my height is 5'-8"?
The 2.5 mm difference between the cranks is so small that it doesn't matter. In addition, there's no proven connection between crank length and power (power = the
rate of doing work), so the difference doesn't matter in that department either. Conventional wisdom has it that at 5'- 8", the rider should be on a 170 mm crank. But there's nothing wrong with trying 175 mm cranks and see how you feel. IMO, what is important is to ultimately pick a crank length and stick with it so the body can adapt to it.
I've never heard of longer cranks not being "convenient" for long flat rides. Perhaps it has something to do with the belief that longer cranks are harder to spin than shorter ones. But even that turns out to be a bit of unclear thinking: longer cranks simply produce a longer crank circle. So
at the same leg speed, it just takes a little longer to complete one circle ("1 rpm") than it would with a shorter crank. Why that would "not be convenient" I don't know. If you want your old cadences back, just train to increase leg speed slightly with the longer cranks.
